Twilight Reimagined

Chapter 1

Please consider donating to https://mthg.org/ to help the Quileute tribe move to higher ground as they are now located in a tsunami zone. Also please raise awareness or donate to Black Lives Matter organizations.

 My mom drove me to the airport, the windows were rolled down allowing for the warm dry air to wash over me for the last time in a while. It was 75 degrees in Phoenix, the sky was pristine and cloudless, so blue it was almost violet. I was wearing one of my favorite shirts, a mustard yellow with white lined embroidery, it was a great find at the west side Goodwill. It was probably my last chance to wear it before summer, I thought it would be too cold to wear a short-sleeved shirt for a while in Forks. My carry-on bag was mostly full with a new parka that my mom had insisted on getting me.

Forks, a small town in the Olympic Peninsula in northwest Washington state, like most of the northern pacific coast, existed under an almost constant cover of clouds. It just so happens that this town receives the most rainfall per year over any other town in the United States. It was from Forks and its omnipresent shade of light grey, that my mom had left with me when I was just 2 years old. Forks was the place I had come to every summer to see my dad until I was 14. The next year and every year after that I had won a scholarship to orchestra camp, for playing the cello. My dad began visiting Phoenix during winter break.

If I was, to be honest, I hated Forks. I loved Phoenix, the sun and the heat, and most of all the city.

"Isabelle," my mom said in her Creole accent- the last of a thousand times- before I got into the security line "I'll get better soon and you can come back home."

My mom looks like me, except darker, a sew-in, and Haitian accent. I always loved her dark skin, smooth and warm. I felt a spasm of guilt as she walked away from me after exchanging kisses, hugs, and "be good"'s, her usually lively light footstep was weighed down by her aching joints, assisted by a cane. She was diagnosed with osteosarcoma about a month ago, the news was devastating, but she didn't want me to see her go through chemo. She had also enrolled in an intensive experimental treatment, IV drips and sleep monitoring would require her to sleep in the hospital 3 nights a week. She didn't like the idea of me in the house alone all night, so sending me to my dad's seemed like a good option. She had John now, so things would get done around the house, and he would be there in case she had a bad day, but still, the feeling of guilt lingered.

Before walking out of the door she turned around and blew me a kiss. I could see the tears in her eyes even from 50 feet away.

It was a 4 hours flight from Phoenix to Sea-Tac, then a bus up to Port Angeles, and then an hour drive up to Forks. Flying doesn't bother me; the hour in the car with my dad, though, I was a little worried about.

My dad had been enthusiastic about the whole thing and seemed ecstatic that I was coming to live with him for the first time with any degree of permanence. He'd already enrolled me in Forks High School and was going to help me out with getting a car. I expected it to be awkward at first, neither one of us was very talkative. Like most Caribbean mothers, she filled the silence that I often left.

When I landed at Sea-Tac it was raining-unavoidable. The ride up to Port Angeles only confirmed that the rain would not let up. My dad was waiting for me in the cruiser, which I was not surprised by. He's the police chief of Forks. My primary motivation behind me wanting to buy a car was that I didn't want to be driven around in a car with red and blue flashing lights on top of it.

He gave me an awkward one arm hug from the seat of the car after I sat down in the passenger seat. Charlie Swan was possibly the whitest man alive.

"Good to see you Bells" he said, smiling automatically. "You haven't changed much. How's Renee?"

"Okay, considering everything." I already felt the awkwardness between us.