Where Would I Be Without You

Chapter Two

"The first time I drove all the way to LA, by myself, I might add, never seemed this long as this drive back home. Having our flight delayed didn't help any. I swear the minute we got in this minivan; time has come to a slow tick-tock. Maybe it's because I am scared out of my wits of what everyone will think about me back home." I got a 'hmm' sound out of my sister.

"I think the short blonde wig and colored contacts, along with the pj's kept the media at bay from catching on to who I was. Thank God those tickets were in my real name. I don't think a LA soul has any idea what my real name is. You are the best." I got another 'hmm' sound out of my sister as I shook my hair again from the wig and put my frizzy hair up into a ponytail with a pink hello kitty holder I found in the cup holder of my sister's minivan. I didn't think too much of the quiet 'hum's' from my sister. She was lost in deep thought and most likely concentrating on the dark stretch of highway heading back home. I had a lot of my own figuring out to do and talking about random things was helping. Some.

As we drove the long stretch of quiet darkened highway at a quarter to midnight, I saw my sister yawn, and I tried to keep her talking. We had less than an hour to go, and I knew she could make it. She was one determined woman when she wanted to be. She was determined to marry Ron at the age of five, and she did so promptly after high-school graduation, exactly three months later. Ten months later, they had the twins. She was determined to make Ron the manager at the grain and feed plant, and he was now the manager. She was determined to be the top sales rep at her job and did so three years running. Right now, she was determined to get me away from my personal holocaust and bring me back home to make things right. Who was I to argue with a baby sister that seemed to have it more put together than I did?

Her voice broke my thought and concentration. "You know Bubba is back in town. Has been for over a year now. He managed a farm up in Montana for his uncle, but he's back and running a successful business. Maybe you could give him a call."

Ok. Here's the scoop. Bubba was my high school sweetheart. He was to me, what Ron was to Claire. Bubba is a man now, but he was a boy when I fell in love with him at the tender age of ripening hormones for a girl, ten years old. I was a scrawny-legged, ghost of a girl, as he often referred to me. It wasn't until high school when my chest blossomed a bit that he considered asking me out. We dated all of three weeks, two of them fighting and one of them making up by kissing and making out in the loft of his daddy's barn.

"Oh!" Her voice sounded so excited. "You'd never guess who Shelly Wright married last month. This man moved to town about a year ago, and he was a hot ticket item. Some dot-comer from New York, looking for a place to settle back and relax after selling off his business. Shelly Wright married Mr. Wong. Get it Wright and Wong. Boy did we have a hoot of a time making fun of that one. And... the Snip-N-Shoot did a remodel after moving to the new building down on Franklin Street."

The only family-owned business I know of that you can get a haircut and shave then go next door and buy a gun.

"Then the Nelson girls opened up a bridal shop down on main. They are working in cahoots with their aunt Tilly, who has that huge estate out on Ralston Road. They've gone and turned that place into a wedding destination. It's actually very nice. Mr. Wright and Wong got married there."

That is when my sister's tired laughter started in. The laughter she got when she was really tired, and it would start and not stop. Once she started laughing at her own jokes, she couldn't stop. She was laughing so hard she barely got out one long breath of a sentence. "Oh my garsh, I am going to pee my pants. I can't stop laughing at that... Miss Wright married Mr. Wong." She kept on laughing right on until we pulled into the Stop-N-Go, just a half hour out of town. She jumped out and ran to the bathroom, while I slowly got out and stretched my legs.

This particular Stop-N-Go was a high school favorite stop on the way to the boondock, a party spot we all found so exciting back then. Now, I would not be caught dead there, just like I hoped I wouldn't be caught dead in these clothes and my hair in a ponytail mess with no makeup. In LA, these types of comfortable casual clothes were to only be worn in the privacy of your own apartment, otherwise my normal attire of three to four inch heels, and the latest fashion, was about all I was seen in and that was after I spent an hour on my hair and makeup. I wondered if anyone back home did Brazilian blowouts. I was due soon, and I didn't see me going back to LA without one. That is if I went back to LA.

