Undaunted

Avery

When I was younger, I used to be terrified of storms. I'd start to cry and huddle under my blanket. My mother would come into my room, turn on the lights, and slide in next to me with a worn copy of Bullfinch's Mythology and read to me. I'd tune out the booming peals of thunder and slapping rain and get lost in the tales of Arthur's knights and Achilles until I had calmed down. My mom would always smile, ruffle my hair, and leave the room as silently as she had entered, thinking I was asleep.

And sometimes I really was asleep. Other times, I'd lie there awake thinking about how cool it would be if the legends I so loved were real and wonder about them until I fell asleep for real, letting them run wild in my dreams.

In the day, I'd go out and play in the fields behind the house, fighting imaginary enemies and saving prisoners and princesses. Sometimes my mom would join me, but she was often away at work. But I didn't mind. I had the stories to keep me company, and that was just fine with me. There weren't many kids my age in the neighborhood and I wasn't a very social kid, so I made up friends. My dad thought it was a little weird, but he didn't really want to take the time to work things out, so he left me be.

I was perfectly happy with my life. We lived in our flat in Belleview for five years until my dad's job moved and he had to relocate. That was the first time I'd ever heard of Avery. It was so small, I couldn't even find it on the map. My dad assured me that I'd love it and that I'd be able to play in the forests and maybe make a few real friends, but his words kind of washed over me.

We packed up our beat up Jeep the same day, giving me little time to have one last look at my home before heading into the car as well. We drove for hours, the baked landscape blurring past me as the sun went down. It gave me a lot of time to wonder just what the future held for me.

We arrived at Avery during their annual harvest festival. I'd never seen anything quite like it. The entire town was lit up in glowing string lights and there were carved pumpkins and corn everywhere. People were milling about in the street, laughing and singing loudly. They waved at the car, flashing grins before going off to look at something else.

I'd rolled down the window to get a better look, flooding the car with yellow light and the distant beat of music. I'd been thinking that the town would be stupid and I'd hate it from the start, but I couldn't have been more wrong. In fact, it interested me more than anything else I'd ever seen before. The rest of the way to our new house, I couldn't stop grinning and asking my parents when we were going back into the town. It made my parents relax a bit, knowing that I'd gotten over the change pretty quickly.

And before long, Avery had become every bit my old home and more.