The Summer of the Applewoods

1: Almost There

"Three, two, one.

ARE WE THERE YET?!"

"Nope. Five more minutes."

"BUT YOU SAID TH-"

"Five minutes ago, I know."

"But moooommyyy!"

"Ree, don't you remember the song about being patient?"

"Yeah, I do, but I want to get there now!"

"Roland, Fisher, Ree, this is the third time you did that in an hour! Can't you give it a break?" called one of their moms, Bella Applewood, from the front seat, where she was at the wheel.

The Applewood family were in their big, blue van, driving from their home in Wyoming to a small house in a town in California (which was called Redbud) by Oak National Park. They were staying for four weeks starting June and ending in July. It would be nice to get away from Yellowstone National Park, (where their house was) and its cool temperature, but the family wasn't expecting it to be as sweltering hot as it was right then.

Brooke and Ree sitting in the row of seats at the almost-back of the van, in front of the very back seats of their vehicle were their bags and all of the whatnots that you need to survive in a small, six-room house. "That would be nice." sighed Savannah, who was sitting in the front row of their van next to Sage, who was doodling in a notebook. The twins, Fisher and Roland, were sitting in the middle bank of the van.

"Mama, do you know anything about the rental house, other than about the oven and the plumbing?"

"Sorry, Brooke, that's all the website said."

"Mommy, can you put on that soundtrack with 'Back to the Cave' in it?" asked Roland.

"Sure buddy." said their other mom, Rosie Applewood.

She slipped the family's road trip CD into their DVD player and waited for the song to play.

As soon as the music started, Brooke started dancing in her seat. Then, when the chorus came on, Roland sang along:

''We're moving forward slowly

But falling backwards faster

So watch us spiral as we tumble from grace

We're running out of punchlines

A d-d-d-disaster

So watch us crawl

We're crawling back to the cave...''

By the time it rolled around again, everybody was belting out the lyrics. Even their dogs, (a Corgi named Strawberry and Blue Heeler named Blackberry) started yapping and howling. It just had that effect on creatures. When the last chord played and the song stopped, everyone went back to doing whatever they were doing before the song. A few moments of silence passed before their mom announced that there was a rest stop coming up. When they came to the pull-out, Bella Applewood parked the car on the cracked asphalt and the family rushed out of the car

***

They stood in front of a small store, with a few rooms on the top of the building. On the sides of the highway, there were other rooms for rent, and even a few cottages, too. There was smoke coming from a grill in front of the shop, with a mustachioed man in an apron that said The Oak Tree Store: Best Market in Town, flipping sausages.

"Care for some baby-back ribs? Or maybe a hot dog?" asked the man in a deep voice.

"Kids, you hungry?" asked Rosie.

They all agreed, except for Brooke, who was a vegetarian.

After they had gotten a few ribs and hot dogs, they went inside the cramped store. It was dimly lit and musty, and it had several racks of keychains, postcards, and other souvenirs. There was a bar by the entrance they had just walked through, and another doorway across from the bar.

"If you want to shop for food, come in here." came a bored voice from the other room.

The Applewoods walked into the other room and were immediately blinded by the brightness coming from the strip lights coming from the ceiling. All around them were more shelves of souvenirs and junk food, such as chips and sports drinks. Brook went over to the measly bowl of fruit by the cashier to pick out a dusty apple.

"Is this where we pay for these?" asked Rosie Applewood, holding up the delicious smelling bag.

The cashier, who had long, straight, brown hair and black and pink nails nodded. She was holding a phone that was quietly emitting not-so-polite music.

"I don't like that music." whispered Roland into Fisher's ear.

Rosie shot him a "please be polite" look while she carefully laid the paper bag onto the counter.

"Welcome to the Oak Tree Market. Would you like to pay in cash or credit." asked the woman in the same bored voice, still looking at her phone.

"Cash please," said Rosie, holding out a 20 dollar bill. "and I was wondering, do you know where 79671 Gourd Hollow is? We forgot to download a digital map site on our phones before we left, so we have just been looking at paper maps."

The woman took the 20 dollars and gave her some change and a receipt.

"Go down the road, and go to the first house on the right. You can't miss it. It's the one next to the house with the crazy dog."

Fisher made a concerned face.

"Thank you, we really appreciate it." said Mrs. Applewood.

"Mhm."

As they walked out of the store, Brooke bit into the dusty apple. As she chewed, she made a disgusted face and discarded the fruit in a nearby trash can. The family waved at the barbecue man, now flipping some hamburgers, and hopped back into their car.

"I didn't really like that lady." said Ree, who was being buckled in her seatbelt by Bella.

"I didn't either," said Roland, pulling out his music writing notebook. "That music she was listening to had lots of swear words, and the artist was singing with no expression in his voice!"

"People have different music tastes, even if they aren't very polite." said Bella, getting back into the driver's seat. "Apparently, the house isn't very far away. So kids," said Rosie, turning around in her seat. "I want all shoes on, all the trash into pockets, and all items in bags. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am!" shouted Roland from his seat, sitting up straight and holding his hand up in a salute.

"Good." she chuckled, getting into a normal sitting position and getting all the front seat snacks into the snack bag.

Bella turned on the van, and they were off to the rental house.

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NOTE: I don't own 'Back to the Cave'. Colonel Suns own it. There's a link to the YouTube video in the comments.

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Annnddd that's the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed it :D Sometime I will post more info about the characters that I might not be able to mention in this book. (This chapter has 1035 words!)