Courage & Resolve
1.1 - Amelia Brown
This was it. This was home.
Amelia looked up at the tiny little place in front of her, and nodded once, firmly. It wasn't much, but getting here had taken years of preparation. She'd put in extra hours at work, endured years of who was now her ex-husband, secretly putting small amounts of money away until she'd saved up enough to move away from him, and gain full custody of her children. And now, all of that hard work had finally paid off. She'd finally made it.
“Are you guys ready to see your new home?” Amelia cheerfully asked her kids, Jamira and Cory.
“What about dad?” Jamira asked.
Amelia took a deep breath, and carefully composed herself. “Dad wasn’t very kind to mom, so we won’t be seeing him again.”
Both Cory and Jamira looked confused. Amelia sighed. They’d understand it all, one day, when they were older. Every kid deserves to know why a parent isn’t in their life, but at this point? They were just too young to be exposed to just how harsh the world could be.
“Are you guys excited to see the inside?” Amelia said, putting on the most pleasant voice she could muster. “This is going to be our new home for years to come, so I hope you guys like it!”
“New house, new house!” Cory cheered.
The three walked towards the house, and Amelia pulled out the house key. She fumbled around trying to get the key into the old lock, but eventually, the door creaked open. Amelia and her children stepped into an empty house, strewn with cobwebs, a fine layer of dust over the mostly empty room. In one corner, the dust was disturbed by a pile of boxes full of the little she’d managed to wrest from her husband after their divorce. At least the moving company had already gotten there.
“Well…” Amelia said, turning around to face her kids with a smile. “It isn’t much yet, but it’s home!”
Cory and Jamira shared a doubtful look.
Amelia woke up at around 4 the next morning, and immediately began unpacking the little she’d brought with her from her old life. She knew that Cory and Jamira weren’t satisfied, and she wanted to make their new home as hospitable as she could for the first time their first morning there. She then went out and bought a few groceries, getting back just before the kids woke up.
As her kids groggily made their way out of their bedroom, they were evidently still grouchy, but they didn’t seem as let down by the house as they had the night before.
“The first thing we’re going to do is introduce ourselves to the neighbors,” Amelia said once the kids had woken up. “And how do we do that?”
“Cookies!” Jamira cheered.
“Do we have to?” Cory groaned.
“We need to make a good first impression,” Amelia said sternly. “You never want to start off a relationship with someone on bad terms. We want to make a positive first impression! We should try to bring as much joy and love to the people around us as we can, so they can show it to us in return. It’s much harder to do that if someone doesn’t like you to begin with.”
The three of them spent the morning in their cheaply constructed little kitchen, making chocolate chip cookies using an age old recipe Amelia had received from her own mother. Once Amelia mixed together all the ingredients to make the dough, Cory was in charge of placing small dough balls in even rows on the pan, then, Jamira next in line, placed the cookies in the oven and watched through the little window to make sure they didn’t burn. Finally, Amelia removed the pan from the oven, and when the cookies cooled, they were perfect.
“Can we save any for us?” Cory asked.
“Of course, Cory. Always good to have a little something to snack on, after all.”
Jamira, who already had a cookie in her mouth, looked up Amelia. “Good thing you said yes,” she said through a mouthful of cookie.
“No fair! I want one too!” Cory said, grabbing a cookie.
“Limit yourselves to just one,” Amelia said, grabbing one as well.
She smiled as she tasted the still warm cookie. “Nothing’s better than something baked with love,” she muttered.
Once she finished the cookie, she turned back to her kids. “Now, come on. We have two houses to visit!”
The first house they approached was definitely the nicest in the neighborhood. It was the only one that was two stories. Unfortunately, the woman who opened the door were less than pleasant. She reeked of alcohol, despite it being 8 in the morning, and stumbled over her own feet as she opened the door.
Regardless, to set an example for her kids, Amelia tried her best to be civil. “We just moved in… I’m Amelia Brown, and these are my children, Jamira and Cory.”
The woman was so drunk that Cory and Jamira looked like they wanted to start asking questions. To avoid having to explain what was going on with her, Amelia ended up asking the drunk woman if anyone else was home. Amelia was in luck, but unfortunately, the other residents who ended up emerging were just as unhinged. So, Amelia decided to remove her and her kids away from that situation as quickly as possible and never interact with that household again.
“Just, take this plate of cookies and please don’t bother me or my children again,” Amelia ended up saying, holding out the plate of cookies as if they were some kind of shield.
“Will do!” The drunk one said, snatching the entire plate of cookies before heading back inside with the two other women and closing the door in their face.
“Well,” Amelia stammered, shocked. “Those are clearly people we will never associate ourselves with again.”
She grabbed Jamira and Cory by a shoulder each and steered them off the porch and across the street. towards the next neighbor’s house.
“What does associate mean?” Cory asked, after thinking for a while.
“Just that… we don’t need people like that in our lives. Come on now! Let’s hope the second neighbor is better.”
The second neighbor was an older woman who lived alone, and introduced herself as Jo. She took an immediate shine to Amelia and the kids.
“I am so sorry,” Amelia apologized at one point. “We had cookies for you, but the other neighbors took them all.”
Jo shook her head and smiled. “I don’t mind. Those neighbors can be a handful, but, at times, I've enjoyed the company of a select few of them.”
"Even the drunk one?"
"Oh no. She's a nightmare almost constantly, and the alcohol certainly doesn't help. I gave up on her long ago."
“Good to know,” Amelia nodded. “People deserve second chances. But never a third…”
Amelia and her kids spent a few more minutes at Jo’s house before Cory got antsy enough that Amelia had to bid goodbye. Jo, unlike the other neighbors, gave her hope. She could live in this new neighborhood, and be the only person paying the mortgage. She could be a single mother, and raise two admirable children. As long as she strong, and didn’t allow anyone to tarnish her morals or character ever again, she could be the mother Cory and Jamira needed.