Raven Feathers

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The silence that hung over the car was dark, and it was just the level of awkward that any conversation would seem like a sad cover-up to get by the problem at hand. My mother kept her cold eyes forward, focused on the nearly empty road in front of us, but despite her attempt to keep her emotions under a stoney mask, the very corner of her dark eyes were moist with restrained tears. With each blink, the tears built up, and it was only a matter of time before they spilled over. When she finally did break down, she would try to play it off because she was the adult. In her mind, she had to be strong for the both of us.

Suppressing a well deserved sigh, I turned on the car's radio and loaded a disk into the player. Soon enough the quiet strumming of guitars and Maynard Keenan's haunting vocals were filling the car. I mouthed the words to myself as I looked out the car's window. The scenery was impressive even if it was just the side of the freeway, but it was to be expected in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

The UP, as residents called it, wasn't known for its drug ridden cities and political scandals like the Lower Peninsula. In fact, it wasn't often one heard about the northern part of the state unless the person lived there. Even after growing up my nearly eighteen years in Port Huron, a medium sized city with a bridge to Canada, I had only heard of places as north as Mackinac Island. As far as I knew, the only thing the UP had to offer was a load of trees and small mining and lumbering communities. It wasn't a place I could imagine my mom and me moving to so suddenly, but that was exactly what we were doing.

We had been on the road for four hours now, and we had three more to go before we reached our destination. In front of our car were two paid moving trucks from a local Port Huron company. They had been unsure about making the drive the fourteen hour trip back and forth, but with the economy the way it was, they knew better than to decline any business. Their trucks were loaded with all our large furniture and boxes filled with random household items and clothing. Inside the car with us were several smaller boxes with some clothes and things we would need right away in our new house. Also, in the back seat with a blanket thrown over her carrier was Norma, the cat. She may have been the least happy about the move.

“Is Norma okay?” Mom asked when the low growling and hisses grew louder and more frequent.

I twisted in my seat and lifted up the black blanket over her grey carrier. From behind small metal bars, small green eyes stood out, wide and completely scared. She hissed once more before turning around with her long black tail hitting the bars. “She's just scared.” I sighed, putting the blanket back in place. “I wish we could let her out of there more often.”

“You know her fur gets everywhere, Adele.” Mom sighed. “I don't care how cute they are, I'm never getting a long furred cat again.” She ran a hand through her loose blond hair with another sigh and forced herself to offered a small smile. Her smile quickly dropped. “Everything will get better once we're settled into our new house. I'm sure of it.” she promised, sorrow lacing her words.

“I know, Mom. I know.” I said, looking out the window once more. A single rain drop hit the window. “Everything gets better with time, or does it?” I mumbled under my breath so she couldn't hear me. Absentmindedly, I toyed with my necklace, taking comfort in the familiar tingling. My habit didn't go unnoticed by mom because we made eye contact, but as usual, she said nothing. Over the years, seeing me messing with the odd necklace had become as common as breathing.

The rest of the car ride consisted of the pounding of rain on the windows mixing in with Norma and what ever disk we happened to have playing at the time. It was clear Mom was thinking by the way her facial expressions would change every few minutes, and she would sigh or laugh at random times.