FLASHBACK TIME #2 (errors included!) 2008: I twiddled my thumbs, looking out into the woods. How much longer do we have to drive? Louise whined. Your mother and I dont know honey, Dad replied. I sighed, put my chin in my hand, and looked out the window. 2013:I drummed my thumbs together and gazed aimlessly into the evergreens that sandwiched the narrow road. The hum of the car became white noise in my ears. This was not the way I’d imagined spending the last precious days of my summer. How much longer do we have to go? Louise, my fourteen-year-old sister, moaned. My legs are stiff. She huffed an exaggerated sigh, toying with the glasses that fit over her plump, freckled face. Greenville, a tiny town stuck in the middle of nowhere, wasnt what either of us considered a paradise. It would be a short trip for my parents; their only intention of the visit was to abandon Louise and me at my older brother’s house, which would be our home for the following nine months. Exiling us to Greenville for the school year was Mom’s idea. As she stated, I don’t want to go through another hell of early nursing and teenager care. The forthcoming newborn, she insisted, required full attention, and our absence would provide her and my dad with time to fix up our new home in Oregon. After several miles of staring down the passing trees, Mom snorted—perhaps she had been napping—and glanced back at my sister and me, as if Louise’s complaint had just reached her. Your father and I don’t know, honey, she said. Her voice sounded as monotone as ours. We’ll get there when we get there. I sighed and leaned back into the slouchy cushion of the car seat.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 19:50:41 +0000