From California to Tennessee

It was a warm California night. Air thick with smog and the smell of warm asphalt glided in through the open windows. There were no smells of trees and nature in this large apartment complex. Just smells of cars needing tune-ups, warm asphalt and sometimes the whiff of someone’s home made cooking and sometimes even that did not smell very good. She still could not believe they were paying $1200 a month for this run down two-bedroom apartment. Yes, it was just her, her husband and her son but still not being able to send him outside to play like she was able to do when she was a kid was hard on her three-year-old son and even more her. She sat cross legged on their sage green sofa as she and her husband Grayson or Gray as her and their friends called him and watched some new episode of CSI.

She wanted out of here, out of this town out of this state off this side of the country. She wanted away from her abusive family and the memories that this town held. She wanted to make a new start. Start over where no one knew her last name. Where she would be judged only on her character and personality. She wanted to give her son Jaydon, Jay for short a life that she never had but always dreamed of having. Living on not a 1/8^th of a acre but five to ten acres of land where he could play in the woods, Gray could build him a tree house and he would come inside when the lightening bugs light up their little green butts. Where Jay would know everyone in his class by name and he would have friends for life. She wanted a country style of life.

Staring into the unusable fireplace she got an idea.

“Let’s move.” She said out of the blue startling Gray

‘’What?” Gray said back

“Let’s move I want to get out of here.”

“Where do you want to go? North Highlands, Rio Linda, Roseville?”

“No, I want out of Sacramento, I want to go east. Let’s go to Tennessee. Trisha is there we can have her show us the lay of the land. I want to start over Gray. I want Jay to have a good life. I want a farm with chickens and cows. I want to swim in a rocky river and not have to worry about dirty needles. I want away from my family; I want away from these memories that haunt me.”

“Ok, I guess we are moving to Tennessee. Call Trisha and see if we can stay with her a month or so till we get on out feet. Let’s do this no matter what our families say. I hate Sacramento. I have always wanted to live in the country. I have seen so many places across this US and back east is so much nicer than California. People are friendly, weather is nicer, and work is better for me out there.”

She lunged across the couch into his arms and planted a firm kiss on his lips. This was August and they decided that they wanted to be moved out to Tennessee by October. So, the next day while she was at work, she emailed Trisha and asked her what she thought about them moving out there and if they could stay with them for a few months until they got on their feet. About twenty minutes later she got an excited message back saying yes, they could stay with her and her family and she would love to have Brianna, Gray and Jay.

She put notice in at work and at their apartment and on October 1^st they where loaded up in their burgundy 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 with a u-hall trailer stuffed full inside. In the backseat set Jay and their three cats. They were ready to make an adventure of a lifetime. She had been out of California of course, but just as far as Utah and Washington. Now she was going to get to see all the southern states. She was not too sure how a three-year-old was going to do sitting in a truck for hours at a time, but they will make it work. Gray wanted to be there in three days. It was 2200 miles to Tennessee, and she was going to enjoy each and everyone of them. Everything was going well until they were just outside of Bakersfield, CA when Brianna saw smoke in the side mirror. They pulled over next to a U-Hall truck on the side of the interstate to find they had blown a tire. So now it was a U-Hall convention on the side of Interstate 40 waiting for U-Hall service tech to show up with a new tire. Naturally as soon as the truck stopped Jay had to use the bathroom and he wanted out to pee. Carefully she got him out of the truck and behind a bush to use the bathroom and she strapped him back in with a Batman coloring book. Three hours later the tech arrived and got out tire changed just as a motor home pulled off the Interstate making some awful noise. They were out of there.

They stopped for the night just outside of Camen, AZ. Jay fell asleep as soon as the sun went down. So, he had been asleep in the truck for a good three hours before they stopped. Gray checked in and they finally all got into the room for some rest. Brianna let Princess, Mama and Tubby out of their soft cat carriers. She put down the litter box and bowls full of food and water. She had been giving them little bits of water through the day, but she knew they had to be starving and needed to use the kitty box.

