Sleep evaded me as thoughts of our vacation, home renovation, and our sweet potato’s first day of school danced around my head all night. To make matters worse, I had another nightmare during the little bit of sleep I did get. I was being eaten by a murphy bed. Like, WTF?? Since me and sleep weren’t getting along, I got up early and sat in the kitchen with my thoughts until Desi came down and gives me a soft greeting. Did she also have trouble sleeping? Or is she nervous? Speaking of… You know what makes me nervous? The fact that she is shaped just like her mother. I hope it’s a long, long time before she discovers what her hips can do. Can we rewind?? Is there another potion we can get to send her back to childhood when everything was simple? Don’t get me wrong. I want her to enjoy life, especially while things are relatively uncomplicated, but the stakes are so much higher for girls. I’m not sure my heart can take this teenage journey.
We have about an hour before time to go, so I told her about our vacation plans. She was very excited about going to the beach, so hopefully, the news helped quell her nerves in case she really was nervous.
“Do you remember where we lived before we moved here?” I asked.
“Uhhh…barely.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think you would. When we get back from vacation, we’re going to move back there.”
“But why?” she asked in a sweet yet whiny voice. “I like it here.”
She loved this house just as much as we did. I remember her being excited when we first visited and talked about school before her child birthday. I’m sure she’ll come to love our old house just as much once they get done with it. At least I hope we love it.
“We do too, Des. But the thing is, we only moved here so Aunt Less and the kids could live next door. Now that they’re gone, it doesn’t make sense to stay and pay for an empty house.”
“But…what will happen to this house?”
“Nothing. We’ll still own it, so it’ll just sit here. If you want to live here when you graduate, you can do that. We still own my dad’s old house, too, so that’s another option.”
She watched me for a moment with inquisitive eyes.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Are we rich?”
I knew one day we would have to discuss our financial life with her, especially once she figures out other families don’t have a certain golden tree planted in their yards. When the time comes, I figured it will just be a conversation about being smart with money. At least that’s the way I wanted it to go. I don’t want this lottery business changing how she sees the world, but I also can’t hide it from her.
“Ummmm…well, we are now. Your mom won the lottery last week.”
“We weren’t rich before?”
“Well, I guess some people would think so, but I say we were just very comfortable. There’s a difference. When we have more time, we’ll talk about it.”
Sophia walked in with mere minutes to spare, and Desi was all smiles. I honestly didn’t expect to see her. She was too emotional on Desi’s last first day of school. I thought she’d be the same way again, but I guess she got herself together and fought through it, though barely. And judging by how happy Desi is, I’d say she had concerns too. I’m glad she proved us both wrong.
I couldn’t resist reading early! lol