Sudden Shadows

Moving In

The year is 1994. It was the last day of hearing my goodbyes to all my friends in school. You're probably wondering why I'm saying goodbye to all my friends. Well of course it's the day that I am moving out from Philadelphia to New Jersey. Mom and Dad decided and had a brief conversation about where to move. Yes they've argued about it but at least they've finally agree where to move into. I didn't like the idea of moving but my parents always told me "as long if I can make new friends, I would eventually like our new place". I hear my mother calling me over to her car. Seeing my best friend, Marlene, crying and hugging me tightly making me want to cry and hold her back, too. I walked over to the car and got in.

My mother looked at me through the rear view mirror as she smiled at me in excitement for moving. "I can't wait to see how the new house looks inside!" she said, as I looked at her then over at the window next to me. "Evelyn, when we get home and your father and I finish packing everything, I want you to go to the yard and get the gardening tools." she said. "Okay.." I said. We have a little shed in the backyard. Now that I think of it, as soon as we got home, I began to remembered how I always helped Mom out with gardening. My first plant I've planted was a sunflower. I was so impatient for that flower to grow and blossom! I grab the tools over to mom as she put them in the last box while Dad packed up the old jeep.

I began to look around at our now empty old home. Everything looked empty and abandoned. I grabbed my teddy bear as Mom and I walked to the car and hopped in. "Goodbye..house." I mumbled in a sadistic tone. "Are you both ready to go to Jersey?" Dad said. "Yes, I can't wait! I can find good shops there and by Jersey clothes" Mom said thinking she's like a rich woman. Dad glanced at me and smiled as he rolled his eyes after hearing Mom's last words. We drove off. It was very silent in the car. I stared at Mom seeing her fix her makeup. Mom is those type of women who adjusts their makeup. Even if it was perfect. I suddenly grew tired and fell asleep holding my teddy bear against me and tightly in my arms. The driving was more than two hours. Dad kept his eyes on the road only. Mom tried to play music on the "car radio."

Saturday, April 8th, we arrived in New Jersey. It was Saturday morning around 5:00 or 6:00am. Mom had woken me up as soon as we arrived. I woke up and looked outside the window. The house looked really big from the outside. As Mom and Dad got out of the car, Dad opened the door for me. I hopped down and stretched. I saw Mom opening the rear door to take the boxes out from the trunk. I walked to the house and stared at it. The paint on this house was very old. The color of gray or blue paint was peeling off the walls. I can tell nobody has been living in this house for years. "Evelyn can ya help me for a bit?" Dad called out to me. I turned around and walked over to him and held a box while he unlocks the door and walked inside. I watched him as I finally get to see the inside of the house. My god... The house was small from the inside. It has Victorian wallpaper and left over antiques. It looked like as if someone was already living in here. Mom walked in and and smiled. "My, what a beautiful home. The person who lived in this house sure kept it clean before moving." she smiled.

Dad was coming from upstairs as he made his way down. I looked at the stair barrel. It's dark brown or black color was slightly creepy. It was creeking whenever someone steps on it. Mom found a pantry and the basement. At a very moment, I wanted to go back to our old home. "Evelyn. It is now the time for you to go upstairs and choose a bedroom." Dad said. I looked at him. "Okay." I said as I began to walk upstairs. When I got to the top floor and walked down the hallway,  the floor kept creaking. I noticed how old the floor is. It somewhat felt unsafe for me to walk through there. Taking little deep breaths, I walked to the end of the hallway seeing a pretty bedroom with very faint pink and maybe yellow wallpaper. I walked inside and looked around. The closet doors are painted white and the bed had a fainted colorful covers on it. I took a quick glance at the window and slowly walked towards it.  You can see the backyard. It looked pretty...dead. The grass was dried up, the bird bath was empty and dirty. It looked like as if nobody in the neighborhood decided to take care of this backyard.. not even the owner.