On Saturday, 01/02/93, I had loaded the bed, crib and sleeper sofa in my house. Earlier in the morning, I had driven by the U-Haul place where I was renting a car-top carrier to load all of Chez' stuff to bring back to San Diego. At that time, I saw an unusual sight. There was a U-Haul truck that had crossed the street and crashed into the Lucky Supermarket. While there was no structural damage or injuries, there were a couple of police cars there. When I went by later to pick up the carrier, I asked what had happened. They told me that the person who had rented the truck had slipped it into neutral and got out of the truck. It started rolling across the street and the person just stood there and watched. They were pretty upset about it.
After they put the carrier on top of my car and strapped it down, I had to do a full day of work at the Hillcrest Cinemas. I couldn't wait for that day to end. I got off at 10pm and set out right away to drive to Clovis, NM to pick up Chez and Joad.
My plan was to drive to Yuma, AZ, find a motel and spend the night. However, this was New Year's weekend, so I had a lot of trouble finding a room. Most of them had their "No Vacancy" lights on. I went to one motel that didn't, but they were charging $60 for one person. I decided to just go ahead and keep driving until I got tired and find a rest stop. I slept in the back seat. I was only able to get about four hours' worth. I woke up around 6am, when the sun started shining. I just got up and started driving. Along the way, I figured that was a really good way to save money if I ever drove from San Diego to Artesia again by myself. I really didn't need to stay in a motel. And I gained more time in the day to get to my destination. If I'd been in a motel, I probably would have slept for a full eight hours.
I stopped in Tuscon and ate at a Waffle House. When I pulled up, this man and his family were leaving. He asked me if I had been at the rest stop earlier. I guess he happened to be parked in front of me there. He asked me if it had been raining by the time I left. I'm guessing they'd had trouble finding a motel room, too, and spent the night at the rest stop.
I continued my drive toward Clovis. Along the way, I went through Las Cruces. I'd had trouble the last couple of times I'd driven through, because the signs from Interstate 10 direct me to take this one exit for highway 70 toward Alamogordo. Both times I took that exit, I found myself having to drive through the middle of town, where there are a lot of stop lights along the way. But while I was getting close to the end of town, I would pass by an exit for Interstate 25. I wondered if there was a connector from I-10 to I-25. I decided to keep driving past that exit this time to see where the Interstate would take me. I found I was right. I was able to get onto I-25 and head north to that exit to Highway 70 toward Alamogordo. Now, it probably took me ten miles out of my way, but it probably saved me 30 minutes of driving on the streets. I wondered why they didn't just post a sign that said, "If you don't feel like going through the second largest city in New Mexico to get to the ninth largest city, just keep driving and take I-25 North!" (Years later, I noticed they put a Truck Route sign up. I guess they were doing a lot of road work on the city streets and they wanted to discourage trucks from driving through. One of the issues with driving around there was that you go right by the New Mexico State University campus and there's a lot of pedestrian traffic. I can't imagine anything more dangerous than trucks trying to beat deadlines driving on the streets because they didn't figure out the first time they they could have avoided all that.)
Even though I had saved myself a half hour of driving on the way to Alamogordo, it sort of became a moot point because they had the mountain pass closed while Holloman AFB was running test flights. Law enforcement had us pulled over for about an hour before we were allowed to continue on our way. This was the first time I'd ever gotten caught up in that. (And it wouldn't be the last.) I remember the DJ on the local radio station thanked us for tuning in while the tests were going on.
I drove through Alamogordo and Tularosa and didn't even try to get a hold of Kird or Abed. I just didn't have time like that to blow. I continued through Roswell and Portales before arriving in Clovis and checking into the Motel 6. While I was there, I took a shower, shaved and changed my clothes. I wanted to look good for Chez as we started our new lives together.
Before I went over to see her, I decided to try to call up Kyz. (This was that time she thought "Gabe" was calling.) I told her what was going on with me and Chez. She seemed really happy for me.
Originally, I had anticipated arriving in Clovis around 9pm and this was what I told Chez to expect. But because I only slept for four hours in the car, I had finished up getting ready in the motel room by around 6:30pm. I was ready to go see her. She told me she was going to be at her great-aunt's house. I went over there, but all the lights were off. I lightly knocked on the door, but there was no answer. I figured Chez would be at her grandmother's house, about a block away.
Something I have to mention right now is that the whole time I was driving from San Diego to Clovis, I had a very romantic vision in my head of what was going to happen when Chez saw me for the first time. I imagined knocking on the door, her opening it and giving me the biggest hug that she had ever given in her life. I was going to tell her that everything was going to be okay from now on and that we would just hold each other for at least a full minute.
This was going through my mind when I knocked on the door. Her grandmother opened the door. Even though she'd met me several times before, she just gave me a stern look and asked, "Can I help you?" "Is Chez here?" "Who wants to know?" I started to think that Chez wasn't even there and that her grandmother had no idea what was going on. I was going to have to go back to the motel and drive home because no one told me about the change in plans. But I responded, "I'm Fayd." Her grandmother motioned for me to come in.
When I entered the house, I saw Chez sitting in a chair right next to the front door. I then saw one of her aunts in the living room, holding Joad. The first thing out of Chez' mouth was, "What did you do? Fly?" She sounded kind of irritated that I had gotten there two hours earlier than expected. I explained that it didn't take as long to drive as I thought it would. I continued to stand there and wait for her to get up out of her chair and give me a hug. But she remained seated, watching TV. The movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" was on.
Spoiler alert: This would be my first indication that things were not going to go the way I expected. (Actually it was the third indication. The first was that she wasn't at her great-aunt's and the second was her grandmother giving me the third degree. But this was the first time I actually contemplated it.) I went over and sat down next to her aunt and Joad. Her aunt asked me if I wanted to hold Joad. Yeah, I wanted to. I needed to get my first feel for being a father. He seemed to like me okay.
Chez wanted to put a few items in the car and asked me to help carry them. We talked a little bit while we were there. After I had shut the hatchback, I said to her, "Hey! I need a hug." We embraced for a little bit and walked back toward the house. We held hands. Before we went inside, she stood up on the porch a step ahead of me, turned around and kissed me. I had forgotten how soft her lips were. It made me forget I was upset that she hadn't bothered to get out of her chair when I first arrived.
We went back inside. Chez said we were going to go out and meet her mother. Her grandmother and aunt were going to watch Joad while we were out. I'd never met her mother before, so I didn't know what to expect. I knew that her mother had some behavioral health issues, and hadn't really been a part of Chez' life for several years.
Her mother looked a lot like her sister Kiz, but older and heavier. I also met her husband. He was kind of nerdy, in an Uncle Hed kind of way. I appeared to get along with them at this first meeting. At one point, Chez' mom asked her to come talk to her in the kitchen. They were in there a couple of minutes. When they came out, they were laughing a little bit and her mom said, "I'll be looking forward to that!"
After we left, Chez told me that when she went into the kitchen, her mother started crying because of everything that was going on. She needed to compose herself enough to come back out into the living room. Before they left the kitchen, Chez told her mother that we would be getting married at some point in the future. That was what her mother was referring to when they came out.
I drove Chez back to her grandmother's and dropped her off. I went back to my motel room and contemplated what was going to happen next.
You'll find out about that tomorrow.
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