Our Dirt Road

Chapter One - The Move

The vibration of our car driving over the highway's rumble strip jolts me awake. Dazed and confused, I cut my mom a sharp look and see her trying to suppress a laugh. She fails once she sees me rolling my eyes at her. "You know, some people need more than five hours of sleep, Mom," I say in a half whine, half yawn. 

"Well, some of us would like to beat the moving truck to the new house. I want to be able to tell them what rooms the boxes go in."

My mom and I have been arguing about our tight schedule for three days. That's how long it's taken us to drive from our home back in L.A. to Maine. Camden, Maine to be exact. Population: 4,852. Which, to me, is nothing. My mom jumps right back into her speech about how this change is going to be great for us, but the jury is still out on that. I didn't even want to move in the first place, so how was it going to be great?

This September I'll be starting my Senior year. Not the ideal time to change high schools. Especially since I finally made captain of the spirit squad back home. I had been dreaming of that day since the moment I stepped into South Pasadena High and saw sign-ups for the team. But L.A. was behind me now, along with the captain spot I'd never have.

I looked out the window trying to focus on anything to stop the tears that threatened to fall. I couldn't cry again. The last three days, it felt like all I did. Mom noticed and pointed out the town we were in. Hope, Maine. How ironic, I thought, because I'd lost all mine for the perfect senior year the day she told me we were moving here.

Twenty minutes later we pulled onto a dirt road thickly lined with trees. The houses were set back into the woods, but you could still tell how big they were from the road. Outside one of the houses were a few kids my age. Or at least they looked my age. The guys were playing basketball in the driveway, while three girls sat perched on an open tailgate watching. As our car passed the house, every one of them looked our way. "Must not get a lot of people down this road they don't recognize," Mom said. "I love that about small towns. Everyone knows everyone." 

"Yeah. Great.." I tell her, still looking on at the group in the driveway.

Just then, I fall back into my seat as my mom takes a sharp right turn at the last second. "Are you trying to kill me with your driving today?!" 

She looks over at me serious this time, "Sorry Hon, I almost passed our driveway," she said as she put the car in park. "Here we are!"

We both get out of Mom's white Rogue and we take in our new home. It's a tiny coastal-looking cottage. It's so unlike any other house on the street. I glance over at her and see her looking happier than I've seen her in months. She's grinning from ear to ear and her eyes are wide and glossy as she asks me what I think.

Really, I think this house looks smaller than our apartment back home, but I don't tell her that. "It looks great, Mom. Very charming." 

She laughs at my use of her word to describe the house to me whenever she would talk about it back in L.A. "See! I told you!" she exclaims as she makes her way over to the front porch. She peeks into the front bay window and turns to say something to me when a big, shiny black Mercedes pulls into our driveway.

My mother rushes down the porch stairs to meet the strange woman eagerly. "Eden, come meet our realtor, Kate," she calls back to me. The petite, dark-haired woman turns to greet me. Her golden honey eyes are sparkling as she reaches for my hand. 

"Hello, Eden. It's so nice to finally meet you. Your mother has told me so much about you." I smile back politely as I shake her hand in return. "How about a tour?" Kate says as she pulls out a lighthouse keychain with a single silver key on it.

My mother and I both nod and make our way back up the driveway and onto the porch behind her. Once she opens the door, she allows me into the house first and switches on the lights. She moves us past the mudroom we were standing in and into the living room. To my surprise it's pretty big. It has high ceilings with dark, wooden beams across it and crisp, white shiplap walls. The kitchen is tucked in the corner of the open-concept room lined with cupboards the color of a robin's egg. Kate shows us the two, small bedrooms towards the back of the house before she shows Mom the washer/dryer hook-up in the basement.

I can hear them making their way back up the stairs as I walk over to the french doors that lead out to the backyard. The yard is beautiful. Trees outline the yard in a way that makes the fence almost unnecessary. And the grass. I've never seen such green grass in all my life. There's even a couple raised flower boxes on the far end of the yard I know my mother will absolutely love. She's always wanted a garden.

As I'm imagining all the vegetables she'll want to plant, I notice a long dock at the edge of our property. I see a tall, dark-haired boy wearing basketball shorts walking down it towards the water. I'm pretty sure he's one of the boys that were playing basketball earlier, but from this distance I can't be sure.

A moment later, Kate and my mom come stand by me. "That's actually my son, Jesse," Kate says. She laughs when she notices what must be a confused look on my face. "We live next door and we share that dock down there. We have kayaks and jet skis, and we take the boat out a lot during the summer. I'll let you know the next time we go out on the bay," she says to me. 

"Uhhh, that's okay," I say, "I actually don't know how to swim. Water makes me nervous."

She looks pretty surprised by this, but just says "Oh, well, we have life jackets if you change your mind. My son is actually your age. He'll be a senior this year at Camden Hills." 

"That's great," was all I could say as I studied the tall boy swinging his leg over the jet ski and zooming off over the water.