Querencia (home)
--For Mom

by michelle zeman

I settled back into the soft cushioned seat, closed my eyes and let out a slow breath. The plane was at its normal altitude now, so the pressure on my stomach and chest was rapidly decreasing. Finally it was gone and I could relax totally. Vacation was over. It would be good to get home. "No, better than good," I thought, "it would be wonderful."

My sister, Nicolle always seemed to be able to read my mind. She quoted the Wizard of Oz, "There's no place like home."

"Uh-huh", I murmured in agreement. Then there was a pang of guilt. "But I had a terrific time."

"So did I, but I miss being home. Like Mom says, I love our vacations, but when it's time to leave, I'm ready."

She was right. As the trip goes on, the feelings drawing us back grow stronger, like a magnet. I leaned back and wondered why it was like that. After all, home was just a place to hang your hat or a place that when you knock they have to let you in. I didn't want to believe that I was so materialistic that I actually missed the physical objects of home. Somehow it was more than that. It was...

"..the guinea pigs."

I realized that Nicolle was talking to me. "Sorry, what?"

"I said, I can't wait to see the guinea pigs. I wonder how the babies are. I really miss them."

Our two adult guinea pigs, Ripley and Sherlock had had babies several weeks ago. I smiled as I thought of their fuzzy little faces. I couldn't wait to see them again. Outloud, I said, "Yeah, now I'm so glad that we got Ripley. Without him we wouldn't have Lucky, Dusty and Ned. And he is a good boy."

Nicolle laughed, "Even if he did fool us in the beginning."

* * * * * * * ** * * ** * * ** * * ** * * *

"Ripley is the funniest looking guinea pig that I have ever seen." I ran my fingers through the long black fur that sprouted wildly from the top of his head. Ripley merely sat mutely on my lap, still frozen and dazed from the trip home. Prior experience told me he would remain this way for at least a week. Precious, my guinea pig and close friend of the past eight years had died the week before. Like Ripley, I was still dazed. Picking him up, I looked curiously into his eyes, wondering if we would ever be as good a friends. Nicolle was seated across the room buried under a mountain of books. She paused for a moment and looked up. Still playing with Ripley's fur, I continued, "Her fur is short in some places and long in others. Really wild."

Nicolle giggled, "She's a punk rocker."

"Sherlock will be glad to get another friend. She must be lonely without Precious. I think...." Suddenly I stopped, noticing something that I hadn't noticed before. Something that was a surprise to me, but would come as a bigger surprise to Sherlock. The back door opened and closed as my Mom came in carrying an armload of groceries. I rushed into the kitchen with Ripley.

"Mom, the man at the pet store lied - Ripley's a boy!"

Mom kept unpacking. "I didn't think that guy knew what he was talking about. How did you find out?"

Slightly embarrassed and annoyed at the question, I stammered, "Well... I looked."

Nicolle came into the kitchen to help. "What's up?"

Mom laughed, "Ripley's a female impersonator."

Nicolle grabbed a bag. "Great, did you buy Pop-tarts?"

* * * * * * * ** * * ** * * ** * * ** * * *

The plane rumbled as we passed through a cloud. Yes, I really missed them. Inadvertently, Nicolle had answered my question about home. Home was more than a place. It was everything and everyone close to me, like the guinea pigs, my family and friends. These were the people that made home a place of love and security. My cousins Adam, John and Amanda came to mind. Since we had grown up together, we considered each other more like brothers and sisters.

I turned to Nicolle, "I also can't wait to see Adam, John, Mandy and Craig. Next time I hope that they can come with us. That would be excellent."

"Definitely! Wouldn't it be great go to Disney World or Epcot with them?"

"Anything would be terrific," I agreed. "That's the great thing about our relationship. We always have fun together."

She nodded, "Let's invite them to sleep over again, when we get back. We could watch Young Sherlock Holmes."

"Just as long as we don't watch Halloween 2!"

* * * * * * * ** * * ** * * ** * * ** * * *

The girl was talking on the telephone. She raveled and unraveled the cord between her fingers nervously, while pacing the floor. "Michael Meyers has escaped? Isn't he the psycho who killed his sister? Aren't you scared? Think of me - I'm all alone in this house without any electricity!" She didn't see the masked figure creep up behind her. Light glistened off of the raised butcher's knife. As she turned around, she opened her mouth...

What appeared to come out was a relatively low male scream. It caused me to jump. I peeked out from between my fingers and saw Adam a few sleeping bags away covering his mouth and a guilty look on his face. John, Nicolle and Amanda also turned to look at him. Finally we all burst out laughing. I looked down at our living room floor. Through the darkness, I could see that popcorn was scattered about. "What happened to the popcorn?" I asked.

"John spilled it when Adam screamed." Nicolle informed me. This caused more laughter.

I got up and pushed stop on the video recorder, so I could rewind it to the part we missed. Before I pushed play, I noticed that Mandy was still a little pale from the last scene. In fact we all were. "Do you guys want to watch this tomorrow in the daylight?" Everyone nodded. "Well what should we watch now?"

"How about the Great Muppet Caper?"

* * * * * * * ** * * ** * * ** * * ** * * *

I looked over at Nicolle. She had her eyes closed and was concentrating on the music from her walkman. I picked up the in-flight magazine and leafed through it. An advertisement for Christmas sales caught my glance. It wouldn't be long now. We would have to put our tree up soon. I remembered last Christmas, when we had thought about getting a new tree. But we couldn't. Suddenly a new thought occurred to me. That was the reason that our physical home was so special, so sentimental. It was full of memories. Every single object, every piece of furniture was a reminder of something. The people made the memories and our home stored them, right in it's heart.

* * * * * * * ** * * ** * * ** * * ** * * *

I stood back and looked critically at our Christmas tree. Since it was only four and a half feet tall, we had attached it to a small table. Even then, it only came up to eye level. It was several years older than I and it's crooked artificial limbs seemed to know it.

Nicolle stood beside me. Noting my critical gaze she said, "Mom we really need to get a new tree. This one's looking pretty pitiful."

Mom looked up from the box of tinsel, slightly hurt and defensive. "How can you say that? It's been with us forever."

"That's the point". I chimed in. " Besides, there's no way all of our ornaments will fit on there neatly. If we want to continue to keep our tradition of getting one every year, we're going to need a bigger tree. What are we gonna do when we each have twenty or thirty ornaments?"

Mom put on a Christmas record. "You guys have no sentiment at all." Nicolle and I sighed, went over to a box and began hanging up our ornaments. John Denver and the Muppets were singing in the background. As the tree began to fill up, the limbs began to quiver under the weight. But it still held firm and proud. Ornament after ornament was hung. I began to slow down, fingering each one gently, fondly. They were all here, Santa, Frosty, Snoopy, Ziggy, Garfield and Odie. Each one seemed to hold a special secret, memories of laughter, surprise and happiness.

Suddenly, Mom pulled out a small sparkling plastic ball. She read the tag on the side - PRECIOUS. I took the ornament with shaking hands and placed it by the star on the top of the tree.

Mom said, "I guess you don't want to get rid of the tree anymore."

I could only shake my head, the tears choking my heart finally spilling down my face.

"There's no place like home."