Chapter 1
Naiya stood over the mighty wall of thick, black rock. Grey waves crashed over the dark mass, sea spray gently caressing her face. She looked beyond the water, the seagulls, the dramatic dark sky…she looked upon the curvature of the earth that the ocean revealed for all to marvel at its vastness. Then the rain came…icy drops twirling from the sky, that some god…some beautiful god had shed. The rain was cold on her pale skin, and then she inhaled…and took in all the mist and magic that made life so…so beautiful.
And then she woke up.
"Nai!" , Naiya's grandmother called, frying pan in hand. "You didn't do the dishes like I asked! What do you think about that?"
Naiya sighed. Once again, she was awakened from one of her many daydreams; the only thing that REALLY kept her alive…the only things that mattered. In fact, she wouldn't have even needed these dreams had she remained in Astoria…but no, there was a job here, in Post Falls, Idaho…landlocked Post Falls Idaho. You could literally look it up the town on the map, only to find a tiny armpit town sandwiched between Spokane, Washington and Coeur D' Alene, Idaho. Both were places that Naiya hadn't been fond of. The inland northwest was well…different. There was a new, different breed of people here. She had like the cool, vibrant, accent-less people of the coast…but just over the Cascade Range, a whole different country seemed to thrive.
They were hicks. Dirty, dim, farm town hicks…all of them; bad teeth, bad breath…bad everything. They were the kind of people that Naiya had laughed at on cartoons back in Astoria with her father.
"Naiya!"
Her father…he seemed so different from the man she used to know. Now he was always overcome with his work; on various business trips and such to faraway places that he claimed to be both exotic and terrible at the same time. Naiya didn't believe him. They had to be better than here…anywhere but here. But then again…she had been here for 5 years already, 5 years that would forever be sewn in her brain with agony and disdain between every stitch.
"NAIYA! Do the damn dishes!"
Yeah…life is a wonderful thing, she thought.