"COLE!" Gracie, my five year old sister screamed the moment I entered the door. She jumped into my arms and gave me a big hug for her size.
"How was school?" I asked her as I sat her down.
Her face changed immediately. "It's was bad. I never want to go back again. Please don't make me." She stuck out her bottom lip and pouted.
"Now Gracie, you have to learn if you want to get of school. The more you go to school the quicker you graduate. Okay?" I gave her the smile that I only preserved for her.
"Fine. Grandma would tell me to go anyways." She crossed her arms and didn't stop pouting.
"Put your lip back to where it's supposed to be. Birds are going to poop on it!" I teased. She smiled and ran to our Grandma.
"Hey Grandma. How are you?" I asked her, hoping for at least a half logical response.
"I was just wondering where your mother went to. She was just right here you know. Do you know where she went." She seemed troubled.
Gracie looked at me, her eyes begging me to explain the truth to our confused grandmother.
"She went on a vacation. Remember?" That was grandmas and my way of saying that my mother ran away. We didn't want to tell poor little Gracie that our mother abandoned us, so we used the term 'vacation' instead.
"Oh yes. Sorry. I must've forgot." And just like that, she snapped back into her old self again.
"Well I'm going to make some supper. When it's done I'll tell you." I plodded to the kitchen and opened the almost empty, and definitely old, fridge.
Milk, two apples, and a bit if cheese.
That was all.
Nothing else.
I closed the door and looked in the cupboard.
Kraft dinner. I guess that's what we were having.
I got out a pot and out some water in it. Here's to the best KD that anyone ever had.
*
*
After dinner I helped my grandma back to her chair in the living room and went upstairs to my room. I needed to edit my pictures for the farmers market that was in a week.
I sat in the uncomfortable office chair and pulled up a picture of city lights. It was truly breathtaking. Every individual light was like a person; the same but with a different kind of light.
I touched it up and printed it off on the old but still working perfectly working printer that used to be my moms. When she left she left all of her photography equipment behind except for one camera. The rest of it was here.
I smiled at the picture that looked perfect. I wanted to show everyone, bit the thing was, I couldn't. I couldn't show anyone my hobby/job. It would ruin everything- my social status, friends, everything. I just couldn't let it happen.
Photography was a way to escape my life. It was my way of showing the world my take on the world, even if it isn't very big.
After editing my photos I went downstairs and put Gracie to bed. She whined and complained but the kid needed to sleep. When she didn't, it was like everything in the world was going to get it's head bitten off by her even if it didn't have a head!
"I can sleep tomorrow night." She told me when I told her it was her bedtime.
"It doesn't work that way. Sorry to tell ya, but it just doesn't." I chuckled at her childishness.
"You're so mean! Go away!" She yelled.
"Gracie! Stop being mean. It's not nice." I tried to discipline her, but I was never the strict type.
"You're not nice." She rudely answered back.
"Go to bed. You need to sleep." I lectured.
"Fine." She surrendered. I smirked at her and ticked her in. Then I told my grandma to go to bed and headed upstairs.
I collapsed on my bed and started thinking.
Andy.
It didn't seem like the right name for her. It's was like she didn't match the name. I couldn't understand why, but it just didn't seem right.
Even when she introduced herself it seemed like she wanted to say another name, but she didn't.
Between thinking about Andy and wondering when I could go grocery shopping, and how I was going to pay, I slowly drifted off to sleep. A dreamless one at that.