Gray and Brianna went to bed but at about three am they were rudely awakened by the crashing of a chair. Gray turned on the light just in time to see Tubby swinging upside down on the curtains.

“Get off there Tubby!” Gray hollered at the cat and Tubby detached his claws and got off the curtain. They both laughed, Brianna checked on Jay and they clicked off the light and went back to sleep.

They got up the next morning, had breakfast, coaxed the cats back into their carriers and loaded back up for another twelve hours of driving with stops here and there to stop for potty breaks, food and what they started calling leg stretcher breaks. Every few hours Jay would holler out leg stretcher break mommy. She would just laugh and tell Gray it was time to stop for a few minutes to let Jay out and give the cats some water. Surprisingly most of the trip Jay napped through. Sadly, he would not remember this trip. She vowed one day to take him on this trip again, that time stopping and seeing the sights and taking in the new culture.

They got as far as the bridge in Memphis, TN until they had another problem. Somewhere on the bridge going over the Mississippi river they lost all the trailer lights an it was eleven pm local time. So, Gray pulled off into a gas station and being a jack of all trades, he is he got under the truck and trailer with his toolbox and wiring kit and fixed the lights. They took that as a sign to find a hotel for the night for the next day they would be in Oneida, TN, in the new town they would call home.

The next morning, they got up and Brianna was beside herself excited to be driving in their new home state. Making the las leg of the trip. The truck cab buzzed with excitement as Brianna told Jay of all the new things he was going to be able to do and all the new friends he would make.

Thrilled to be making the final call as they hit the Scott County, TN line to Trisha for directions to Walmart where they would meet up and follow them to Trisha’s house. It was a straight shot up Highway 27 and a right turn into the parking lot to meet up with Trisha and her family.

“Oh my god we made it Gray, this is home.” Brianna said

“Yes, it is and I want out of this truck for more than a nights rest.” He laughed

“Look Jay we are home. This is where we are going to be living now.” Brianna told Jay

“Mommy we are going to live at Walmart?” Jay asked confused.

Both Gray and Brianna laughed, and she said,

“No sweetie this is the town we will be living in.”

Just then Trisha pulled up and jumped from the car while it rolled to a stop in the parking spot.

“BRIANNA!!”

“TRISHA!!” Brianna jumped from the truck and ran to hug her best friend for the first time in her life.

You see Brianna met Trisha in a writing group online with Trisha had commented on some of Brianna’s poetry. So, in return Brianna looked up Trisha and she commented on some of Trisha’s writings. And that stated a friendship that helped Brianna through a tough marriage to a man that was abusive and issues that Trisha was dealing with herself.  They talked on the phone or emailed every day since that first comment. They became best friends in an instant even though they were 2200 miles apart. Some people meet boyfriends or girlfriends or sometimes even husbands or wives, they met as best friends. And now here they stood in the middle of no where Tennessee in a Walmart parking lot hugging for the first time. Brianna still could not believe they made the move; it was like they were living in a movie or something.

They followed Trisha to her house and unloaded the truck and trailer into Trisha’s basement. The place they would be staying for the next few months. Once they got beds set up and stuff arranged just the way Gray wanted it they went outside and sat on the front porch with a cold beer for each adult and a cup of cool-aid for Jay and Trisha’s two girls Martha the oldest at ten and Grace at six.

The air was so fresh. Brianna could smell trees, dirt, grass. She could smell nature. It was not the first time she smelled these smells but the smells in Tennessee were even better than Washington or Lake Tahoe. The air was thinner everything was greener, and it was October, so the trees were green, red, neon pink, orange, tan, and neon yellow. She never seen colors like that before in her life. So, this is what the country looks like in the fall. She thought the drive was beautiful but nothing in her life could ever compare to this. Right now, California was all brown, yes there was hints of colors here and there but nothing like the beauty of this right now.

