Here’s the next part for the book I posted about yesterday.
It didn’t take long to get checked in at the hotel, and they agreed to let me stay until I found another place to live. “We don’t need to know when you’re leaving. Just come back and pay the bill when you get your stuff moved out.” At first I was surprised at how lenient they were, but then realized that I would be unwelcome in the town if I tried anything stupid.
Instead of being tired like I thought I would be after traveling for so long, plus the three hours of time change, I was rearing to go. To see the places that haunted my memories. Grabbing a small bag I stuck my ipod, phone, small notebook and pen and room key into it, then I was ready.
Kate had given me directions to the bookstore, so I began wandering in that direction. I really did want to see where I was going to work. I could hardly believe I was going to get paid to be around books all day.
What made Mom so bitter about this place? I wondered for probably the 1,000th time as I looked down at the brick sidewalk I was walking on. To me it was total beauty. A place where I had been surrounded by my best friends. My cousins and I had been like sisters to each other. We spent all day together, playing around town with Nanny keeping track of us. Then one day it had all ended. I’m still not sure why. Forbidding me to talk about my cousins or Ohio must have made Mom think I would forget about them. And to my chagrin, I did forget some stuff, but not all. Not enough. And I was back to fit the pieces together.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, I wondered how I was going to track down my cousins when I couldn’t remember their last names. Kamryn, Lexie and Teal. The four of us had done everything together.
“Here I thought you’d be resting.” Kate’s cheerful voice broke into my thoughts.
“No, I was to jittery to sleep. I was wondering, do you know anything about my cousins?”
Raising her eyebrows, Kate seemed to consider my question. “What are their names?”
“There first names are Kamryn, Lexie and Teal.”
“Oh my goodness.” Kate’s mouth dropped open.
“What?” Suddenly I felt sick to my stomach. What if something horrible had happened to all of them?
“I just placed who you are!” Kate squealed and hit her hands to her head. “I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out sooner.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well you four girls were always together. I mean, you spent more time together than I did with my sisters, and we were close. I babysat you a few times, although you probably don’t remember. Then one day your mom’s had this huge argument, and vowed never to see or speak to each other again. Within a month all of your families had moved away.”
“What did they argue about?” I asked the question breathlessly. Am I finally going to find out what caused all those changes?
Kate tipped her head, considering me. “You don’t know?”
“No.” Like duh. Would I be asking her if I knew?
She shrugged. “I don’t remember if I ever partial to that information. They were always fighting about something or another. Maybe they finally decided they’d had enough of it. Everyone always said they never seemed to love each other.”
That wasn’t hard to believe. “Thanks for the info. I’ll see you in two days.” Hurrying away, I looked back and managed a wave and half smile. My mom and aunts never loving each other I could imagine, how else could you leave your sisters and never look back? But the other information was new to me. My aunts had moved away too? And within a month? And they were always arguing? I tried to remember them arguing a lot, but strange as it seems, I couldn’t remember them much at all.
That night I slept well, despite all the emotions warring inside my head. I woke up in the morning with a headache, grabbing my paper and pen, I journaled it away. Writing was one of the things I inherited from my Dad, Mom hated the very thought of writing. I always wondered how she had ended up marrying a guy who worked a newspaper office. (That’s why we had been able to move to California so fast. Dad was from there originally, and had only stayed in Ohio because Mom had wanted to. Since Uncle Jim, Dad’s older brother, owns a newspaper in California, it wasn’t hard for Dad to get a job there.)
After letting words flow onto the paper for an hour or so, I felt better and less confused so I decided to go for another walk after grabbing a quick breakfast from a dinner down the road.
Kamryn. Lexie. Teal. The names repeatedly went through my mind, but try as I might, the last names wouldn’t surface along with them. When I first realized I had forgotten their last names, I had been mad at myself, but soon I realized it was only natural. I mean, it’s not like cousins talk about each other by their last names a lot when they’re little, and since my mom had forbidden me from talking about them… Out of sight, out of mind. Or, something like that.
Noveltea 