If We Fly

Ch 1. Distance

  I look up at the grey buildings around me. The slow moving clouds cast large shadows on the world below. The slight breeze pushing my long brown hair gently behind me. My book bag shifting its weight  from shoulder to shoulder as I walk down the sidewalk.
They're very few people on the streets today. Only a couple of slow moving cars, seeming to be in no rush at all. What a calm day.
Exactly how she would have liked it.

My name  is Gwen. And four years ago today I lost my mother in a car accident.  In such an ordinary way,  on an ordinary day like this one. Suddenly  she was gone, causing no more disruption than a ripple in the ocean. As unimportant as the day she was born to the world around. To me it meant everything.  My life being only a puddle, and her death a ripple, disturbing the calm of the entire surface, and stirring up dirt from beneath.  But just as all water does, I found my calm again in time. She was always so cheerful,  with her long salt and pepper hair and a warm smile on her face. Still full of childish imagination, and her vast creativity, even as an adult.  She was an artist,  and a cook and a Baker, and an amazing mother. Rasing me on her own she was strong.  She was my home no matter where we were, or who we were with. She believed in true love. So even after my father died,  she never found another.  He was her prince charming, and  she swore she would never meet another that she loved like him. It was me and her, with my fathers memories, against the world. Until the day she too was a memory.  Leavening me to find my way in the world with what she taught me. 

I have  lived with my grandmother since then. With my father and mother in the passed, my grandmother was the only one I had left. My family was  small because my mother and father stayed away from anyother relatives I my have by blood. They believed family was who you loved, and that was just us four. My grandmother, mom, dad and me.

My grandmother took good care of me over the years. After Jackson left she was all I had. She was as charming as my mother was and just as cheerful, however she had one core belief that was different from my late parents.

"If you never fall,  you will never feel the pain of landing face first on the ground."

When ever i stuggled,  when ever i cryed over a lost friend, when ever i was disapointed by someone else,  she would say this in her quiet soft tone.  

She had a point.

Although this was very different from my moms belief in true love, and always staying together, this kept me strong.  I had no one left to stay together with. It was still me, and my parents against the world, I was just the only one left. So that meant I had to start strong. I had to keep going, carrying their memories, and the words of a lost friend.

My grandmother was Independent in every way.  she taught me to never need anyone.  Even her.
I always admired her for that.  She didn't need anyone, and she didn't want anyone to need her.  

Due to my strong sense of independence,  I have had a job since my freshman year of high school.  I worked at a bar/cafe on the corner of Main st. and although I was only 14 when I started I still got payed all the same.  The owner was a sweet, and kind, old man. He was the type of old that almost all of his body was drained of color, and only his bright pink smile remain.  I worked as a dish washer first,  than a waiter, then I helped in the kitchen,  and now at 18 years old  I work as a bartender.  As a senior in high school, most people expect me to be living at home still,  but I,  with the push from my grandma,  have been living on my own for 2 years now.
I own a small apartment,  on Treebrook Ave. Within walking distance of both work and my grandmothers.  Living alone,  paying for everything myself,  and never leaving anything to chance or other people.

Today September 29th,  I walked home alone afterschool.  The day was average.
In school I have high 90s, but I stay quiet enough no one really notes my presence.  I get through the day with as little human interaction as possible.
Since four years ago when Jackson moved away, I haven't had anyone I've really wanted to talk to in school. And at this point, I'm only here for this last year. There's no point in making new friends that I'm going to forget about in college.

On my walk home from school  I  find myself continuing past Treebrook, and towards the park. I'm not planning on going home yet. With all these thoughts of the past un my head, I decide to go on a walk and clear my head. I walk into a large pathway  that leads deeper into the trees. On the very edge of the city, the woods are calm. Felling far away from the buisness of the streets. I walk below the tall trees. Giving myself more distance from the mundane world behind.

This first chapter is short but contains a lot of Gwen's backstory, connecting her past to now. I hope you enjoyed. And hope you are looking forward to the start of our adventure next chapter!