“Mum. You ready?”
The house is empty. Everything we own is with the movers and on the way to storage. It’s a long drive with a trip across the Cook Strait to get to our destination where I’ve booked an Airbnb while we explore our housing options.
The house didn’t take long to sell once I was able to get it on the market. The housing market is different in Napier, and I’ll be able to move without a mortgage at the other end—not that I’d ever get one given that I have no job. I do have income. Malcolm’s investments are still solid and now transferred into my name. His investment manager was wonderful to deal with, and I’ll have enough coming in to cover expenses.
Noah will take over the accounting side of things. I trust him to help me out as I learn how to run my household by myself. The past few months have been a crash course once Malcolm got too sick to deal with everything himself.
“Mum?” Noah appears in the door, and I take one last look at my empty living room. “The kids are getting restless.”
“I bet they are.” I laugh.
He makes his way to me and grips my bicep. “Let’s get out of this place and make some new memories.”
I wasn’t sure if Noah would come with us—he could easily find somewhere to live and continue his life here. But as soon as I told my family where we were going, he was contacting accounting firms.
At this point in time, he has more experience of the outside world than I do, but that’s not difficult. I’m grateful for his support.
I smile at Noah. “New memories sound good.”
For once, I don’t mind being the passenger. I never learned to drive. Malcolm would criticise me for it, but simultaneously fight any effort I tried to make to learn. But Noah has his full license.
Once we’re all in the car, I turn my head.
“Everyone ready?”
Bailey rolls her eyes. “Why couldn’t we fly? We’ve never been in a plane.”
Kiera nudges her arm. “We’ve never been out of Christchurch before either. It’ll be good to see other places.”
“But we could have seen those from the sky.”
I chuckle. “One day we’ll all go on a plane and have a holiday. Right now, we’re driving. And we get to go on the ferry.”
“What if we get seasick?” Jason asks.
“Let’s worry about that if it happens.” I wink at him. It’s hard to be the strong one when you want to fall apart. I won’t miss this house, and I don’t miss Malcolm. But starting again at my age is terrifying.
“Just think of it as an adventure, buddy.” Noah smiles in the rear-view mirror at Jason, and my youngest’s shoulders slouch. “We can pretend to be pirates.”
Jason’s lips twitch into a smile.
“There’s plenty to keep us busy too. They have movies and we can grab lunch while we’re crossing …”
His smile grows.
“Mum, I’ve got this.” Noah squeezes my hand.
“Okay.”
“Let’s go.”
There’s a cheer from the back seat as Noah starts the car, and we pull away from the home we’ve lived in for sixteen years.
Goodbye to all the bad times.
There’s only good from here.
This is the first road trip we’ve ever had as a family, and my children take to it like ducks to water.
