“Well,” Mom began as we exited the vehicles, “this is it. Our new home.”
Zac glanced over at her. “I don’t like it.”
“Couldn’t you guys just give this town a chance??” she cried in exasperation.
The five eldest crossed our arms and continued to stare at her like the suggestion was simply out of the question.
“Okay, okay,” she sighed. “Your loss.”
“I’m not seeing the loss here,” I complained inaudibly. “It’s a hicktown. It doesn’t even have it’s own bank.”
Ike overheard my last complaint and nodded. “You’d think even a hicktown would have something in it.”
“It does having something,” Zac pointed out. “It has a truck stop, and a little restaurant thingy, and--” he pointed across the road “--a something that sells beer and lottery tickets over there.”
Ike and I started laughing.
“Great Zac, that’s just what we need,” Ike said. “A place to buy beer and lottery tickets.”
“It has a gas station,” Zac continued. “And... uh... I think that’s it. Oh, no, it also has a church!”
“It has more than one church,” Dad said, walking up behind us. “It also has a library, a post office, a school, and a corner store. Perhaps other things I haven’t seen.”
“What, you mean you haven’t seen the whole town yet?” Zac inquired dubiously.
I raised my eyebrows. “Geez, Dad, it’s about one drive around the block and you’ve seen everything.”
He chuckled. “It’s not as bad as you’d like to convince yourself it is, Taylor.”
“I’ve seen it. You can’t tell me that now.”
“The people are what make a town,” he lectured. “The people are really nice, friendly folks.”
“Yeah,” I said. “They’re hicks, Dad.”
“You kids start getting your stuff in the house,” he ordered without commenting on my statement. “The moving truck should be here in another hour or two.”
Well, contrary to what we had been told, the moving truck actually arrived three hours later, claiming they got lost. I swear, there’s nothing to get lost in!!! No traffic to speak of, so... they had the roads and directions all to themselves. Talk about dense guys. At any rate, Ike, Zac, and I were once again sharing a room, upstairs at the end of the hall. It was smaller than our room in Tulsa, but we managed to fit everything in it. We unpacked all our stuff as it was brought in, so by the time the truck was unloaded we were unpacked. Of course, this only meant we had to help the younger kids and our parents unpack, so there was really no plus to it. Mom insisted on getting everything unpacked that day, so we had our work cut out for us. When we finally finished, everyone ate dinner, watched a movie, then turned in at about 8:00. We were too exhausted from the trip and unpacking to do anything else.
* * * * * * * *
“Tayles! Taybear! TayTay!”
“What, Avery??” I groaned. Uh-oh. It must be Sunday morning again...
“GET UP!!!!!!” she screeched.
“I don’t wanna go to church,” I stated.
“Neither do I, but Mommy says we have to,” she lamented. “I tried to convince her we weren’t ready for such an emotional experience, but she wouldn’t listen.”
I could tell Avie was struggling through the big words she liked to copy me using, and felt a smile creep onto my face. “You’re an angel, Aves. Thanks for trying.” I opened my eyes. “What time is it?”
“Um, 8:00,” she answered hesitantly.
“You’re late,” I informed her.
“That’s cuz I was tryin’ to convince Mom that--”
“Okay, you don’t have to say it again,” I interrupted. “You weren’t arguing with her for an hour were you? You usually wake me up at seven!”
“Oh. No, I didn’t get up till 7:30.”
I sighed. “I can tell we’re all very excited about visiting our new church.”
She giggled and nodded. “Yeah, it’s not just you!” She tugged on my hand, urging me to get up. “You have to get dressed,” she commanded. “If you have to go, you might as well make a good impression.” She did her usual drag-Tay-over-to-the-dresser routine, but this time had to glance around to find it first. “Ah, there it is!” she mumbled. She pulled out the same shirt she had made me wear two weeks ago. “You should wear this one again. And....” She pulled out a pair of black leather pants. “These.”
I burst into laughter. “You want me to wear leather the first time we go to this church? And this is supposed to make a good impression?!”
“Yes,” she shot back with a note of finality in her voice. “Don’t argue with me, Taybear. Just get dressed.”
As usual, on Sunday morning I wasn’t much in the mood to argue, so I got dressed, and after waking Zac and Ike, Avie and I both wandered downstairs.
Fifteen minutes later, Ike and Zac came down - Ike in tan cords with a dark green shirt, and Zac wearing khakis and a red shirt with a black and white stripe across the middle. They both looked like they were fixing to make a good impression.
The three of us glanced at each other, and all began laughing.
“Do you realize that none of us are wearing blue jeans?” Ike analyzed.
“Has this ever happened in the history of Sunday before?”
I rolled my eyes. “Hey, don’t look at me. You should know that Avie picks out my clothes on Sunday morning!”
“Avie told you to wear leather?” Zac giggled. “This is funny.”
We ate a quick breakfast before we were ushered out the door. We got to the church at 9:15, since Sunday School there started at 9:30 instead of 9:45. I and all my siblings simply sat in the van for several moments while our parents got out.
Finally, Mom poked her head back in the door. “Are you coming, or not?”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re not really giving us that option?” I wondered aloud.
She gave me a knowing smile and slammed her door shut as Jessie opened the back door. She handed Zoè and Mackie out, and the rest of us reluctantly followed.