Hollow

Chapter 31

The past couple of days have been depressing... and trust me. I know what it's like for a mood to be depressing. All we did was pack, pack, and pack. Right now, the house was pretty much empty. Only boxes scattered everywhere, with our clothes and hygiene items in plastic bags.

I didn't know I would be so upset to move.. I mean, of course I was going to be upset to move away from Timmy and Miss Toledo.. But I'm talking about the town. I didn't really want to leave, I hated living in this dumb town for my entire life, but now.. I think that I might miss Greenville.

I might miss complaining about how far everything was, for living in the woods surrounded by pretty much nobody, I might miss how mysterious the town was that I technically never got to go to.. I'll miss my house... and Miss Toledo's. It's sad to think about everything that shaped my life so far. It was pretty much this town and these two houses, and now i'll just be moving away from it. Moving away from being a poor girl, to a rich girl.

Something that I just couldn't get out of my head was how I was going to leave this in a good, wealthy situation and Miss Toledo and Timmy would be moving in a worse, more poor situation. It killed me everytime I thought about it. I hate how Miss Toledo won't just let Lonnie take them in. He lives in a big house, so three more people is not a lot!

Miss Toledo doesn't deserve this either, she is a great person, who helped people by being genuine, they didn't deserve to end out in that direction. I wanted to do something, I was not going to leave Miss Toledo, Timmy and Greenville without giving them something in return. I just had to find out what.

Today we were all going to hang out, do something together. We were done packing, there was nothing in the house. So we all decided to go to the park, and just hang together for the last time, Timmy and Miss Toledo's flight was the day after tomorrow.

The car ride was still depressing, no more bickering, no more music blasting, this time... the ride was actually silent. Nothing happened this time. That's the weird thing, I never noticed how Miss Toledo's car always had something new going on in there. Like the two always bickering and arguing, or me butting in. It was always full with laundry that took up half the car because it was so small.

That's something else I'll miss.

We slammed the door and made our way to the track. The track was huge and basically was a circle surrounding the two parks, the fields, basketball courts, soccer fields, etc. It will take us a while to walk this whole track.

For the first five minutes, we all walked without saying a word to each other. Timmy started kicking the rock pavement we walked on,

"Can you stop that." I said annoyed.

He rolled his eyes.

"So.. what would you guys miss most about Greenville?" Miss Toledo asked.

"Everything." Timmy said. "I'll miss everything about it. Everything about Greenville is perfect to me."

"Funny." I said, "I always hated Greenville."

"What could you possibly hate about Greenville?" Timmy asked.

"I always hated how... dry it was- no.. it's like.. lonely, and quiet. It was never busy, you never hear any cars zooming by, the little houses and neighbors near us just mind their business and were not friendly, everything is so far away from us, to go somewhere simple would take about twenty minutes. The town was always weird, because the places Lonnie takes me are not like the town. They are busy with people holding shopping bags or talking on the phone, and you would see couples holding hands or children annoying their parents. Our market is weird.. You would see a small number of people, who just look miserable and quiet."

"I agree," Miss Toledo said. "I only moved here because I knew Beatrice, it was cheap and I was desperate.. Living here was my only option." She looked at Timmy. "If we were more wealthy, I would have never made us live here."

"I'm glad you did," Timmy said. I love how its quiet where you would always hear the birds chirping, I love that there are always different animals you could run into, I love getting to know the "miserable" people. It's a great place to explore. Me and Suzanne would always sneak many places in town just to see what it's like. "

"I can picture Timmy being a farmer." I said, "Seems like you love the countryside."

"That's what I want to be." He said proudly. "I want to be a farmer, where I can live with all of the animals I want, I can have a bunch of food, it would be quiet, and I can just relax with my family. "

"I love you guys." Miss Toledo said. "Nomatter how much you guys can get on my nerves, I love everything about living with you guys. Especially with Hollow moving in, it just made it more entertaining for us. Hollow's like a puzzle piece that I never had for myself.. Like a part that I wanted to use to complete the puzzle, but I never had it."

"Aww." i said. "Yeah, I feel the same way."

"Ever since I moved in with you guys... not gonna lie I was sad most of the time, but you are the reason why I started to live my life.. Go places. It may have not been a lot, but it was a lot more of a life that I lived than before... Thank you."

"You want to know something?" Miss Toledo asked me.

"Sure." I said.

"I thought you would eventually start calling me mom.. I thought that because I thought you would live with us forever when your ma'am died." She said.

Before I said anything, I looked at Timmy. Who looked a bit jealous. I didn't care though, I never made a "mom" move on Miss Toledo just because I thought Timmy would get jealous but hey.. Heart to heart convo on the last day has no time for empathy.

"I definitely look at you as a mom. " I said. "Even before Ma'am died, I used to have this... imagination, or idea that you were like my other mom, along with Ma'am and Timmy was my brother. I still have that imagination... now it changed though."

"How?" Miss Toledo asked.

"When we were all eating McDonalds together that one day.. I had this great thought about us all being a family.. Me, you, Tim, and Lonnie. I would have the picture perfect family that I've always wanted..."

Miss Toledo smiled.

"Why are you smiling?" I teased.

"I feel the same way." Said Miss Toledo, chuckling.

I feel like that is how we all get along so well.. Even if we all don't say it, none of our families are normal. Timothy's dad died when he was a baby, I was abused and a runaway because of my broken home... and Hollow, you know your story." Miss Toledo said.

We all laughed.

"No." Timmy said.

"No?" I asked.

"No... I don't think about Lonnie about being in our family.. I just think of the three of us. Wasn't it great? These seven months have been the best months of my life... I loved to think of all of us as a family." Timmy admitted.

"We will always be family. Nomatter what you, Hollow and me would always be my little family." Miss Toledo sniffled. "I-it's sad how we will be apart but-"

"Don't cry mom." Timmy said, patting her back.

I didn't say anything, I was sad that it had to end like this. After everything we went through. We will all be splitting ways. It's really eating me up.

"One thing I know.. We are gonna run the next towns we go to." Miss Toledo joked.