Seattle
My grandmother drove me to the airport, where I was to move to Seattle; leaving her behind. My father could no longer cope with the constant reminders of my mother's death; he said the walls echoed with her past, so he wanted me to move away with him. For me it was a two hour and twenty eight minute flight, for Henry (my father) three hour and fifteen minute drive. I didn't understand why he would move just a few hours down the road, but as long it shook off the depression he suffered, I would be willing.
It had been eight years ago that my mother's body had been discovered in the foggy second growth of the Olympic National Forest, of the north west Washington state. Her eyes open and black. Her face drained of colour and lips a pale shade of blue. A crescent shaped bite mark in the crease of her elbow.
Of course the police had theories. My favourite?
''There are many savage beats out there, just awaiting a lonesome hiker to maul. Some even have the strength to carry their victims, sir. Now get your kid off to bed and get some rest,'' my mother had never liked to hike. No. That is an understatement, whenever Henry mentioned the words hike, walk or mountain she would come up with some elaborate excuse to get out of it. In fact, the day before she'd died she'd promised to take me to La Push to see Paul and Quil, my dad's best friend and mine, to get out of a trip up to the national park; we'd never actually made it. I'd never actually made it alone either. I'd spent the past nine years in the care of my grandparents in California, visiting Henry only on Christmas and birthdays. This is why his sudden change of heart had shocked me so much.
I'd missed my mother my whole existence, but by the time I had turned twelve I'd realised it was out of my hands, all I could do now was love and live. If not for me then for her and for my father, he had to see that there was a life outside of grief.
So I would move from my idea of heaven; sun, vitamin D and the closest thing I had to a mother. To my idea of hell; the cold, damp and miserable Seattle. For him.