Under the Sugar Maple Tree

One

Annie stands on the curb at the greyhound bus station and holds her old handled suitcase to her chest as a newer rolling one sits nearby. The skirt of her dress rustles in the breeze as her mom's old knit cardigan slips off one shoulder, but she doesn't move. Instead she stands there and absorbs the moment, taking a deep breath in and smiling to herself.

She'd done it.

She'd finally bit the bullet and moved north.

It had taken her longer than she'd expected, with her mom getting sick her last year of high school and Jimmy's death three years later from an overdose, a result of trying and failing to cope with their mom's illness.

After that Annie had decided to wait until their younger sister, Dilly, graduated high school to strike out on her own. Then her mom got sick again and this time decided she should go be with Jimmy.

Annie didn't blame her. The cancer was metastatic, treatment would have just extended her suffering and Annie felt she deserved to be free of the pain. Free of the grief. Free of her constant unhappiness.

That was a year ago.

Now twenty four years old and with her dad doing well and her younger sister doing even better at a local community college working to get her nursing degree, Annie finally felt she could go do what she wanted to do.

Go find her own happiness.

Granted, Annie came by happiness naturally wherever she was, but ever since that discussion with Jimmy about the Sugar Maple trees she'd become obsessed with one day seeing them in person. Watching her family fall apart and her brother die had only made it that much more important to her.

It had only been a few weeks ago that her sister came in and set a print out from the computer down on the kitchen counter while Annie was preparing dinner. Dilly had come across a job for a cafeteria aid in a dining hall and grill at a University in New Haven.

At first Annie said no. Dilly thought it was because she didn't want to leave her and her dad alone, but really it was because there was mention of a preferred two years of college and Annie never went to college. She'd been too busy trying to be the glue her family needed to go to college.

Dilly argued until she was blue in the face about how her and daddy would be okay, until Annie finally admitted the real reason she wouldn't apply for the job. Then Dilly argued Annie's job in the high school cafeteria for the last six years had to amount to something.

Annie had helped out in the school cafeteria her senior year of high school after turning eighteen. It was a temporary job to help supplement income while their mom went through treatment. Upon graduating she was offered a full time position and accepted without hesitation. It wasn't her dream job, but then again Annie wasn't particular when it came to what she did.

One day after another argument with Dilly, her dad looked at her from his old rocking chair on the front porch. "Annie, yer happiness has always been more about where you are and who yer with. How long have you dreamed about one of those damn trees? Fill out the application."