I glanced up from my book out the car window as my Aunt Barbara drove north on Highway 101 towards the Olympic Peninsula. It was early May, yet here in Washington it was dreary as it had been in late fall back in Sacramento.
I sighed, a sound not missed by Aunt Barbara. "You'll just love it here, Ari, I promise. I mean, it might not be as sunny as you're used to, but…." I smirked as she tried to find an upside to this situation.
Aunt Barbara, by the way, is not technically my aunt. She is my mother's best friend. Before Mom died last June, she made Barbara promise to take care of me, since no one else could. The only other people who might have been willing to take me in were Mom's poor distant relatives, which were scattered all across the country. And my grandpa. But he had just suffered from a stroke, and my mom, even on her deathbed, could not bear to send me to live with a sick old man.
So Barbara got stuck with me. It wasn't all bad for her; I was a good kid, with great grades and better aspirations, and I always had dinner ready for her when she came home. But still, I could tell that Barbara was never fond of me, and now that she was moving halfway across the country she had an excuse to get rid of me.
"Your grandfather's health is improving," she had said to me. "He's back to functioning on his own now. But your presence would definitely be a help to him, in case anything happened. Plus, it's only one year!"
One year until I graduated; one year until I could escape to college and the wide world beyond. I couldn't wait. Neither, apparently, could Barbara.
So I agreed to go live with my grandfather in La Push, an Indian reservation in Washington. Grandpa Louis was full-blooded Quileute, and was one of the elders of the tribe. I was only a half Quileute (I have some Spanish and French mixed in) but I was really looking forward to seeing the Indian side of me.
Barbara gave up trying to find something positive about Washington, and I went back to my book, losing myself in its fantasy world.
About an hour later, Barbara pulled up onto the dirt driveway of a small but charming house on the outskirts of La Push. I hopped swiftly out of the car and ran around to the trunk to get my luggage. Being in the car for so long had made me seriously hyperactive, and I couldn't wait to get out. I popped the truck and pulled out my lemon-yellow luggage set, a Christmas gift from Barbara. I pulled the suitcases up to the front step as the door was pulled open by a tall old man: my grandpa Louis.
"Grandpa!" I exclaimed. I ran into his arms, and was filled with happiness as he held me tight.
"I'm so glad that you are here, Ari," he said.
Later that afternoon, after I had settled in and Barbara had left, Grandpa sat me down at the kitchen table to talk. We ate chocolate-covered pretzels and talked about the good old days, when my mom was alive and I would come up to the reservation every summer, from when I was born until I was nine. Then, the topic of conversation shifted to the current condition of the reservation. Grandpa had enrolled me in school yesterday, so I would have to attend this Monday. I truly couldn't wait. I really was looking forward to starting over in a new town and a new school. Hopefully I would get to see some of my old playmates from the summers I had spent up here.
I remembered a family who used to live just down the road- the Clearwaters. I asked Grandpa about them, and he looked distraught. "Oh, it was a sad time for them. Harry- you remember, the father and husband- he died last year, a heart attack. They're doing okay now, though. But they don't live down the road anymore. They moved about a mile across town a couple years ago."
Leah was a senior, about to graduate, Grandpa said. And Seth was a sophomore, a year younger than me. I was looking forward to seeing them at school.
I mentioned my desire to get to know some kids my age before school next Monday, and he smiled mischeviously. "Oh, I've got the perfect solution to that problem," he said. "Tonight, you and I are going to a barbeque down at Sam and Emily Uley's house."