I decided to fill up my sister's blue minivan for her while she was inside tinkling her laughter out of her. She did not let me pay her back for the plane tickets, and I was not a charity case. I had a good handle on my finances and knew that I had at least six months' worth of expense money to get me by. If I sold my condo in LA, I could get by for at least two years but that was far from my radar.

With my luggage tucked neatly in the back of the minivan, I decided to take a peek for the very first time inside the car that my sister practically lived out of for her job. I was too tired when I crawled into the passenger seat after the airplane ride to notice before, but now as I opened the sliding back door, I noticed the world from which my sister lived in. The world I was about to thrust myself into until I got my wits about me.

There in the minivan was two pink booster car seats or what was once pink but now multiple shades of 'is that grape jelly' I said aloud to myself. There were unmatched pink or yellow shoes, various kinds of socks, none of which appeared to match. There was an open DVD case to a Dora The Explorer movie and three bags from fast food, still with food in them.

I reached my hands above my head in a yoga stretch, and my pink tank top rose above my belly. I then bent down to touch my toes and let out a long breath. There, while I was bent over examining my need for a pedicure in my pink flip-flops, was the edge of a cowboy boot in my vision. I could almost sense who it was before I stood up.

"They all wear pink pj's with kitties on them over there in LA, or you starting a trend here in 'Bama'?" His words were like a honey in one sense and nails on a chalkboard in another. I had always had this push-pull feel with Bubba Champ, but leaving 'Bama' put him far off my radar. Living the life I did in LA, had put Bubba in the far recesses of my brain until the minute my sister had mentioned his name, and my skin felt the feel of his hand brush over my skin without him being here. That is what Bubba did to me. It turned my brain to mush, my senses on high alert and my mind back to the last time we were necking in his daddy's barn. The night I told him that I was saving myself for someone special when I got to LA to start my acting career, not some hillbilly like Bubba in 'Bama'. The night I tried to push him so far away from me emotionally, that I could head on out to LA without a guilty thought to what I was doing. A huge part of me wanted Bubba to convince me otherwise that night and come running after me to stop me from leaving 'Bama', but he didn't. Little did I know that there was no one special in LA, just a casting director and an old leather couch that smelled.

I slowly stood up and turned to face the man whom I fell in love with long ago but just didn't know how to get along with. I had a hard time not letting my eyes roam over his now very mature manly body. Those weren't high school muscles he was packing anymore. His dirty blonde hair was looking long as it curled up a bit under the edge of his hat. He had a goatee beard going on, and it might be sexy, but I didn't like my men with hair on their face. Ok, on him, it was damn sexy. His blue eyes that I loved were hidden among the shadows of his hat.

"Why I do declare if it's not Bubba 'da' Champ. How's rodeo life or farming life or whatever it is you redneckers do around here?" My voice was laden with soft sexual undertones; my eyes twinkled with hope, but I knew how to piss em off just right. In one fair swoop, I wanted to swoon Bubba and smack that sexy dimpled grin right off of his face. Instead, he looked right at me with sorrow, the last thing I wanted from him. Then he told me that he was doing all right. That his momma was looking forward to me stopping by for a sweat tea. Then he walked over and stopped the gas pump just as it was about to overspill. He pulled out the pump and returned it to its place. He put in the gas cap to the minivan and walked back around to me, tipped his tan dusty cowboy hat, wished me a safe drive on home and sauntered over to his brown dually Chevy truck and climbed in. I stood there like a deer caught in headlights. Then a sound of a camera cell phone caught my attention as that sound had me on guard. My sister looked at the picture she just took of me, and she was off and laughing again.

It wasn't until we were five minutes away that I got that phone out of her hand without causing a wreck and saw the picture she took. I looked horrid. Brunette hair all a mess. My face pale, my eyes still a bit red and puffy and my pink lace bra showing from my tank top that was all off kilter. Lovely. Just friggin lovely. I swore to myself that the next time Bubba Champ saw me; I would look LA hot and every man in Alabama was going to want me.

Who was I kidding? I was still the top news story at five o'clock. I needed a hiding out game plan. A disguise if you will. Then I felt my sister's hand upon my arm. "Don't worry. This will be exciting news for a bit, but everyone adores you. According to them, you made it big in LA. Not to mention you are going to be super big in nine months. I can't wait."





