Borderline Insanity

1/ / The Departure

I always thought my home wasn't pleasant, and that it didn't attract people. And if it so happened to attract the least bit of people, it would be the mad. And it did, it attracted William Hems, the maddest of mad. He was in his late fifties and he still played like a kid with scientific instruments. All I did was cross my arms across my chest and let Mr. Hems play with his toys. He would stay at our home in the evening then crawl up the attic and stay there, and he would only come out during dinner. I once grew the nerve to go up to the attic and stand by the mahogany wood door. I would never step into his 'lair', mainly because it was always shut and all I would ever hear were the gruffly cackles that came from him. 

After a couple of long treacherous months my parents put up a sign at the front of our home. A for sale sign. It didn't phase me, because I wasn't the one that had girls at their feet, and I didn't keep many friends. I actually shoved everyone that tried approach me. I'd tell them that my mom was ill, or my dad had gone out of town and I couldn't leave, or I was just plainly grounded for being the bad child. Which I never was, my parents raised me right. Although they weren't raised to be the young adults that they were.

My mom? Her name was Savannah Moore and she was raised in northern Pennsylvania, on a farm that roamed with cattle and horses. Her parents also grew tobacco; it took up most of the land. But they didn't smoke. In fact my grandparents were strict Mormons and they didn't let my mom listen to music other than gospel or read anything other than the Bible. They grew the tobacco to sell in the market. They always told her it was a poisonous plant, and it was. It poisoned her soul. She was young, just turning sixteen when her boyfriend told her that the plant that was always said to be poisonous made you feel alive. And she craved that, she craved to be alive and feel like in the next second her life would be taken away, and she would work hard to keep her life. She wanted a rush, and she got it. She got high, and her parents damned her to hell. The local church that they went to shunned her and made her fend for herself. They said that only the devil would ever have her think of smoking or at the least bit have a boyfriend that didn't believe in God.

And her boyfriend was my dad. My dad... he asked her if she would runway with him and she did. At that time my mom was sixteen and my dad, Taylor Brooks, was nineteen. They were running, and I meant it. He got her new clothes and made her change her hair. They were on the run for a couple months until they settled in western Montana. There, they performed at night clubs, singing and playing music. My dad had begun to think it was time for them to marry, even though they did have arguments most of the time. They traveled to Vegas, got hitched, and then nine months later they had me, Astro Maverick. They had begun to notice that a kid needed a stable home, so they moved to South Dakota.

And here we are standing in front of a U-Haul truck that leads to some place far from here. I brushed a strand of dark hair away from my eyes. My hair has grown far too long, for a boy at least. I force my feet to move and help my mom move some boxes into the truck. Mr. Hems just stands on the porch of our home. One of my brows furrow as I think about how Mr. Hems always has a scowl. I feel like its been tattooed on his face. "Astro, hun, it's time to go." Says my mom looking as joyful as she ever has. My dad joins her side and squeezes her shoulders. I shrug my shoulders and reach for the door handle of our car. Taking one last glimpse of the home that I grew up in, and looking at the man that bought our home. I shove myself into the car and force myself to look away. My parents slide into the car a while later. I lean back against the seat and will myself to not be upset. My dad puts the car into drive.

...

I know what trees look like, don't we all? But these look different, perhaps it's because the leaves are glistening with the suns kisses.

Idaho. This is Idaho, and my parents have decided to move here in the summer. I'm assuming that they needed to be close to Montana, since this is where they started their life, basically. The state of the potato, how wonderful. I've been watching the world whip past me for the past hour and I've become a bit dizzy.