Celestial

Chapter 1 - Move

Chapter 1 – Move

A white stagnant cloud surrounds us, fog so thick it makes the world look ethereal, like a relic from some long forgotten place. Our car glides off the ferry, and my stepfather takes the keys from the porter.

     Seth , my stepfather, hands him a crumpled bill in secret. Seth is the cheapest living creature on the face of the earth. I’m embarrasses to look at the porter so I begin with the business of climbing in the car.

     “Erin,” my mother pulls me back, “let your sister go first.”

     My sister Rose, and stepsister Annie, both crawl into the third row of the minivan. I’m stuck with Josh, per usual, my half brother who entertains himself with bodily functions and he tries to get me in on the action. He’ll be a junior next moth like me.

     My mother thought it was a sigh that she and her boyfriend had kids the same age, pus two deceased spouses. I’m really happy for Rose since both she and Annie are going into seventh grade together. Junior high in general is kind of scary, plus she’s off my back now. Before Annie came into our lives, Rose was constantly bugging me and getting into my things, and now it’s like I don’t even exist. Josh on the other hand, I’m not so thankful for. I’m already aware that his presence will effortlessly degrade my social standing.

     I push in my ear-buds and lean back for the ride.

     Paragon Island is off the central coast of Washington. My mother made a list of odd facts about is and stuck it to the vanity just above my desk, which isn’t there anymore because everything I own has been shipped to our new residence somewhere on the west side of the island. I don’t remember the laundry list of ridiculous facts, just that it’s twenty-six miles in length, two high schools, two malls, and is complete with a load of freaks that specialize in the art of inbreeding. And by the use of deductive logic, some of those freaks will be my classmates – inmates – for the next two years. OK, that last one wasn’t actually on the list, but factual nonetheless. Also, there’s the whole deal about east side, west side, which suggest to me I should be expecting musical gang fights and lots of girls named Maria.

     I already miss my old school – old life. Not that I was super popular or anything, but it was home and what I was used to. No one had any real expectations of me, and I was comfortable in my nonexistent clique of girls. I also miss my dad who died two years ago, whose death is the entire reason my universe disbanded. He was the gravity that kept my sanity aligned. Without him I’m adrift in this world, without a compass and without a home.

     I wipe a lone tear off my face and force myself to take in the landscape – row after row of skeletal trees that stretch to the sky, fog-laden roads illuminated in black and white. Something about this feels right. This is how I imagined the world right after my dad died – lonely – one solid grey scene after the next in some muted old-time movie. L.A. was always sunny, always telling the wrong story, ending with miraculous sunsets that looked like they belonged in a fairytale. It was a murky grey reality that I craved. It’s like this island knows me. It knows me right through to my gossamer riddled heart.

     “Is it always like this?” I pluck out an ear-bud and lean toward Mom.

     “The weather? Rains a lot, too.” She beams her paper white teeth in my direction, her crimson hair fringes her face. She knows how to radiate a smile, how to pull one off even when the situation doesn’t warrant it. I wish she could turn down the volume once in a while, but that would be like asking the sun to tone down it’s beams. Sometimes I hate how perky she is, like she doesn’t miss dad – like he never existed.