The Sound Of Change

Chasing Home

The sun was setting over the crisp outline of the Rockies. The flatirons shown brightly in the sun and the light blue house was glistening with a new coat of paint. I sat on the roof of said house, admiring the sky blue paint job I had done to the square, one story house. A hawk flew above my head, cawing as it glided along the fading blue sky. 

I heard footsteps, and my older brother, Josh,  came up to join me. 

"Hey." He said, voice gruff and defying. "I like the house. Nice color."

"Thanks for helping me, ." I remarked sarcastically. Because in fact, he had not given a minute to help me out.

"Your welcome for working all day." I smiled and laughed. "I have dinner ready if you want to come inside and eat."

"Nah. Why not you bring it up. Mom can help herself when it comes to dinner. Not like she's doing much anyways." 

"Hey, give her a break, will ya?" He said, descending the latter and going to the kitchen to fetch the usual... spaghetti and beans. I stared at the hawk. It was free to fly where ever it pleased, but it chose to stay with it's family here. It wanted to leave, but I couldn't. If I could, I would leave this town and head to the ocean. We where polar opposites. Josh came up with the spaghetti, his brunette hair in contrast to my pitch black hair,  his chocolate eyes a contrast to my bright blue ones. I got my mother's genes, and he had gotten my father's. We both had dark, Hispanic skin, though. 

"Here you go, Hermana." He said, winking at me. I smiled, twirling the pasta around my fork and ate it. It was good, for what it was. 

"How was your day?" I asked, knowing very well the answer. 

"A little boring, but fun." He worked at a local Starbucks full time over the weekends, and at night during the week. He did his best to support the family, even if Mom wan't working. We had to move to the U.S. after our pa had died. We left mexico and immigrated to the U.S, not knowing what we had gotten ourselves into when this new administration showed up. I was 8 then. We had lived here for 5 full years. It didn't feel like it though. It felt like just yesterday I was swimming in the bright blue waters near the beach where our home was, and bringing Coral for my dad to inspect and tell me how proud he was that I wanted to be a marine biologist. Then, suddenly, he just died. Just like that. I finished my plate, washed up in the kitchen and made myself and Josh some hot chocolate, and headed up to the roof again, where I sat under the stars with a blanket, gazing at all of the consolations and star patterns above us.

I eventually went to bed, after finishing my homework and chocolate caliente, as my pit bull, Sammy, jumped up and cuddled with me for the rest of the night.