Chapter 2- Welcome

I drove down the highway. Everything was just so green. It was greener than I remembered. I was forcing myself to remain calm, although I wanted to just pull over and cry numerous times. I missed my old life, it was all back there. And I felt guilty for leaving my parents back there; I would never be able to visit them.

I didn't know what state my grandmother was in, that's why I was forcing myself to be calm because I had to be strong for her, and she had just lost her only son. But it was all for nothing, because after I turned off the car in the driveway and got out, she came bounding out.

"Lindsey, my dear granddaughter," she held out her arms, "it's great to have you back home."

"This isn't my home." I said bluntly, so much for going easy on her.

"Well, you are going to be living here, so it is your home now." She smiled. Touché. I see she wouldn't be taking anything too easily.

I looked up at the house, it was old. That was the only adjective I could think of, and brown. It was small, but compared to the rest of the houses I saw it was decent sized in the community. My grandmother must have been doing well.

She led me into the house, it smelt like nature. I remembered this smell, and I liked it. "This will be your room; I figured you would want the one with the bathroom so I moved into the smaller one on the other side of the house."

"Oh grandma, you didn't have to do that." I felt awful, after the way I had just treated her. Now I saw this and I realized how much she was doing for me. I felt horrible.

"It was nothing; one of the boys came over and helped me." The way she said "boys" sounded peculiar to me, but I just ignored it and walked into the room. "I'll let you be." She smiled and closed the door.

I sat on the bed, and looked around. I could tell the bed and desk were new. I had acted so horrible to her, and she had done all this for me.

I touched my hand to the drop falling down my cheek, but it was no use, more came. I put my head into the pillow for fifteen minutes to silence the sobs. I hope it worked. After I calmed down I walked over to the dresser, there were pictures on it. The one that I moved to the front was a picture of my parents and I. It looked like my parents had been sending her pictures of us, I didn't know about it. But I loved this picture. I picked it up and put it on the night stand. It was all I had left of them: Pictures and memories. Although the memories would fade.

After I had unpacked the first box of stuff I went out to my car to get the rest of them. But my grandmother had called me into a room to the left of the porch. It was connected to the rest of the house, it must've been added on after the house was built. It was her weaving room. There were baskets and blankets all around. They were beautiful and I assumed she had made them all.

"Lindsey, my dear, I would like to take you into town and introduce you to some of the people. We're a small community, but since you'll be living her and starting school tomorrow I think it would be best if you knew some people." She put down her weaving and stood up.

"Um, well I haven't finished unpacking. I looked towards my car." I was a shy person, and meeting people was something I would do everything to try and avoid. I was fine being by myself. Although I could always rely on having my parents, and there weren't here anymore. I thought about the photo in my bedroom.

"It doesn't matter; it'll be here when we get back. Come." Her voice was final, so I followed her into the house as she grabbed a jacket; I did the same with the sweatshirt on my bed post. It was warm in California, where I had lived, now I was in shorts and although I wasn't freezing, I was cold. Colder than I could ever remember being.

"Let's go." She started towards the road.

"Grandma, don't you want to take the car, it's getting cold and dark out." I looked to ocean, where the sun was not even close to setting.

"Come, I don't take cars anymore, there is no need." I could tell this whole traditional thing was going to take some time to get used to.

This whole thing was going to take some getting used to.