THE CHRISTMAS SEARCH

'THE DAY IS DARK BUT THE SUN WILL RISE AGAIN'

We began our journey as early as seven a.m. on Christmas day, we were out to get there early before the end of visiting hours at the prison, Owen drove with my mother sitting beside him, Sarah, I and Cecilia sat at the back. We were all surprised Cecilia could reach my mother's place so early. While we were still at my mother's place, I asked her how she was able to convince her husband to go on this journey with us. "Told him the night before I had to quickly run some errands for my mother and I will be back soon." Cecilia replied.

"But you know you won't be back soon." Owen, who had arrived earlier, commented.

"Too bad for him. He's going to spend Christmas alone then." Cecilia laughed as she spoke.

"He's going to call you and I hope you have an excuse at hand to tell him." I said.

"Let's not worry about that." Cecilia replied. "I brought some pancakes along; in case we get hungry during the journey."

"Great, mother's preparing cookies and Owen brought some drinks, so I guess we should not starve on our journey." I replied. We got to Mike's place some minutes past six. We met he and Sarah inside, we were surprised to see him act very friendly; Sarah had spoken to him the night before about our trip, he wished us good luck because he couldn't come along with us; his family were visiting that day.

During the journey, Sarah and my mother spoke about their old town, Cecilia, Owen and I just listened; we could not relate. After a while, Owen turned the car's stereo on and played a Christmas song to which everyone sang along except me. We passed by people singing a hymn in front of a church, we passed by a man dressed as Santa Claus inside a mall, we passed by a giant Christmas tree at a roundabout, these sights looked so joyful but I didn't fancy them. The sun had risen fully with the snow drizzling when we left the state, Owen groaned about getting hungry, Cecilia opened the cooler of pancakes she had packed for him to take out of it. I took out of it too and all of a sudden, everyone became hungry that moment and started taking out of it. We all ate to our satisfaction. Mother asked for water when she began coughing, "Oh shit! I didn't come along with water." Owen said.

"You only brought beer and soda?" I asked.

"Yeah, I somehow forgot water." He replied.

"You're unbelievable, Owen." Cecilia spoke. "Now where are we going to get water for mother?"

"I have a bottle here." Sarah brought out a bottle of water from her bag. "She can have it." She passed the bottle to my mother.

"Thanks." I said. "Stop by the next store you see so we can get water, loser."

It took us close to two hours to find a store, I was longing for the taste of water, soda didn't seem enough. I downed a bottle of water when Cecilia passed me one in the car. "Girl, you drink like a camel." Cecilia remarked. The journey continued as a silent one with only the song playing from the car's stereo audible. Everyone yawned from time to time. My mother fell asleep first, resting her head by the window's glass. Minutes later, Sarah fell asleep next. Owen's eyes looked very heavy and he was beginning to slumber. "Should Cecilia come and take the wheel? Don't kill us all." I commented.

"Not yet." He replied.

Around three p.m., Cecilia took over from Owen so he could rest too. The journey continued silently till we got to the prison some minutes to five p.m., "Here we are guys, guess I am quite a fast driver." Cecilia said.

"Yeah, you should be a formula one driver." Owen replied sarcastically.

Cecilia parked at the parking lot; I became nervous staring at the prison's gate. "Are you ready for this, girl?" Owen, sitting beside me, asked.