1

A hard blow to the side of my cranium jolted me out of my long slumber; my head began to throb painfully as I tried to put together what had happened. Yes, the van is still in one piece. Yes, I'm still alive and yes, we are still on the road. I let out a mournful groan when I began to really come to and realized my contact lenses had dried onto my irises, making it feel as if tiny rocks were glued to my eyeballs. Rubbing my pounding head, I warily glanced to my right and sighed when I was met by a large tennis-shoed foot and quickly deduced the source of my pain. "Thanks a lot," I muttered to myself, looking distastefully at the culprit.

There he was, my brother Bron, with his long legs sprawled all over the back seat of my mother's newly acquired van, asleep. Like I had been next to him, just a moment ago, without a care in the world and free of a concussion. Irritated, I roughly pushed his leg out of the way, and wasn't surprised that he didn't seem to mind. Bron had the nerve to be a deep sleeper. Impending death by cannon fire couldn't rouse him.

I squeezed my eyes shut for a second to try to get some moisture but it didn't work. I needed eye drops ASAP. Looking around for my purse, so I could get the drops, I found it rather quickly, but luck didn't seem to be on my side. I tossed a balled up piece of paper towards the seat in front of me to get my sister Nia's attention; slowly she craned her head over the seat and immediately became amused as she took in the sight of me and Rip Van Winkle.

"Can I help you?" she asked in her voice, sweet as a bell; a beautiful smile graced her features and I had a feeling that what her next string of words would be. "Red is a great color for you, Desi. New contacts---you know, Halloween is two months from now, don't 'cha?"

"Do you have any eye drops?" I smiled, deciding to pretend she didn't say anything.

Still wearing that mocking sweet smile, she flipped her long gorgeous black hair over a golden, caramel colored shoulder and disappeared temporarily out of view. "Here you go," she chirped, popping back into view and handing me the drops.

I muttered a grateful thank you and squeezed the blessed liquid into my aching eyes, sighing with relief. "Thanks," I said again, handing her the drops.

"No problem," Nia responded casually. "You know, you're all red all on the right side of your head."

"Mommy's Baby Boy knocked me out with those boulders he calls feet."

Nia winced. We had both experienced countless times the dangers of sleeping or simply being next to our little brother when he was in the land of nod. We had enough scars to last us a lifetime.

"Hey, scooch over, lemme come up there," I said, giving the drooling Bron one last look before proceeding with my escape. "I should've known better than to sit next to him—" Nia laughed helping me climb over the seat; after settling in, Nia, always very mother-like, grasped my chin and proceeded to examine my eyes, a small frown creasing her delicate brow.

"Geez, Ledesi," she began. "Why don't you get the kind that you can sleep in?"

I snorted. "Is it that bad?"

"Yep," she said, handing my toiletry bag and glasses case to me. "You might as well take them out now while there's smooth road."

"Okay," I sighed, removing my contacts quickly into the case and filling it with solution. Putting on my glasses, I looked out the window and sighed. We were just turning off of exit thirty-six to highway thirty. We had been driving for several hours now from Portland, with Momma and Nia taking turns at the wheel. I wouldn't be able to legally drive until I turned sixteen in December.

The beautiful large trees and my mother humming a hymn from the driver's seat lulled into a fabulous daydream. As corny as it sounds, I imagined myself as a forest nymph doing a ballet from the tops of trees and conducting the birds in a beautiful symphony like a Disney fairy movie. Bron's loud, growling snore broke me out of my silly reverie. I heard Momma chuckling softly in the front.

Throughout the entire trip, my mother rarely said a word, which was something I couldn't get used to because Momma—yeah, I love her to death, but she was known for talking for one-hundred miles a second. She could talk about everything and anything and especially about nothing. On our ninety mile road trip I figured the three of us would have an earful of Joyce Perrin.

Taking a small breath and crossing my fingers, I asked, "Ma, how long do we have?"

