When I was younger, I would wake up in the middle of the night and be too scared to fall asleep. So I would go get my parents and one of them would go and tuck me back in.  Now I had no clocks in my room, so I had to expect that it was always night as long as it was dark. This is why even at six o'clock in the morning I wanted to be tucked back into bed by my parents. The upstairs was in a U shape. My room was on the upper left point of the U, and my parent’s room was on the upper right point. This meant I had to walk past the play room, the laundry room, my sisters room, the stairs downstairs, and the guest bedroom. Monkey dragging, feet tip-toeing I walked out of my room to see that there was a light at the stairs. This meant that they were awake. 

    As I walked down the stairs carrying my monkey, I called out for my mom. She responded, 

“Good morning buddy. We were just getting ready to wake you up.” She always spoke with love in every word. She is tall with light blonde hair and most people that talk to her become a friend. 

“But it is still night time momma.” I said, bewildered.

“Oh silly, it’s morning.” She was getting ready to plate french toast. She always made breakfast before I woke up so that I could have it right away. My dad was sitting at the dinner table when he said,

“We are going to the aquatic center today.” I was thrilled. The aquatic center was a place very similar to the Monon Center. It had a lot of workout options and ways to get into sports, but I only cared about the big indoor waterpark. Fork speeding, heart racing I ate my food as fast as possible and ran upstairs. 

I put on my swimsuit and my parents got my sister ready. Then we left. I was told I could play on my DS which was fun because I didn't get to use it in the car normally. When we got there and checked in for the pool, I readied myself. My dad was timing how fast I could get to the pool. When dad said he started the timer, I started running. Arms swinging, joy overflowing, I made it to the doors. Record time for sure. Then when we went into the doors for the pool I looked back at him and asked what I got. It was not in fact a record time, but according to me only because he started it too early. 

    As you walked into the room, you would see the little kids area then a wall with a path leading to deeper water on the left of the kids section. Then there was an open area with a basketball hoop. Connected to that were whirlpools and a lazy river. The lazy river was easily my favorite thing. When the lazy river was mostly empty I would try to get to the end twice before my dad got through it once.  

    When we got home, I played on my DS for a bit until my parents asked us to sit on the couch with them. It was a dark brown leather couch that must have been in a set with a dark brown leather chair. It was across from our big tv that we used to play Xbox. The walls were the default paint and had some different shelves with pictures of us on them. It was normally a good thing to be in that room, but even at the age of four I could feel that something was wrong. And what they said is the only thing I clearly remember about that day. My mom talked for a bit and ended up saying the only words I will remember forever.

“Me and your Dad won't be living in the same house anymore.” At that moment I did not feel as if my heart stopped but as if it was completely removed. I was filled with such a great sadness that even after days of comforting from my parents I could never be the same. With my eyes filled with tears and my shirt soaked in them, I tried to understand why it was happening to me. 

Growing up I was very scared of the dark and of someone breaking into the house. I did not do very well with change, and I had absolutely no social skills. If I didn’t “live in different houses” I’m sure that I would have made no friends and would still have been scared of all the bad things that might happen