January 7th
Dear Journal,
So I finally moved in with mom on the reservation at La Push Beach. It's been really hard on her with dad dying and stuff. I think she needs to be with her family right now, at least for a little while. My dad, Richard Heartly was a photojournalist who had gone to Iraq for an article, he died in a raid just two days before he was coming home. It was really hard since we were still living near the army base after having been shifted around by his job. I can understand why we came back to mom's roots.
See, my mom was born in La Push, she has Quileute in her blood. My dad on the other hand was born in Los Angeles and had come to Washington for some pictures of the rainy Forks area. They met on the beach. My dad always said it was love at first sight for him but my mom took quite a bit of convincing. After they married they moved back to my dad's hometown in California. That's where I was born. We had been to Washington a few times to see the grandparents but it's been quite a few years until now.
We've moved in with my grandparents, Marcus and Fran (who all the grandkids call 'Granny Franny'). Mom is still always sad, sometimes I'm sad too, but I'm trying to focus on life here. I start school tomorrow, the first day of the second semester; it's gonna be weird starting at my new school mid-year. I guess that's how it goes sometimes, whatever's best for Mom. I know she tries not to seem so empty in front of me but I hear Granny Franny say "Karen, life must go on, you know he would want you to still smile" to my mom a lot.
She tries to encourage me too because she knows even though I'm not as depressed as mom, I am more pessimistic. Sometimes she says weird things like "Jenny, just it's a new moon doesn't mean the night with be dreary." I'm pretty sure she is constantly trying to get me to be more "Quileute-like". It's gonna be hard. A great gift from dad was his curly red hair; thankfully I'm not an albino and can get tan (though not as dark as mom). I doubt any other Quileutes have red hair. Or curly hair. But whatever, I'll try not to let my genetics get in the way…hopefully no one else will.
They seem to be pretty superstitious here. Grandpa is always telling these stories about the Quileute legends, I'm not sure if I buy it all to be honest even though he acts like he actually saw them. They have these weird ideas about mythical creatures like vampires and werewolves…or shape shifters and Grandpa prefers. Whatever, they seem a lot like werewolves to me except for the whole full moon thing. I don't push it too hard though, I mean, they are just stories, right?
At any rate, I'm going to have to get used to things here. Everything is so different from places we have lived before and it's going to take some time before I can accept this plus as my new home. Did I mention it is always raining? Well, it's snow now but Granny says that if we're lucky we will be a week of sunny days throughout the whole year. It just seems a little ridiculous. It's like God cursed this place to be all gloom and doom. That's another thing to get used to.
XoXo Jennifer Heartly