Terra's War

Sudden Appearance

The next week was pretty silent. With the Santos' gone, I didn't really have anyone to talk to. My parents didn't even return home once summer vacation started.

So I was home alone for the first week of summer vacation. I managed to survive, thanks to my ability to cook.

But the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that neither of my parents left some kind of note or warning. They always leave me notes whenever they decide to go on long vacations, leaving me in the Santos family's care.

When I first started to ride with the Santos' every single day to school, their parents were a little worried. But after a lot of avoiding the topic, they knew that it was personal to me and a touchy subject so they decided to just stay away from what my parents were up to all the time.

The real issue was something that I couldn't figure out myself. All I knew was that, at about the age of four, my parents started to distance themselves from each other. My mother barely returned home anymore while my father just never paid any attention to me.

Then there was a honk outside my door. A car horn. I ran to the window and pulled aside the curtains to see a black SUV parked in front of the house. The driver's side door opened, revealing a middle-aged man with graying black hair who I recognized right away.

"Grandpa Sam!" I threw open the door and ran outside to him.

"Hey! It's my little Ida! How are ya?" he gave me a kind smile.

"I'm doing great!" I responded, happily. Then stared at the van. "Why are you here?" It was all too sudden.

He looked up at the sky and sighed.

"Your mother contacted me and said that your grandmother and I should come and get you," Grandpa Sam explained.

I felt my heart sink, broken. She contacted Grandpa but not me? Why?

"Well! I suppose you must get packed now, right?" Grandpa Sam interrupted my thoughts, having a forced smile on his face.

"Oh. Right! Give me one second!" I rushed back into the house and grabbed one of my mother's many suitcases: a deep ocean blue with a blooming white flower in the bottom right corner of the front. I got a few sets of clothes and packed them neatly into the suitcase.

When I was ready to go, with all of the necessities in my black backpack and my suitcase, I walked outside and closed the door behind me.

Grandpa Sam placed my suitcase in the back while I kept my backpack in front of me in the passenger's seat.

And with one last look at the now empty house, I was on my way to an adventure I would never forget.

***

I felt someone shaking my shoulder, my neck feeling a bit sore. My eyes opened as I lifted my head to see that the van had stopped in a driveway.

"Come on, Ida. Grandma Abby's waiting," I heard Grandpa saying, softly. Unbuckling my seatbelt, I opened the passenger side door of the SUV and walked out, backpack in hand.

When I opened the door, Grandma Abigail was waiting for me already. Her light brown hair had visible gray wisps as her eyes lit up at the sight of me.

"Idaline, how are you?" She hugged me tight. I could smell her clothes were filled with the smell of all kinds of food from pork chops on a skillet to chocolate cake baking in the oven.

"I'm doing great, Grandma," I looked over her shoulder to see the living room hallway leading into the kitchen. "It's been awhile since I've been here at this house," A smile tugged at the edges of my lips.

"That's right," Grandpa Sam said behind us, my suitcase in his grasp.

"Come in! You must be starving from that long drive to here in the middle of Batavia," Grandma Abby led me inside.

The house looked the exact same as when I last saw it. Autumn colored walls, such as hazel and a gentle green, with mahogany tables and chairs, the ground also being mahogany. A piano standing in the living room with couches and sofas surrounding them with a window letting the sun filtering in.

The kitchen had a stove pushed into the top right corner above cabinets with the fridge in between the end of the counter and pantry. The sink was against the right wall and the counter surrounded it. The table which was, of course, made of mahogany wood, stood far from the counter with four chairs at each side of the table. It was already set, with steaming hot food waiting for me.

"Let's get your stuff to your room first. Then we can start eating, alright?" Grandma Abby suggested.

"Okay," I nodded. We walked up the wooden stairs to the hallway of the second floor. She led me to a room all the way to the end of the hall. It had white and turquoise walls, a mahogany wardrobe pushed against the right wall with a matching desk pushed to the left corner of the room, a bed with black bed sheets and a transparent sliding door with a balcony that faced a back woods.

I smiled at the sight of a back woods. Since I've never really wanted to go outside when I was home alone, I've always wanted an opportunity to actually go outside.

I set my backpack next to the desk to see one photograph from when I last saw my grandparents sitting on the top of the wood. A three year old Idaline Cyprus, jumping on a bed, caught in mid-air, smiled up at me with her soft black hair framing her face. Staring at the photo, Grandma walked up behind me with Grandpa standing off to the side.

"You've grown so much, Ida," She put a hand on my shoulder. "You will never be like my daughter or son-in-law. When Isabella contacted us, we immediately asked how you were. A long silence followed only for her to say that we should pick you up from the house and then she hung up. For both of your parents to not take care of you over your growing years, I'm very disappointed in them," Grandma Abby took out a handkerchief and dabbed her eyes.

Then she shook her head. "Enough of this talk! Let's eat," She tried for a smile and all three of us walked down.