I sat in the living room writing down my latest dream. DG was the artist, not me, but I'll never forget those eyes. The brilliant blue eyes that filed my vision every time I closed my eyes. Last night was different though. I saw an older man crying about something.

"It's time, Rose," he'd said. "Time to come home."

"Hey sweetie," mom said coming in from the kitchen and kissing my head.

"Hey, mom."

"What are you working on?" she asked me, reading over my shoulder.

"Mom, C'mon," I laughed hiding my journal. We heard someone storm down the stairs and I smiled as the door slammed closed. "DG is late again."

"That girl needs a new alarm clock if the one she has isn't going off," her mom sighed.

"It's not the clock," I mentioned staring at the paper. I was writing, but not seeing what I was writing, smile gone from my face. "A storm is coming."

"Rose?" mom moved to stand in front of me, but I didn't see her. I was seeing something else. A woman with lavender eyes and graying hair. A yellow brick road. A tornado. I looked up into my mother's eyes without really seeing her.

"It's time." I shook her head and groaned. