The Inn on Bald island

Chapter 1: Where the wind takes us

It was a gloomy day, dark clouds were over head almost all day, except for the occasional patch of light coming through the clouds. There were no sign of any animals outside. I had fallen asleep and had woken up to the sound of rain hitting the old roof with all its might. It was around 7:39 when I woke up and almost drifted back to sleep if it wasn't for my sister. "Hey, Mom said to get up, remember, we're leaving today!"  " Ok... Fine, I'll be there in a minute." I mumbled back, still half asleep. She made a small smile than walked out the room humming to herself. I slowly made myself sit up then take of my blanket. It wasn't what I thought I would wake to. It was a motel room. That's when I remembered we had slept at a motel and we where driving to a boat and going to a small island 12 miles off the coast of North Carolina. I stood up and walked towards a pile of clothes that read "Jack's clothes". They looked new. I put them on and shoved my pajamas in a basket. The door opened and my mom's head popped in saying "Sarah came in 10 minutes ago and... Oh your up, come down, I made you some waffles." I sighed, looking down at the book My mom had been reading, " How to run a successful Inn". It was the largest book I had ever seen. The print was so small my mom needed a magnifying glass to see the words, and there were 600 pages of this. "Aha!" She would exclaim on the middle of the night waking me and Sarah up. We would walk out of our rooms to find our mom slumped over her desk with a lamp and the magnifying glass in her hand. I walked down a hall to find a dining hall with a few people at different table, I looked over to find mom and Sarah at one table with three chairs, I sat down.
"Took you long enough!" She frowned at me. "Oh be quiet." I yawned at her as she stuck out her tong. "Eat up," My mom said pushing a plate of waffles and a glass of orange juice towards me. "Today is gonna be a long day.

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A few nights before we had left for the motel, we had gotten out of bed once again, but to a different sentence "Finally it's here!" We walked into her room. She showed us the letter she had opened. 

           Dear Mrs. Calson

   The RSC and I would like to announce that you are now the proud owner of the estate you have been looking to buy on Bald Island, the key is in the bottom of the envelope.

She looked at us, grinning with the nice smile she makes from time to time. We both looked at the her than at the paper than back at her. "Don't you see!" She said with an up-beat tone. "We can finally get away from this city life, and go live away from this crowded place!" She said even louder, as if she could wake up the whole neighborhood. Sarah started to cry, she had good friends she didn't want to leave. As for me, I hadn't made any friends with the other kids at school. "What's the matter!"  Our mom said holding sarah. "I don't want to leave, I want to stay with my friends!" She sobbed. "It an opportunity I can't turn down." She said after calming Sarah down. It was true. Mom was having a hard time finding jobs to support us after our dad had died. We slowly drifted off on the couch and fell asleep. In the morning we had started packing.

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"How long is this drive?" I asked with a sideways glance. Mom swallowed her food, "It's a 2 hour drive to the docks, then we drive into a boat for the ride over to the island, so about 5 hours to get to the island." I frowned " It'll be dark by the time we get their." Sarah piped up, "Yes, but mom told me we're gonna stay at a big fancy hotel tonight." She always made a sassy tone when she knew something I didnt. " I bet the RSC (Residents Selling Corporation, they where the people who sold mom the land and the building on it)  told you that too." She stuck her tongue out like she always did when she couldn't come up with a good come-back.  "Alright you two," Mom interjected before Sarah could say anything, "go get your suit cases and bags, I'm gonna need your help putting all of our stuff in the car. Mom had brought almost everything she could stuff into the car, and the stuff she couldn't, was ether donated or was sold in our garage sale. Sarah got a little mad when mom had put her stuffed animals and little dolls and clothes that didn't fit her anymore in a box that said "for sale". "MOM!" Sarah had yelled on the day of the garage sale, but mom was able to talk her into giving them away. " You can't hold onto these things forever, if you did, you wouldn't have any room for more! " She had laughed. We went to our room down the hall, Sarah picked up the book mom was reading. She sat down and tried to read it. "What's a clogged drainage pipe?" She asked me. "Nothing you have to worry about." I laughed back.

