FanStory.com - Life is All About Changeby Annmuma

"Bye, John. I love you. Please write. Don't forget to write every day." I yelled and waved until the car was out of sight. John leaned out the back window to return my wave.

"Don't worry, Olevia," he shouted. "I'll be fine. I'll send you a picture of California."

As I turned to walk back into our house, I could not stop the tears from falling. My logical mind told me John was making his best choice, but my heart could hardly imagine a life in Tioga, in my house, with my step-mother, Thelma, my dad, and without John. Thelma put her arm around my shoulder as we walked up the steps and back into that empty house.

"Olevia. You know this is best and it's not as if Johnny is running away somewhere. He's going to California with his sister and her whole family. Your senior year in school is coming up and you have things to do. Every thing is going to be fine."

I knew she was right, but in my emotional teenage jail, I didn't even like her for saying it, much less accept any comfort from hearing it.

John was only fifteen, had quit school in spite of my best efforts to keep him there; he wanted to join the military. In fact, he did enlist, made it all the way to Shreveport, before a large, burly sergeant inquired one more time as to his age. The truth escaped and John was on a bus back to Alexandria before he could even get used to being gone.

Only a few more sweltry weeks of summer days had dragged by before my sister, Hannah, came by to alert us that Robert, her husband, was to be transferred to California, Suisun City, to be exact. Hannah and the three kids would be there temporarily while Robert was TDY -temporary duty- overseas; the family would follow shortly to Misawa, Japan. John listened intently and, at the first gap in conversation, he grabbed the floor.

"Daddy, I'm not going back to school. I hate it. Can I go with Hannah? As soon as I am sixteen --- and that's not long, just a month or so-- I can join the Army out there. All you will have to do is sign for me. Please?"

Daddy assumed his chin-between-the-forefinger-and-thumb pose, as he stared out across the pasture. We knew he was giving serious thought to John's question, but not one of us had any real idea as to what he was thinking. I was torn between wanting John's emancipation from Tioga and not wanting him to leave me there. The quiet had never been more silent than it was in that hole between the question and the answer. No sound was uttered outside of a Jack braying in the pasture and the squeak of Daddy's rocking chair as he leaned back to seemingly allow room for his announcement.

"Johnny, you belong in school. You know that, don't you?"

"Yes sir. But I don't like it. I don't like the teachers. I don't like anything about it and I don't want to go. Please, Daddy, let me go with Hannah," John pleaded.

He had quit going to school a few weeks before the end of the last school term, just before summer break. He wasn't doing nearly as well as he could grade-wise and he knew he was failing Algebra I. I went to see his teacher, Mr. Dossman, in search of a solution.

"Mr. Dossman, if John fails Algebra, I just know he will quit school. Can you please let him pass? What grade does he have?"

"He has a 68, Olevia. He has failed the class. I am not here to 'give' passing grades. I am here to reveal the grades my students earn."

"But, Mr. Dossman, Merilyn Haydel had that exact average last six weeks and you let her pass with a 'D'. Why, can't you do that for John? He will quit school if you don't."

"You don't know what John will do and the case with Merilyn was completely different. She tried. She studied. She did her homework. She did her best. John does not care and did none of those things. There are consequences, Olevia."

"But ... "

"No more conversation." Mr. Dossman answered with finality, as he ushered me out of his classroom.

John failed. John quit and now we sat on our front porch waiting to see how the next chapter in our lives would begin.

Daddy shattered the silence in one short sentence:

"You can go, son."

If any of us said another word, I don't remember it. Did Daddy get Hannah's input? I don't know. Did he call Robert to ask what his thoughts were? I don't know. Did he chat with my brother to see what his thoughts were? I doubt it, but I don't know. Did Thelma voice any opinion? I don't know. Who helped John get ready to walk out of our Tioga life? I don't know.

My next memory is standing in the driveway, waving at John as he left me trying to decide if I was happier for him than I was sad for me.

And life goes on.