Beautiful Secret

Palms to Pines

Ella stared out the window of her dad's white Sedan, contemplating jumping straight out of the moving car.

The once uplifting golden and green Palm trees of California had been abruptly replaced by rows of monotonous gloomy Pines. There was a build-up of thick grey clouds waiting ahead as if they were mockingly inviting her to a new and degraded version of her old life.

Her dad had decided a few months ago since the divorce, that he was going take Ella with and move to Ketchikan, Alaska for a fresh start.

Ella was already feeling homesick. She knew she would miss the soft sandy beaches and warm sun of California.

She wouldn't have hesitated to stay but her dad was adamant on leaving their old life behind. Who could blame him? Her mother was the one who had decided to discard her sanity and trade it for false happiness. The unity of their small family had been shattered the moment Ella's mother took that first injection. Ella had never understood why her mother, still beautiful and young, had done this to herself and her family. It was a mystery that gnawed into Ella's heart. Especially her dad's.

Ella could remember the worst fit her mother had gone into. She was sitting in the living room, staring into nothing when a bird flew into the window. Her mother had freaked out, picking up anything and everything around her and tossing it at the same window, screaming, "leave me alone" repeatedly. Her eyes were the type of wild that you only see in a murderer. Ella had never seen her mother like this.

The calm relaxing music on the radio came to a halt and the the signal provided by the nearby city, Juneau, began to falter. Realizing how badly both their brooding thoughts seemed to cloud the atmosphere of the now silent car, Ella's dad attempted to fill the silence.

"The agent tells me that the previous owners used to go ice skating by a small frozen lake nearby. We could try it out after everything gets settled".

She could sense the fake enthusiasm in his choppy voice. She decided that she was not going to play along with the forced conversation.

"Sure dad" she mumbled, before quickly shoving her earphones in her ears and playing the first sad song she could find on her iPod.