The Dream Stalker

1)"Welcome to Edmond"

I quickly learned that driving in silence with a man, who may or may not be your uncle, passes by at a snail's pace. We drove for several long minutes, with the city passing us by before the man finally spoke again. "Sorry we missed the funeral," he said with a small roll of his shoulders. "Money's kind of tight. Couldn't afford to fly out there."

Why did he have to mention that! I had just managed to cram every thought about my parents into a small part of my mind, where I could forget and not think about their deaths. Deaths that had taken place only a few short years ago.

After a moment of quiet agony, I realized I still hadn't answered my near stranger of an uncle. "It's okay," I reassured him quietly. His comment also brought back the ugly memories of the fire.

The fire had consumed the entire house and everything and everyone in it, except for me. I was the lucky one. Spared the horrible death of being burned alive. I couldn't imagine a worst fate. I'm not even entirely sure how I had escaped the house while it was ablaze in a fiery inferno. All I remember was going to sleep that night. The next thing I knew, I was standing outside the very house that I had grown up and spent my entire life while it burned to the ground with both my parents still inside.

Uncle Kasey grunted. "Well, we're hoping taking you in will be a sufficient enough way to make up for it."

My eyebrows rose unintentionally. I wasn't quite sure if he is joking or not. I had been wondering why my Aunt and Uncle were taking me in. Was it because of guilt?

I had been living the last few years with my penny-pinching grandparents down in warm and sunny Florida. Judging off the way they treated me, they seemed to think I should be in a constant of awe at their generosity of allowing me to live with them after my parent's deaths.

I'd come to learn to over the years that they had never thought highly of my father nor my mother, their daughter. Despite all that, I still had gotten used to living with them and was even actually beginning to consider that place my home. But not anymore.

Just a few weeks before, they dropped a bombshell on me. They were selling their house and moving into a condominium located in a retirement community. And here was the kicker, I wasn't coming with. They told me had begun making these plans during the summer, without consulting me, and after deciding a retirement home was no place for a 16-year old, they had begun inquiring with my other relatives about allowing me to go live with them instead. The first and only ones to volunteer was my father's brother and his wife, my Aunt Katherine, who lived here in Edmond, Montana, with their two sons. And that's how I found myself in the cab of the truck that today, whisked off to a family of near strangers. Just because my grandparents wanted a better atmosphere for me.

The awkward silence returned as my uncle drove us out of the city and into the countryside that I had originally expected all of Montana to be.

Trying to put an end to this awkward situation, I decided to attempt another conversation with my quiet uncle. "It's peaceful looking out here," I said. And boring, I wanted to add, but I knew better to say such a thing aloud.

Uncle Kasey simply nodded, and I began to worry that my plan has already failed. Thankfully, Uncle Kasey chose to respond with some words in addition to his nod. "I think it will be good for you. You know.... considering everything that has happened."

My face tightened into a wince, wondering if my uncle was continually bringing up my parents' deaths on purpose. However, I was willing to let it go if it meant avoiding the return of that awful, awkward silence.

"So...what do you for a living?" I asked. If it wasn't apparent, my grandparents hadn't given me much details about the people they sent me to live with. Basically, they showed me a picture and explained how they were related. That was the end of it.