A Long Way Home

The Journey Begins

"So where do you think it is?" Mia sat over zoom with Crystal, her spiritual guru. Crystal and Mia had found each other a few years ago and sporadic met up to discuss what was going on in life. Today's topic of discussion was her vision of the house.

"I'm not sure, I keep getting called to Virginia. I've been there a few times and it always feels like I can breathe a little bit easier."

"So why don't you take a trip?" Mia had to laugh. Why would she take a trip to Virginia to find a house? That was absurd.

"I mean, I have no idea where it is. It could be anywhere in the state. It could also not be in the state at all and then I'll look like a fool." She sat back in her desk chair. She already felt foolish talking about the house out loud. It had lived safely in her mind for so long she didn't want to be defeated if it came to fruition and fell short of her expectations.

"It could also be exactly where you feel it is and it might be the right place at the right time. You don't know that things won't work out because you also don't know that they will. Why not trend towards the positive?" Crystal had a point. Mia often hedged her bets towards the negative and where had that gotten her. She was clearly unhappy and dissatisfied with life. Could it really hurt that much to believe in something?

Later that day she pressed the phone to her ear trying to calm her breathing. She had fully expected to get Maxine's voicemail. Mentally preparing for the beep she was caught off guard when she heard Maxine's tell-tale gravelly voice say hello. Her voice had always edged on breathless at any point in the day. Mia was suddenly hit by a wave of nostalgia. She could feel all the times Max had answered the phone like this and they had set out on an adventure. It had been so long since that occurred she was moved to tears as she thought about asking Max to trust her once again.

"Mia? Is everything okay? Are you crying?" Max sounded mildly impatient as Mia heard the beeping of the hospital behind her.

"Yes, yes sorry. No I mean yes, I was but don't worry about it. I'm fine. Anyway," She took a deep breath in.

"How are you? How are things?" If Max were being honest she would say things had gone to shit. Her and Mike were stressed out new parents, the baby wasn't sleeping, her marriage was on the rocks and her residency was pushing her past any normal limit of sanity. All in all, she was doing very unwell.

"Things are fine. What's new with you?" Mia hesitated but fought her own anxiety and blurted everything out.

"So there's this house I need to go see in Virginia and I was wondering if you'd like to come with me. I'm thinking about moving there and you know it could be a girls weekend or something fun. I mean we haven't done anything like this in so long it might just be what we need, you know? Well what I need. I don't want to assume it's what you need but will you think about it? I know the hospital is busy but I'm free whenever you are it's totally okay if you're not though. I just wanted to ask."

"Mia..." Max cut her off before the next sentence. She hadn't thought Mia could even speak that fast.

"I'm in. I'm off this coming weekend. I'll talk to Mike but we can leave Friday morning okay? I'll drive."

"Really? Thank you so much Max this means the world to me. You don't understand.."

"Mia I can't talk right now. I'm on shift but text me the address of the house. Be ready at 6 am, the drive to Virginia is a pain."

Mia heard the click of the phone before she could explain. She didn't have an address. She had no idea where they were going. She also didn't know what town this home was in. But what did it really matter? Max was on board. They would go on an adventure and figure out where Mia was meant to be. Maybe they'd even talk to each other about something more than the hospital or Mia's admin job for the first time in months.