The Timekeeper

Chapter Six

"Congratulations sweetie, you passed." The lady behind the desk smiled as she handed over a pink slip of paper with a checklist of things that had been ticked off, and my new drivers licence card.

Even though I was only sixteen, I was now old enough to drive on my own. It had always been that when you turned 18 you could get a probationary licence, but that changed ten years ago to the age of sixteen. I guess it's not really very different to America, but we had to get a probationary licence before we got a full one. It's pretty similar to a full licence, just with harsher penalties and a few different rules we had to follow. I didn't care though; I was just so happy that I would be able to drive myself wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

"Thank you so much!" I grinned, before walking out and spotting my mother waiting patiently for me in the car park.

She looked nervous until she saw the huge smile spread across my face, then her expression instantly matched mine. I ran up to her and she wrapped her arms around me, squeezing me tightly into her chest.

"Congratulations, Candice, I'm so very proud of you." She whispered into my ear, before letting go and walking over to the driver's side of our car. I gave her a strange look that made her laugh.

"Can't I drive you since it will probably be the last time you'll need me to?" She pouted; the realisation of her baby girl growing up finally seemed to hit her.

I sighed and gave in, knowing that she was right. I had been the baby forever and now that I was getting older mother didn't know what to do anymore. Soon enough Jacob and Patricia would be moving out and it would just be me left, and I won't want to move out and leave our poor mother on her own in our huge house. The thought of my mother being alone made my heart break, I couldn't possibly leave her when she had given so much to our family. I pushed the thoughts aside just as we pulled into our seemingly endless driveway, our house barely visible from the road.

She parked the car and we both got out and began to head towards the house, before she paused. I turned around and opened my mouth to ask what was wrong, but she spoke before I could get a word out.

"Wait here, Cand, I have something for you." She smiled softly and started walking towards the back of the house.

I stood there puzzled at what she could be doing, wondering what on earth she could have for me. Maybe she was grabbing one of those beautiful lily flowers that grew over near the great gum tree in our scenic backyard. When I was younger she would always come inside with what seemed like millions of different flowers, and we would sort through them all and put them into vases and spread them all around the house. Our house would always smell just as it did every spring when the flowers bloomed and the garden looked so elegant and peaceful. Even in the autumn when the flowers seemed to disappear and the leaves turned to red's and orange's, the garden still looked enchanting.

Mother always told me of the time when we were in the garden together picking out flowers, and she was sticking them in my hair and I told her I felt like a fairy princess. She told me I had told her that when I meet my soul mate and we were to get married, it would be in the spring time right here in our backyard, because the flowers were so beautiful and it always looked perfect.

I knew my mother would want that to happen more than anything, but that was because she still had no clue about the awful soul mate I had been stuck with. I knew that if I told her she would think I was just exaggerating and being stupid, that my soul mate couldn't possibly be that bad because I am 'special' and would have a 'perfect' relationship just like her and my father did. My relationship was far from that though, so far away that I wouldn't even call it a relationship to begin with.