I don't even know how many days it took to get to Maryland, but I do know is that I'm exhausted beyond words. My back is sore from the weedy, brittle ground of where we set up our tent for all those nights, my butt is sore from the hours in the car each day, and my ears are sore from listening to my mom fantasize nonstop about what our life will be like when we get to Maryland. Well, now we're here, mom. How's the life?
"So I found this really cool humongous 1800s house online before we moved, and I thought we should check that one out first," mom yelled over her shoulder to us from the front seat. "If we lived in the time when it was newer, it would have been considered a mansion. I think that's kind of cool." We were driving down a narrow road with only one lane on each side. To the left of me, I saw a kind of crappy view of a twinkling lake through trees that were crowded together like sardines. To the right, there were only more trees, going up a steep-looking hill with a very muddy ground.
"Hey, mom. Can you open this sunroof?" Gale asked, unbuckling his seatbelt. From the back seat, I could see mom shaking her head.
"No, we're going to respect the law this morning," she said.
"Aw, but mom," he complained, "we're in the middle of nowhere!"
"Not nowhere," my mom said. "There's a town three miles away from the place we're headed. That's not nowhere."
"And yet," Gale continued his point, "there's not a police car in sight, or an unfaithful ear to hear our wicked unlawful schemes." He stared at his mom, raising his eyebrows, grinning like a winner.
"Urgggh, fine," my mom growled. The sunroof opened. Gale eagerly unbuckled his seat belt from his lap once more.
"Yes! YES!!" He stuck his head out, whooping as if he just found a chunk of pure gold. "HELLO WORLD!" Just then, we passed a group of hippies who looked like they were going on some cross-country travel-by-foot thing or something, judging by the huge bulky backpacks strapped onto the back of them. They were sitting (some of them standing, actually), crowded around a pretty good campfire.
"Wooooooo!" one of the guys screamed back, pumping his fist when they heard him. He was shirtless, lean with not much muscle, with a hairy chest and a curly dark-haired Afro. He sat back down. They were all laughing, smiling, talking, eating in harmony. I don't know how to explain it,
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Lily
HorrorFifteen-almost-sixteen-year-old Calia Johnston, who lives in Washington state, has a dad who is off on a mandatory business trip for a year, which only leaves her adventure-loving mother to take care of her and her two brothers, Tommy and Gale. Unfo...