It was also a little chilly out. In Sacramento it was still well into the nineties. Out here it was in the low seventies. Feeling the chill, she went and got a sweater for Jay and herself. The only one they had. She made a mental note to tomorrow go buy Jay and new jacket a thick one for the first time in his life. In Sacramento it stayed in the seventies in the winter sometimes getting a little chilly at night, but they kept their apartment at seventy year-round back west.

That night in bed Brianna snuggle close to Gray and they talked about their new life and Gray told her what to expect now that they were out there. They had a few thousand saved and a credit card incase of an emergency, but Gray wanted to find work fast so he would start looking tomorrow. They fell asleep talking about the new things they were going to do and the small farm they were going to have.

Gray looked for work for two weeks straight and could not find anything. By trade Gray was a crane operator, truck driver, equipment operator, and sometimes mechanic. Even with all those qualifications he was having no luck finding work.

Watching their funding slowly go down they began to get scared they were not going to make it here. Maybe this was not the right choice. They both had decent jobs back in Sacramento. They had their own place and a small life. It was good, why did she have to get this wild whim and move across the US to a place they did not know. That night with $1500 in the bank and no job in site she cried herself to sleep.

The next day Matt, Trisha’s husband approached Gray and asked if he wanted to go to work with him for a few months. Excitedly Gray accepted and the next day Gray started installing counter tops for a company an hour away in Knoxville.

Life was quite there. Brianna’s days were filled with Jay playing and teaching. The days grew colder and the nights even colder. There was a small wall heater in the basement, but it was not enough to keep the chill off the room. She pilled blankets on top of Jays bed and theirs and she knew they needed to get their own place.

In a small town where everyone knows everyone it was hard for them to find a place but finally, they found a little two-bedroom trailer to call home. It was a far cry from the farm that they wanted but it was a start and it was only $300 a month. They did not have any furniture really, not nearly enough to fill the small trailer. Brianna was worried about living in a trailer. In California if you live in a trailer you were poor, but out here there was trailers everywhere to be seen so she would just have to get over the stigmatism of the California view.

They moved in just before Thanksgiving and had their first Tennessee Thanksgiving in that little trailer sitting on the floor eating off paper plates. It was small but it was good, and they were a family and that was all that mattered.

Days turned into months and Gray found a job driving cross country for a local man named John hauling lumber and huge coils. Some trips Brianna and Jay got to go with them. They got to see most of the east coast in that year he worked for John. John treated Gray right. Paid him well and worked with him when Jay was sick, or Brianna just wanted Gray to be home with her.

She learned that people were so much nicer, they actually used their blinkers on their cars and when a funeral pasted by you pulled over to pay your respects to the family. One time, they were at a local gas station and a guy just pulled off the road to ask Gray if he liked his truck and if anything major thing had happened to it.

They found a local Lutheran church to go to. That was hard to find since there was Baptist churches on every corner and down every back road in Scott County.

Jay Grew into a well-mannered boy and started school. He was the only kid in the whole county with Reed as his last name, so he stood out among the Strunks, Lowes, Wests, Burges. He excelled at school and reading making him stand out in class. He always wanted to help other kids with their work even if that meant his work would suffer.

With in two years Gray was back working in the crane industry and making double what he was making back in Californian. Making it to were Brianna did not have to work at all.

Within five years they had a ten-acre lot with a home being built on it. It was Brianna’s dream home. It was a home that they would have never had in California. Gray fenced in six of the ten acres and built a chicken lot and added three cows to their growing family. When Jay was ten, she found out that she was pregnant again. The home was built, the baby was born, and they adapted to the country way of life. Jay took up the accent first, Brianna was quick to follow and eventually Gray started to sound southern. And no one could tell they were not from Tennessee anymore.

Life was good in the country. They were raising their family just the way she dreamed all those years ago sitting on that little green couch. Yes, the change was good. They were happy. Tennessee was just the right fit for them.