Prologue
Eli Cunnings was my savior. I would like to say that I found him, but he found me. I met him down in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Eli grew up there with his dad and helped him run the local diner. I, on the other hand, spent most of my childhood in Wilmington, North Carolina. I've lived there with my little sister Melanie and my mom. We make our living by working on our farm all year round. Evidently, the farm got too much for the three of us so we had to sell it and move elsewhere.
My mom's brother Uncle Tommy owned a spare house down in Cedar Rapids so he let us stay there until we could buy back the farm. I wasn't very pleased with the selling of the farm and moving away from home, but I had to go with the flow. Or at least that's what my mom continued to tell me. She constantly told me that the farm was going to be well taken care of because Uncle Tommy bought the farm from us and promised to give it back once we got enough money. But no matter what it didn't change anything. We were still moving away and going to a place that we had never been before. Melanie kept telling me that I had no sense of adventure. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't either way my life changed completely.
We lived in Cedar Rapids for six months, and throughout that short amount of time all my dreams had come true. All because of Eli.