                                                         ....

After about ten minutes of packing, mom came into the room saying, "Alright, we have fourteen minutes to get our backsides out of 'ere!" She imitated the man at the front desk. "We can do it in ten!" Sarah replied. We had gotten out of our room with lots of bags on our backs and suit cases rolling down the hall. Mom gave the man at the front desk our keys and he gave us a very long glare. " 'Ave a lovely day, Miss. " He said in a stern voice. We walked out the door, it was clearer than it had been an hour ago. We walked over to the car, or should I say, stumbled over the weight of the bags on our backs and slowly stuffed everything into the back, by then it had started drizzling. We closed the trunks door and got inside. The car was nothing fancy, just a small mini van mom and dad had bought used. Every time something would go wrong in the car he would fix it. Mom started the car, and backed the car out of the parking lot. She started driving down the street. "When do I have to teach you to drive?" Mom asked, not looking at me so she could focus on the road. "Mom, I don't get a learners permit till I'm fifteen, so next year." "Really, so soon, you grow up to fast." Mom said. " Ya, and I don't grow fast enough. " Sarah joined in. "I don't think I need to next year, since we're gonna be on an island." I started. "Nonsense!" Mom said. "Its better if you did than if you didn't." "I wanna drive!!" Sarah started talking louder. "If you tried to drive, you'd end up in the side of a building!" I said knowing it would make her mad. "I'd drive better than you!" She snapped back. "Really, you wouldn't even be able to get your foot to the peddle!" I laughed. " I.... You... Your mean!! " She stuck her tongue out at me, but also used her fingers to hold her mouth open. "I won't have any of this on the boat ride, or I'm turning this car back around!" Mom said in a joking manner

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The car ride was long, after our last conversation, we had sat there in silence for the rest of the time. The trees flew by as we sped down the high way. We sat there in silence. Mom never liked turning on the radio, she said it was "Too political." Come to think of it, whenever there are news related things going on on the tv or the radio, she would turn it off. Every time she would turn it on, she would get mad at a man always complaining about political stuff. I would understand most of the things he would say, because I had been in social studies and had learned all of this. This has sparked a question in my head. "Hey, is there a school on bald Island." I looked over at mom. "Yea, you two will be going to the school there, it's very close to where we are going to live." She responded. " So, I need to talk to you two about my plan for when we get there." Me and Sarah looked up. "So over these next few months of summer, you two are going to help me work on opening the inn, then August to May you two will go to school." Mom explained. " so we're going to still help you after school, right?" Sarah asked. "Of course you will!" Mom replied. "LOOK, BOATS!" Sarah exclaimed. I looked up, and their they were, boats of every shape and size.

It was about twenty minutes before arrived at the docks. Mom drove up to a small building with a big window. She rolled down her window. A man opened his window, and said with a very Australian accent, "Ticket pease." He said, sounding unenthusiastic. "Here." mom said pulling out a small ticket. He used a tool to punch a hole in the ticket, then gave it back. "Thank you!" Mom said nicely. He started mumbling and closed the window. "How rude" Mom laughed, imitating his accent. We drove into a big boat that had lots of cars parked in it. It took mom three minutes just to find a parking spot. We got out of the car and walked up some large steps to a seating area. An overhead speaker said "Five minutes until the boat departs for Bald Island." We sat down in a less crowded area in the corner of the room. Sarah had ran off to play in a kid area. It was a pretty big room, there were lots of family's who looked like tourists, and some who looked like they lived on the island. The ship started moving and the over head speaker said "Thank you for traveling with us, to Bald Island, we will arrive in approximately four and a half hours." Mom sighed, smiling. "Four hours and thirty minutes to go." She repeated what the speakers had said " Then we can start a new life". It wouldn't be long before we would land and see what life had in store for us.