The Move

“Carla, dinner!” Ms. Mac called. She set a pot of steaming macaroni and cheese onto the wood table. It clanked like it did every night. The dinner sound of home.

Carla ran to the dining room and dished herself a plate of macaroni.

“Now Carla,” Ms. Mac said, “we have something we want to discuss with you.” “Sure!” Carla responded. But she didn’t know what awaited her.

“We wanted to tell you we are moving in 3 weeks,” Mr. Mac said.

Carla, who had just put a huge bite of cheesy macaroni in her mouth, nearly spit it out.

“What?” she said between coughs, “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

“Sorry to disappoint you Carla but the house is already sold,” Mr. Mac said.

Carla’s thoughts suddenly turned into a whirlwind of emotions. Why would her parents do this? This was their home. And they knew it. When Carla was born, this was the place her parents brought her to. It was the only place she had ever lived in. Her home.

“We’re selling the house to a couple,” Mrs. Mac said. So what? Carla thought. Who cares if we’re selling our house to a couple or a single person? We’re selling our house! And that’s all that matters.

“We need to start packing tonight,” Mr. Mac said.

“No!” Carla screamed. “I don’t want to move! I just don’t!”

“I’m sorry Carla. But we have to,” Ms. Mac said.

Carla ran up the winding staircase to her bedroom. She had 3 more weeks of her bedroom. Her only bedroom. It just wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t her parents have told her earlier? A little heads up would have been nice. Why couldn’t there be something more to her life than just surprises? When Carla was 9 her parents had surprised her with a surprise trip to the orthodontist to get braces. It was total chaos in her house right before the trip. She never wanted that to happen again… but it did… just now. Carla didn’t want to start packing (or move for that matter) so she decided to wait. But what would she tell her parents? “Yes!” Carla suddenly exclaimed. It was time to put her persuasive skills to the test!

The next day, Carla opened her computer and started clicking keys away until she felt like she was in a computer universe and a crisp sheet of paper slid out of her printer with black ink on it. Carla snatched the piece of paper out of the printer and stormed over to her parents. She thrust the piece of paper at them and said “Read it. Ten reasons why we shouldn’t move.”

“Oh, Carla,” Mr. Mac said after he and Ms. Mac read the paper, “You need to forget about us changing our minds about moving.” Carla hated it when her parents said ‘Oh, Carla’ to her.

“Fine!” Carla ran to her room, grabbed her suitcase off the top shelf of her closet, and started stuffing clothes into it. She grabbed a cardboard box out of the garage and started sliding books into it. Carla spent the rest of the night packing. It was hard sweaty work, but by the end Carla had almost packed her whole room up. She hated the sight of her empty room though, so Carla unrolled a few pictures and taped them on her wall again.

3 weeks sped by and soon it was moving day. Carla grabbed all her moving boxes and suitcases and hefted them into the car. She slammed the car door shut and ran into her house to take one last look. Everything was cleared out and there was nothing there. Carla was sad to leave her home, but she also felt a new feeling — excitement. She was excited to see the world and have new adventures. Carla closed the door of the house behind her as she walked down the front porch. The lock made a tiny click waiting to be opened by the next owners.