Little Moments

Chapter 2

"Mommy, I'm scared." Taylor says after a long hour of silence.
"It's okay, honey." Mom responds with a big smile on her face. But it's not her real smile. I know my mom enough to know when she's really happy, and when she is just acting happy for our sake, which she has been doing a lot of lately. And right now she is obviously really nervous too.

"You'll love the new house. It's got a swing set left behind by the previous owners, big woods, along with a big backyard-"

"Yeah, but it's not Tennessee." I blurt out without thinking. Come to think of it, that's the first thing I've said all morning.

Mom's reflection gives me a death glare from the rear view mirror as she says, "Watch your mouth Katrina." And I suddenly feel really guilty for saying that. I need to support my mom in this.

"Indiana is pretty similar to Tennessee in some ways." I then decide to apologize and mumble,
"Sorry." I really do need to give her support though. Ever since the accident, she's been extremely stressed out. And right now, I'm doing a terrible job of supporting her.

I put on my noise canceling headphones and press shuffle on my i-pod, and close my eyes and listen, as I try to block out all of the dreadful thoughts screaming at my mind. But all of the thoughts keep creeping back into my mind, no matter how much I turn up the volume. Finally, with the devious thoughts still floating around in my head, I drift off into much needed sleep.

I flip the channels on the T.V, when daddy bursts throught the front door, and throws his brief case onto the floor. "There's my sweetheart!" He shouts with a gigantic smile spreading across his face. As the six year old girl I am, I run and jump into his musclular arms.
"How was work today daddy?" I ask. "Very rough." He responds.
"But anything to keep food on the table for my little princess!" He throws me over his shoulder, and slams me down onto the couch. He then tickles me as I laugh my little heart out and scream at him to stop.

I finally wake up after about three hours, and glance out the window to see the truck pulling into a driveway and up to a small, ranch house. I have to be honest, it's beautiful. The house is a barn red, with a big backyard, and in the back, huge, green woods. "Wow." I say under my breath, almost in a whisper.

"Alright girls, grab as much as you can and go look inside!" Mom says excitedly, suddenly pulling me from my thoughts. I grab a box from the trunk and my pillow and start heading up to the front door.

Taylor hops in front of me and basically sprints up to the door and swings it open. I walk in behind her to see a living room and a kitchen, with two doors on the right, and a staircase going down on my left. Mom walks in behind me carrying two large boxes. "Alright girls. Your rooms are those two doors on the right. Pick which one you want." Taylor runs to the two doors and swings open the left one, then the right, and looks in both rooms.

"I call this one!" She shouts as she runs into the room to the left. I guess I get the other room then. I walk into the room and set down the box and pillow on the ground and look up to see light blue walls, a bed, and two windows with a view of the front yard. As I start to unpack my box, Mom walks in with a smile spread across her face. She crosses her arms over her chest and leans against the door as she says, "We can change the wall color if you want. This is how the previous owners left it."
I respond with, "No, I kind of like it." Her smile grows bigger. Probably because that's the first pleasant thing I've said all day.
"Go out to the truck and grab some more boxes from the trunk. There's a lot more to unpack."

I obediently walk out of the house and out to the truck, and start grabbing some more boxes. As I look up, I notice the light brown house to the left of ours. Then I notice in the window on the upper left of the house. I suddenly make out a vision of a silhouette in the window, looking in my general direction. I look behind me, and look back up again, and the person is gone. I decide to ignore it and turn around and walk back inside the house and start unpacking more boxes.

*******

After about an hour and a half, I look at my new room in admiration, seeing all my memories captured in frames hanging on the walls, and my book case filled with all sorts of genres, along with my desk stacked with paper and pencils.

"Hey, come look at my room!" Taylor yells from across the hall. I walk over to her room and enter to see sunset orange walls filled with pictures, and her toy bins overflowing with dolls and stuffed animals, along with her bed also taken over by a swarm of stuffed animals. She's pretty obsessed with stuffed animals, in case you haven't noticed.

"Ta-da!" She yells in excitement as she throws her little arms up in the air.
"Do you like it?"
I decide to put on my happy face and say, "I love it!" She puts on a smile of satisfaction, and continues to put on even more stuffed animals on her bed.

"And how do you plan on fitting on your bed with all of those on it?" I ask with a light chuckle. She teasingly sticks her tung out at me as I turn around. When I turn around I am face to face with my mom.
She smiles and says, "So I take it you like the new home?" When she says the word "home", it reminds me of how furious I was earlier, because this place isn't home. And it never will be. I glare at her and walk towards the first thing I see - the front door.

I walk around the house and to the backyard. I then start to walk towards a sad and abandoned wooden swingset, with two sad and lonley swings, that's towards the back and right next to the woods. I sit down in the swing to my right, and slowly sway back and forth, while trying to gather my thoughts. This anger and sadness has been building up inside of me for the past four months, ever since my mom told me that we were moving.

I then look to my right to see the woods. Huge woods filled with hundreds of trees, with bright, green summer leaves.

Green. It's my favorite color. I'm mesmerized every time I look at it. I snap out of my trance by suddenly hearing Taylor yell, "Katrina! Mom says to get your butt in here!" out the back door. I grumble and stomp to the back door, and walk in to see Mom still unpacking boxes in the kitchen, and Taylor sitting on the couch, playing with some of her dolls.

Mom looks at me with her arms crossed over her chest, and stares at me until I have to break the silence by saying, "What?" in an annoyed tone.
She puts her hands on her hips and responds with, "Don't run off on me like that again." I roll my eyes and plop down on a chair at the kitchen table.

"So, who wants ice cream?" Mom asks as she finishes unpacking the last box. "Really?!" Taylor shouts in excitement. "Really?" I repeat in a whiney tone. I really don't feel like going anywhere right now. Why can't I just hibernate in my room for the rest of the year? "Really." Mom repeats.
"Why not go to the park while we're at it? It's only three thirty, and it's a gorgeous day outside." And with that, Taylor runs into her room and runs out with tennis shoes on and shouts, "Ready!" And then the next thing I know, I'm being dragged into the truck, and we're off.