Catching my mother's twinkling coal black eyes in the rearview mirror briefly, she smiled. "We have another hour or so," she said quietly. She must've been really preoccupied, she normally would've said more than that.

Nia and I exchanged looks but didn't say anything. We knew what was bothering her, what was bothering all of us.

At the beginning of the summer, my mother had told us that she that she was offered a wonderful opportunity. There was a key position opened at Wildlife Centre of the North Coast, where she could put her veterinary skills to proper use. Also, she would be working part-time at the local city vet's office to supplement the paycheck, which really wasn't much. My mother had a true passion for animals and was an advocate for wildlife conservation; she would go a long mile to make a difference even if she could only expect a little money. This was great, of course, and we kids couldn't be more excited for her. It was her dream come true, but this dream was to take place in Astoria, Oregon, not Chicago, Illinois, where we were all born and raised. Well, of course she accepted, after she cleared it with the three of us. So, our new life began. The plan was set into motion, the brownstone back home was sold, and our furniture and our core belongings were shipped to Oregon a week before we were to move in.

We had never heard of Astoria until that day and the three of us made it a point to learn as much as we could. We knew we wouldn't fit in right away, being three inner city teenage Chicagoans whose culture was far from the scale of their own. All of the reading we could do on the internet wasn't enough. We all liked the idea of very little snow—yeah, Astoria was rainy, but we could live with that and the mild temperatures. Anything beat the snow. Our only dilemma would be a car that we all could share, because Momma would be commuting back and forth between Astoria and Columbia, so the van was out of question.

A loud yawn trumpeted from the back seat and the distinct cracks of stretching joints filled the car. I turned and held back a laugh as I took in the sight of Bron's hair sticking up in all directions. Delirious, he turned his unfocused eyes to the back window and yawned again, not even brothering to cover his mouth.

"We there yet?" he said loudly.

"We're here, sweetie," said Momma tiredly, black eyes still focused on the road.

I elbowed Nia, who was listening to her iPod with her eyes closed in bliss. She raised an eyebrow in my direction and I pointed to a deep blue sign to the right.

Welcome to Astoria, Founded in 1876

"Man, talk about Mayberry," joked Bron, peering out of the window.

My mother laughed, coming back from the dead. "Mayberry?"

"It looks like something from a movie or a post card," chirped Nia.

She was right. After living in Chicago for so long we could never imagine that places like this actually existed, or that we would ever get to see them, let alone live in one. I got a close look at the harbor with the boats drifting near the shore. Quaint shops lined the streets. People, who didn't look harassed as those did back home, flowed through the streets going about their day and a totem pole loomed as we drove by.

"Well, its Mayberry," said Bron in mock stubbornness, but I could tell he was excited.

After driving for a bit we turned on Akerstadt Road, in a rather rural neighborhood with lots of trees and land. Six houses down, we turned into a long driveway. There two other cars were waiting. Momma parked, turned off the ignition and got out of the van. Nia, Bron and I followed, huddled close together like scared little mice, as Momma greeted the guest, a man and a woman. She led them inside the house.

"So this is it," said Bron, now fully awake, his black eyes darting from the blue two story split level house to the strangers' cars.

"Looks like it," replied Nia nervously.

"Come here, kids," called Momma enthusiastically from inside the house.

Obediently we went inside and were greeted by our bedroom furniture in the hall leaning next to the stairs. To the left of us was the living room where Momma and her friends were talking, each seated comfortably. Momma's face lit up when she saw us coming in, shyly.

"Kids, I would like you to meet Dr. Renee Westergard and Dr. Philip Green."

"Hi," we said in unison.

"My children," Momma introduced, pointing to each of us separately. "Nia, Ledesi, and Bron."

So, these were Doctors Westergard and Green, Momma's Oregon correspondents for the past five years. They were the ones who had told her about the position at Wildlife, and it was Dr. Westergard who recommended Momma. Dr. Westergard was a stout woman with very little neck and a large doughy face; she smiled warmly and gave us each a large bear hug, and Dr. Green shook each of our hands.

