Chapter 1:
A Long Journey
Pippa
My name is Pippa, or Pip or Pippi, Valli. I'm 16 years old and I live in New Orleans in an old car junkyard that's been abandoned for 5 years. I live in the grey minivan on four cinderblocks in the middle of the yard. Inside I had a solar lamp, a sleeping bag with a pillow, an acoustic guitar, a picture of my parents and grandmother, a plastic bag of clothes, a skateboard and stacks of books in the front seats and the key in the ignition so I can use the radio. The junkyard was up and running for two years since the 30's and was only running for one year back then. It had to shut down because of the economic crisis, when it was found and running again it was inhabited by rats and dogs that were chased out, or taken to the shelter. I sought refuge here because my grandmother passed away two years ago and my parents died because of a drunk driver two months after, I refused to go to a foster home because that just meant that no person wants a teenager, so I've been fending for myself since then.
I mostly resemble my grandmother when she was young, black hair, blue eyes, and the natural rouge on my cheeks; my hair is long and goes down to my hips and my side swept bangs covered my left eye. I mostly wore all black, not because I'm Goth, but because I strive to blend in to the crowd. I want to blend in because I don't want people finding out where I am to take me away. I want to stay in New Orleans because I grew up here and if they took me away, I'd just run back here.
One day, after I got up and went through the hole in the chain link fence, and skateboarded to my bus stop in front of the junkyard, I noticed two dogs across the street and one…a german shepherd, was staring at me intently. Another dog wishing she wasn't there sat next to him.
'Please don't start talking to me! Please don't start talking to me! Please don't start talking to me! Please don't start talking to me!' I thought to myself. Oh, did I mention I inherited my grandmother's gift to talk to animals? I always have gotten down on my knees and cried, 'WHY ME?!' Being in high school with this gift is no easy task to conceal when there's a bird outside the window saying repeatedly, "Seeds, seeds, need seeds need seeds!"
It's unbearable, to the point where I yell, "QUIET!" out loud. And I get a detention, again, for disrupting class. My grandmother told me the story when I was little how she was saved by a german shepherd dog named Charlie and he helped her get adopted and he told her he was going on a trip. I think what he was really saying was he was dead, because from what Granma told me he could never have survived that ship sinking. I have always been in touch with my spiritual side, I go to church every Sunday, visit my Granma's and parent's gravesites and Granma's old house where she used to live and that is now completely vacant and pray every night, plus I believe in reincarnation, spirits and ghosts. This has been my life for the past two years. A life alone has been a long journey, no family, no friends, no real place to call home, but I've quickly gotten used to it.
The bus came around the corner and as soon as it stopped, I got on. The bus took me to the New Orleans high school. I've also had late hour study habits and am a straight-A student, though it makes my eyes sore and makes me sleep in. When I sleep in I have to skateboard 5 blocks to the school and I'll get a tardy, so that's why I got a watch with an alarm on it. After school, I skateboard down the road to a seafood restaurant that pays pretty well, but the one thing I'm ambitious for is music. I'm a singer, I sing for extra money on Bourbon Street as well on weekends. I'm saving money to go to a music school in California so I can possibly get a record deal. But on weekdays after my shift I go to the skate park and tear up the concrete. And after all that, I come home and study, write new songs, make repairs and improvements on my board, and just plain try to find something to do. In fact, sometimes I'll take my parent's old motorboat down at the dock and ride through the bayou and stargaze. But what happened today after my shift…..I was not prepared for.