Prologue
I guess you could say I grew up in a sheltered world. I lived in a small town. Not much happened in Duncan, Ontario. Not much happened in Ontario period. But I loved it here. It was quiet and peaceful by the lake where we lived. I liked to take the small motorboat we had out and just let myself drift around. I even found a little cave at the far East end of the lake one day when I was fourteen. It was made of willow trees and the side of a cliff that had been worn away by the waves. There was a shore under the cave that I sat on often to just think. I liked to be alone a lot.
I loved my family very much but they could get a little overbearing sometimes. My mother was so overprotective; it sometimes felt like I was being suffocated. If I was just going to be home late because of an art club meeting she would have to make sure she knew the phone number for the school and what the supervising teacher's name was.
My father, worked a lot at the store in town that he owned with his brother, my uncle. He was always asking me to remind my friends when they had sales or special deals on. Sometime I just wanted to tell him to do his own advertising but I knew it would hurt his feelings. He was a sensitive guy. Always eager to please every person he met. I think it was because of something that happened between him and mom a long time ago but they would never tell me what happened. He was especially worried about doing something wrong around mom. You'd think after twenty years of marriage that he'd learn to be more comfortable around her. But he was just as protective of mom as she was of me.
My brother, Colin was five years younger than me and kind of a pain. He liked to follow me around and I always had to be careful when I was going out to my cave. I didn't need him telling my mom where I went when she wasn't paying attention. I knew she would tell me it was too dangerous to go out there, especially in the winter.
My mother's stepbrother, Tyler was always trying to hang out with me and be the "cool uncle". He tried so hard and I hated hurting his feelings but sometimes he could be kind of weird. On my fourteenth birthday Tyler had gotten me a map of Toronto. Mom hadn't been very happy about it and she took Tyler into the other room to talk to him. When he was in high school he had been a skateboarder. Mom told me that he was good enough to enter competitions and win, but one day he had just stopped skating. It was like he just lost interest in it. He was thirty-one years old now and he still lived in the house with us. Mom never asked him to leave so Dad didn't either.
The only family member who knew about my cave was my cousin, Greg. He was my uncle Anthony's son. We were very close. We were born very close together and we liked to have birthday parties together usually at my house. He lived in town in a small house. His mother was Tyler's sister Erin. My mother didn't get along very well with her but she never objected to me spending time with Greg.
I knew somehow that there were a lot of secrets surrounding my family. I always felt a tension during Christmas when we were all together in the same house. Especially between Erin, Uncle Anthony and Mom.
Right now I just wanted to finish my last year of high school and then go off to college. But sometimes, as my mother always liked to remind me, things don't always go as planned.
I guess you could say I grew up in a sheltered world. I lived in a small town. Not much happened in Duncan, Ontario. Not much happened in Ontario period. But I loved it here. It was quiet and peaceful by the lake where we lived. I liked to take the small motorboat we had out and just let myself drift around. I even found a little cave at the far East end of the lake one day when I was fourteen. It was made of willow trees and the side of a cliff that had been worn away by the waves. There was a shore under the cave that I sat on often to just think. I liked to be alone a lot.
I loved my family very much but they could get a little overbearing sometimes. My mother was so overprotective; it sometimes felt like I was being suffocated. If I was just going to be home late because of an art club meeting she would have to make sure she knew the phone number for the school and what the supervising teacher's name was.
My father, worked a lot at the store in town that he owned with his brother, my uncle. He was always asking me to remind my friends when they had sales or special deals on. Sometime I just wanted to tell him to do his own advertising but I knew it would hurt his feelings. He was a sensitive guy. Always eager to please every person he met. I think it was because of something that happened between him and mom a long time ago but they would never tell me what happened. He was especially worried about doing something wrong around mom. You'd think after twenty years of marriage that he'd learn to be more comfortable around her. But he was just as protective of mom as she was of me.
My brother, Colin was five years younger than me and kind of a pain. He liked to follow me around and I always had to be careful when I was going out to my cave. I didn't need him telling my mom where I went when she wasn't paying attention. I knew she would tell me it was too dangerous to go out there, especially in the winter.
My mother's stepbrother, Tyler was always trying to hang out with me and be the "cool uncle". He tried so hard and I hated hurting his feelings but sometimes he could be kind of weird. On my fourteenth birthday Tyler had gotten me a map of Toronto. Mom hadn't been very happy about it and she took Tyler into the other room to talk to him. When he was in high school he had been a skateboarder. Mom told me that he was good enough to enter competitions and win, but one day he had just stopped skating. It was like he just lost interest in it. He was thirty-one years old now and he still lived in the house with us. Mom never asked him to leave so Dad didn't either.
The only family member who knew about my cave was my cousin, Greg. He was my uncle Anthony's son. We were very close. We were born very close together and we liked to have birthday parties together usually at my house. He lived in town in a small house. His mother was Tyler's sister Erin. My mother didn't get along very well with her but she never objected to me spending time with Greg.
I knew somehow that there were a lot of secrets surrounding my family. I always felt a tension during Christmas when we were all together in the same house. Especially between Erin, Uncle Anthony and Mom.
Right now I just wanted to finish my last year of high school and then go off to college. But sometimes, as my mother always liked to remind me, things don't always go as planned.