Dr. Green was so handsome that it was hard not to look at him without blushing madly, faint lines etched onto the corners of his eyes as he smiled. "I'm Phil, it's so nice to finally meet you guys. Your mom told us so much about you!"

I gave a shy smile. "Nice to meet you too, Dr. Westergard and Dr. Green."

"Call me Renee. Oh, Joyce, they're adorable."

Momma beamed.

Bron turned a deep shade of scarlet and shifted awkwardly from foot to foot; the last thing he wanted to be called was adorable or cute. He was at that stage where being cool and hard was in his vocabulary. Nia muttered a quiet thank you while Dr. Westergard gushed about how well-behaved and sweet we were, like we were little kids. We all went our separate ways to explore the house after getting acquainted, leaving the adults to talk.

The house was a lot bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. There were five bedrooms to choose from, three bathrooms, a decent kitchen and a fully furnished basement and rec area. Of course my brother and sister raced to lay claim on their bedrooms, but I chose to explore some more and stopped at an aging door.

I bit my lower lip in anticipation, opening the door, and was met with carpeted stairs. Quickly climbing up the stairs to the top floor, I was in an office or playroom from the looks of it, I really couldn't tell which. The ceilings were slanted with a lot of headspace. The room was a decent size, not too large and not too small with a huge bay window in the front end and a small balcony on either side. Secretly I hoped Momma wouldn't want this spot as her office. I wanted to be selfish for once in my life and turn this place into my room. I went outside on to the balcony, shivering slightly from the chilled wind and smiled as I took in the scene before me. It was acres of trees and bare land; it looked like a neighbor couldn't be seen for miles.

"I knew you would be up here," I heard Momma's voice from the balcony door. "Like it?" I turned and noted the mischief in her eyes. "Makes a good office or---"

"---bedroom," I finished slowly, grinning from ear to ear. Momma giggled.

"Come on back upstairs, we have some matters to discuss."

"Are the doctors still here?" I asked, closing the door behind me and following her out of the room, back downstairs.

"No, they left a moment ago. It's a busy time a year, you know. Phil and Renee just wanted to drop off a present."

"Present?"

"You'll see," Momma said, voice full of humor.

Bron and Nia were already waiting in the living room and I sat next to them on the couch. We were all waiting for our big surprise, whatever that was supposed to be. From the mischievous look etched onto our mother's face it had to be something particularly interesting, yet by Joyce Perrin's standards interesting went to another level. Bron gave me a wary sideways glance. I shrugged in reply and Nia sat staring intently at Momma.

"Well, look out the window," she said, giggling like a little kid.

We did what we were told and were a little confused. There in the curving driveway was one of the Doctor's cars, an old, but well-kept-up Nissan Ultima. But why? Turing back to Momma, I opened my mouth to speak and noticed in her hand that she was holding an oval shaped key fob, smiling broadly. I could have sworn that the three of us gasped at the same time.

"Ma, you didn't!" exclaimed Bron, jiggering in his seat.

"Are you serious?" I said, too shocked to even get up to give our mother a huge kiss on the cheek.

"Momma, wow," sighed Nia, quickly giving her a hug.

I quickly got up and ran outside with Bron and Nia following at my heels. The car looked great, in my opinion. Its clean midnight blue paint finish seemed to glitter in the sunlight. I watched Nia dive into the driver's seat, giggling her head off, and suddenly became envious that I would have to wait four months before I could even think about driving it. Shrugging off my temporary bad mood, I hopped into the backseat of the car, since I missed my chance to grab the front passenger seat, thanks to Bron.

By now Momma had followed us outside and ran to the driver's side of the car. Motioning for Nia to roll down the window, she poked her head through, black eyes twinkling as we gushed our "thank you's" and our "love you's."

Laughing softly Momma said, "Well, y'all, welcome to Astoria."