It had been three months since Kelly had  seen her mother. As she sat on the wooden swing under the aging oak dragging her feet back and forth, back and forth, and deepened the indent in the earth under the swing from years of use, she smiled to herself. The sky had just begun to hint and day break and the early morning air was warm and moist against her skin and scented by the aroma of the yellow decaying daffodils in the neglected flower bed. There were no cars yet rushing by the house as the sun’s rays began licking the grass and leaves of her front yard. No noisy kids were out yet playing games of war. No sounds of clanking dishes and people arguing coming from inside the house her younger brother was still sound asleep and father was just getting up and restless, like Kelly, after a sleepless night. It had been a few months since their world changed and today it would bring on more adjustments. Her mother was  coming home.

 The last few weeks before her mother had gone away had been the worst time Kelly could remember in her eleven years of life.  One night, while her father was out of town on business, Kelly’s mother had walked out on her brother and her in the middle of the night after getting upset at Kelly for leaving wet towels lying around in bathroom after bathing. Kelly had gone outside and waited for her mother on the porch in damp night air for the second time in the past two months. She watched the water run down the petals of the tulips in the flower bed until the headlights of her mom’s car finally pulled into the driveway. As Kelly’s mom got out of the car and entered the house, however, she did not acknowledge her daughter as she had the last time this occured. A red-eyes Kelly had called the hotel number on the fridge that her Dad was staying at and within days her mother was leaving again; this time, however, Kelly knew the destination. Her father said Mother was going to a place called Homewood because she needed to have some time to herself.

 House and car doors began to open and shut in various driveways along the street as the air warmed and the sky lightened. Kelly had stopped running her feet through the dirt and sat absolutely still has her younger brother came up behind her and tugged at her sweatshirt sleeve.

 “Have you seen tha car yet?” he asked her as he continued to pull at her sleeve.

 Kelly turned around and watched him fidget nervously with his hands. After a moment she picked him up and placed him facing her on her lap.

 “Not yet. Hold tight k?” she said, beginning to pump her legs to move the swing. Soon she was high enough to hit the branches with her feet and her brother was holding fast, squealing with delight. Under their weight and the pumping of kelly’s legs the branch began to undulate and they flew back and forth under a green umbrella. They didn’t notice the car pull into the driveway until they herd the sound of car doors opening and closing and their father’s voice mixing with one they had not herd in three months. At that noise Kelly’s legs turned to lead and the swing began to loose momentum as the two children came back to the earth. Ben continued to hold tightly to his sister as the swing stopped and their mother approached them. Kelly got off the swing, still holding her brother, and let them be encircles by their mother’s arms. She knew her arms were encircling their own but in her mind she was still soaring through the branches on her swing, even as she handed her brother over to her mother, even as the four of them entered the house.