But I could. I was still sitting on the teeter-totter of decisions, and I knew that discussing my other option with my sister would be hell to pay, so I changed the subject quick.

"What kind of sedative did you give Snickerdoodles? I've never had her be this quiet in any car ride I've taken her in."

"Vet Johnson gave it to me. You remember Colton Johnson. He's a vet now. Mostly, barnyard animals but I told him that I was bringing you and that white fluff ball back home, and he gave me a little something in a kitty treat that will have her sleeping the whole plane ride home. He guar-an-gosh-darn-teed it."

That brought a laugh to my smile. I remembered Colton. He was a shy guy back in high school, but he always had a caring nature around animals. He was serious about his four H stuff, talked about it nonstop. I had no four H interest, just wanted a chance at stardom in Hollywood. Boy was I a star now and not in the way I wanted. However, I could easily work this to my advantage; being pregnant with Mr. Hollywood's baby was a start. Not that I wanted to keep the baby decision based on how it would help me get my start in Hollywood.

Then my sister did it again. "So Colton is single. He's quite the catch these days. Ladies are awaiting if you know what I mean. I mentioned picking you up, and he mentioned he was available for Sunday dinner. Looks like your return barbeque is going to be one fun time. I invited Bubba, but he mentioned he was busy. Colton, now he's interested. Doesn't care a gosh darn thing about your LA mess. In fact, he says he'd be happy to raise your munchkin as his."

That stung. Both ways. One that my sister was trying to find me a husband and keep me in Alabama, pregnant. And the other way, well it was the fact that Bubba said he was busy.

I had to speak up. Not the whole truth, but just enough to keep my sister from meddling in something I didn't want to start, maybe. "Listen sis, I just want to relax for a week or two until this passes over, and then I'm catching a flight back to LA."

"Uh huh." She didn't sound convinced.

"I don't think I will be doing much dating while I am here. I just want to hang out with my nieces and spoil them rotten and return home."

"Uh huh." Even less convinced.

"I just think I'll relax, make a game plan for my return to LA. I don't want no fancy return BBQ. Just a nice relaxing break from all the starlight of Hollywood and a glass of sweat tea with Mrs. Champ. You know, out of respect for momma. Seeing as they are best friends."

"Uh huh." We pulled into the driveway of my sister's ranch-style home with the split-rail fence and toys all over the yard; a swing set in the side yard and Ron's silver four door Chevy truck parked out front. Claire turned to me as soon as the car was turned off. "As long as I have known you, you have never done anything laid back or relaxing. There has always been drama attached to your life and as far as this baby goes, I doubt Mr. Hollywood is planning on marrying you. Raising a baby on your own is no simple task. If you want our help, Ron and I, and Mom and Dad, are there for you, but it's here on our turf, not out in LA. Besides; LA is not a place for a southern baby to be raised. Am I right?"

Was she right? Could I do this on my own back in LA or did I want help from my family here in Alabama? Did I even want to live in Alabama again? Did I want to give up my life in LA? Then again, with a baby in tow, I didn't see me hitting the party scene and making my way up the ranks of journalists in the entertainment business, not to mention those few measly parts in movies I was promised by my manager not so long ago that have never transpired. I was smart enough to know that my time may have come and gone. In less than the two minutes, it took for Mr. Hollywood to inseminate me.

I grabbed Snickerdoodles in her cat carrier, which, by the way, she was still sleeping soundly, and followed my baby sister into her house. She motioned her finger to be quiet. I sat Snickerdoodle down next to the couch where it looked like Ron had already made up a bed for me for the night. I guess tonight I would not be sleeping with the girls. I might wake them up getting in this late, and no one wants to deal with six-year twin girls super excited that their famous aunt was here to see them. At least in their eyes, I was famous as a golden globe actress and the only thing they know about me and the media is that I report Hollywood news. They have not been allowed near a TV since all of this started. They think I am here to see them, which I prefer it this way.

I squatted down to open Snickerdoodle's carrier and figured by morning, she will wake me up with her fluffy white tail in my face like she does every morning when she wants to be fed. I set my flip-flops by the makeshift bed and laid down thinking it felt safe and comforting to be home. That was the last thing I remembered.