Chapter One - Chrissy
Moving Day
At least the journey had been pleasant this time. That irritating cat that Chrissy always seemed to run into (did he live on the train or what?) had been nowhere to be seen and she had managed a good hour's nap on the journey to yet another new town. As she stepped onto the platform at her destination the station porter greeted her warmly and handed her a map of the town. What was it called again? Oakview, Oakland, Oakley? Chrissy had stopped taking much notice about three towns ago.
"Eek, would you like some help with those boxes there Miss? Eeek." Came the friendly yet irritatingly squeaky voice of the porter.
"Oh, that would be wonderful, if you don't mind." Chrissy replied with a smile. Usually she would have carried them herself but this time around she had bought herself a cliff top house overlooking the beach, and it was an awfully long walk from the station at the top of town.
"Of course." The porter squeaked as he bent down to pick up the boxes full of Chrissy's life time possessions.
Chrissy took a deep breath and emerged from the station into her new town. A sickly sweet smell washed over her face in the spring breeze followed by a torrent of cherry blossom petals.
"Eeek. As you can see, we have cherries here in Oakwood as our natural fruit, but the mayor is working on an exotic fruit orchard at the right side of town." The porter, turned tour guide, announced from behind a stack of boxes. A good sign, Chrissy thought to herself, the mayor was active in the town, not like some of the abandoned villages she had lived in previously.
Chrissy and the porter continued their journey through town, stopping occasionally to re-stack the boxes or wave to a nosy local. It was in the middle of town that Chrissy noticed a large coffee shop, The Roost, or something like that. She allowed herself a little smile for the first time since leaving the station, she did enjoy a hot cup of Blue Mountain in the mornings. Next to the coffee shop there was a big house, probably the mayors, and then a smaller house in the same style. It was unusual to have more than one human in a town Chrissy puzzled to herself.
"Who lives over there, in the little house?" Chrissy asked, attempting to point but thinking better of it when her boxes started to slip.
"Oh, that's Dan's house, he's here making paths for the mayor at the moment. And that's her house next door, the fancy one." The porter replied.
"So your mayor is very busy then, it seems. Lots of projects on the go." Chrissy tried to muster some enthusiasm for her new home town.
"Oh yes! Eek, Meg is a brilliant mayor. The best we've ever had here in Oakwood." It was clear from the porter's voice that he admired this Mayor Meg and it gave Chrissy some hope that her new town would be somewhere she was proud to call home for once. She remembered some of the desolate places she had lived in the past and also the luxury life she had known growing up in the city. How far she had come, not only in distance, but also as a person she had been on a long journey.
"Your house is just over that bridge Miss, see not far now, eek." The shrill squeak of the porters voice brought Chrissy out of her daydream and back to Earth.
Inside the house Chrissy set about unpacking all her furniture and belongings she had been lugging about all day. At long last she was 'home'. It had been a long and tiring day and as night fell over the town of Oakwood, Chrissy lay down on her comfy bed and pulled out a scrunched up old photo from her pocket. A tear fell from her pink cheek and dripped onto the photograph as she clutched it to her chest. She lay down to sleep with her head full of thoughts and the faint hope that a new town always brought her.
Would Chrissy ever be reunited with her long lost sister Francine?
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Hope you liked the first chapter guys, any comments would be appreciated. More to come soon and we'll be hearing from Francine later in the story as well. Will they find each other after all these years?