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Chapter 1
When I was younger, I always thought of life like chapters in a book I never knehat each turn of the page would bring, but always hoped for soer brother and myself as characters that were meant to persevere, no matter what obstacles were thrown our way Of course, our life was far fro about Not that you could call our life normal—not in the least, but we definitely didn’t have any cool supernatural powers or anything like that Still, fantasizing about it helped pass the endless hways that look the same no matter where you are at If I were a paranormal character, I would be an illusionist I had made it an art for We never knehat kind of mood my mom would be in from one day to the next, so most days I was the e to appear happy and cheerful, when inside I was screa My brother, on the other hand, would be a special character Kevin is a unique soul, caring and selfless He definitely doesn’t deserve this life—neither of us do, but at least we have each other, and I would die to protect him
We arrived in Four Corners, Montana, in late September, over a full month after the school year had already started, but my little brother and I were used to that by now The town definitely lived up to its na establishins Grocers, which sounded vaguely familiar on the south corner and a small mom and pop restaurant called Sunny-Side Up on the corner directly across froas station that had seen better days, sat on the third corner opposite from the restaurant, which left the last corner to the run-down trailer park called Shady Lane that would be our new home
As Jim, my “step-dork” as we liked to call him, pulled our beat-up car into the dirt-packed path, ed horrified looks We weren’t freaked out ould be living in a trailer, since it was a huo step-up from some of the du a roof over our heads was an absolute godsend It was e uneasy glances Even at nine, Kevin understood how our ht, and we both knew there was absolutely no way Lucinda would make it in a town this size
Like always though, I keptfor Lucinda to sign all the housing papers the wo that time, I’d allowed myself to daydream about the stability our lives would have, for at least a few months anyway, and after teeks in a shelter, I was ready for a little space
Living in a shelter was always tough on Kevin and ht with no privacy to speak of with food that you ate just for the sake of eating If I never drank another glass of powdered ain, I would die a happy person
This last shelter had been more bearable than most of the others we had lived in over the years Instead of separating men and women into different spaces crahly sixteen feet by sixteen feet where entire families could stay The rooms had two double beds, which meant Kevin and I were forced to share At seventeen, I should have bucked at the idea of sharing a room, let alone a bed with my brother, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way, he was all I had, and I’ve spentto protect him
Already knowing that ouldin our new home for a short while was always a hard pill to s, no h this It had taken us teeks in the car to get to Montana from California since we had to as Kevin and I were both equally sick of the car and didn’t relish another reener somewhere else
Step-dork, Ji of mobile homes that varied in size and appearance We’d stayed in our share of projects, dumpy motels and run-down apartments, but never a trailer park I was surprised that some of them were actually relatively nice with extra built-on storm rooms and utility rooms Small bushes and fake flowers bordered theit clear that the current owners took pride in the little plot of land they inhabited I couldn’t help but sno one of the trailers
It all seemed so very normal, which only further proved our new hoo We definitely didn’t exist in the realm of normal
Jim pulled into a narrow drive and stopped in front of as to be our new ho the trailer gave the indication that it had been sitting empty for quite a while The exterior of the trailer was covered in faded h shape There were no broken s as far as I could tell and as long as there were no holes in the floor or roof, it ht actually be tolerable Lucinda and Ji Kevin andfashion
Kevin used his insignificant body weight to try to push the heavy car door open The door cracked open slowly, sticking at half-es I twisted around on my seat and usedout after him It would have made more sense for me to sit by the only door that opened in the back seat, but the rusted-out hole that took up the majority of the floorboard on oing to fall through the floor, so I had taken the less desirable position for the re older, I didn’t want to admit to hiht ere sleeping in the car My inable creeping up through the hole in the pitch-black night and crawling all over us During the day, I would drapesoh California and es, the te it impossible to keep theopen Kevin and I stayed huddled together under the thin blanket we shared at night, shivering in our thin California apparel that didn’t serve us well in the chillier teh Where the hole in the floor really sucked though hen the sleet and snow on the road splashed up fro the snoing up through the hole, scared it wouldn’t stop and would bury us alive in the backseat My hands froze as I scooped it back up andit back down in the hole Kevin perked up at the ame and admitted he even kind of missed it once we made our way down the mountain
“So, should we go check out our new hoht to close the stubborn car door behind me