Last Words First

Chapter 1

DANIEL

"So Dad," I start the morning with. My father replies with a hum as his eyes never left the road. His hands firmly on the wheel but making graceful turns as he drives. This truck has been through some tough shit but my father has never crashed it so anxiety never attempted to haunt me as we made it to Connecticut.

"Leah is staying with Grams?" I ask excitedly. My cousin Leah and I haven't talked since my mother died. Moving to a whole new state in the U.S. would be little more bearable if Leah was where we're going.

"Oh yeah. Your Aunt Kelly and Uncle Houston dropped her there with my mom and just decided to take a nice decade vacation of a life time." He said in an acerbic tone. He hardly was able to manage his temper when he talked about his brother, my Uncle Houston. My Dad loves Leah like the daughter he never had but can't stand her parents. They were known to be unreliable and immature.

"I can't wait to see her." I comment brightly,  trying to get him to lighten up about the subject.

"Yeah. Leah isn't the skinny ten year old you last saw her as."

"What do you mean?" My eyes catch sight of the billboard we just raced by on this free way. Just in time, too.

Welcome To Homestead!

Well this was a good sign right? Moving isn't so bad. At least, it hasn't been.

"She's a young woman now, Daniel. She's a High School Freshmen in very advanced classes. Your Grandmother told me about the amazing tutor she has."

"Is there any guys I'll have to shoot down?" I smile, I've always been over protective with Leah just as my father always has.

"Not any that I know of. Yet." He shoots me a side ways glance with a wink and says, "I'll let you know if my knowledge expands on the subject."

We both laugh, like it's the signature of a contract we just signed. A contract agreeing on that if any guy messed with my cousin, we'd track him down.

It's so nice to see Dad laughing again. He hasn't done it much lately.

I've never realized that my father's laugh can light a room. His wide smile that I have so gratefully inherited. He has dark blue eyes and dark hair that has grayed since my mother's death. The dimples in his cheeks, which I've also inherited, get deep with temporary delight.

Only my mother had the power to make his dark blue eyes light up with electricity, like blue fire. And now she's gone.

I have inherited her big brown eyes and caramel colored skin, my father was a bit more tanned due to his time as a construction worker in New York.

My Dad isn't that old, he just hit forty a couple months ago. But I believe it's true when they say that when one loses a soul mate, a hundred years seems to shadow the remaining youth in their features.

She died in September last year. My mother was fighting a six year long battle with leukemia and lost just a month after my sixteenth birthday. Her funeral happened shortly after.

It's very eye opening when you lose someone close to you. You start to understand why saying something as pathetic and pitiful as I'm sorry for your loss is the wrong thing to say to anyone going through grief. People change too, it's insane. My mother was like the bonds that held my family and our friends and neighbors together. When she died, sure they attended her funeral, but after that we never even heard of most of them ever again. Maybe it should have hurt to feel so socially isolated. But I couldn't give less of a shit about that. Pain ached the most in my heart because you never forget the person that nurtured you, nursed you back to health, motivated you, or supported you. And my mother was all those amazing things.