Chapter 1: New In Town
The walk up to and across La Push beach was a long, cold one. Jessica's nose crinkled up with disgust as she watched her boots sink into the wet sand almost up to her ankles. Cold, wet, rainy Washington. The last place she wanted to be right then.
She had always liked the cold weather. Her mother pointed that out to her as soon as she broke the news of where they were going.
Her mother was perpetually searching for "the right place." Having experienced a "spiritual awakening" a few years ago, Diane had kept her daughter on the move until she could find someplace that made her feel "whole". Having no inkling of what exactly would make her mother feel "whole", Jessica was left to follow around in her tracks, picking up the pieces of each life that they had left behind and trying to shove them back together to make something new in a new place.
And that's what brought her to the La Push Indian Reservation in Forks, Washington. One of her mom's friends had told her about a teaching position that had opened up at a school on the Reservation, and Diane had immediately jumped on it. It was a small position – the school only had thirty kids total – but that was the way Diane seemed to prefer it. Small, one-on-one. Two days later, she had secured the position (as wacky as her mom could be at times, she was a damn good Literature teacher) and she was welcomed home from school by a room full of boxes and a U-Haul.
She had just started getting used to Mississippi too. That was always how it was. As soon as she got comfortable, her mom emerged from her bedroom with ten roles of packing tape. It was exhausting.
As much as she hated to admit it, so far, she didn't actually mind her new home. It would have been easy for her if the place made her miserable, but it didn't. Not at all.
It was quiet. She liked small-town life, and she loved Native American culture. The small cabin that she and her mother shared was warm and homey, full of colorful woven rugs and handmade-touches that the Quileute had given to them as welcoming presents. Her room was small, but she didn't mind. And it was kind of cool to live without a television blaring through the wall from another room.
It was only their second day in Forks, so she had begun exploring the terrain. Much to her delight, she had realized that there was a beach only about a fifteen minute walk away – five if you went by bike. If she ever learned how to really ride that bike that she had hidden in the closet, maybe she'd get places faster.
Now, this "beach" was definitely not the same kind of beach that immediately came to mind when one said, "Let's take a trip to the beach!" by any means. It was cold – definitely not bikini friendly – and dark, with bits of driftwood and dead branches scattered all around. But there was water, and sand, and that was all she needed. Diane theorized that Jessica's love of water came from her placement underneath the "pisces" astrological sign. Not sure if it was all that, Jessica preferred to say that she just liked the water. Especially the beach.
And so, when she stumbled upon the La Push beach, she couldn't help but interpret it as a kind of sign. A sign that maybe, just maybe, she'd be happy there.
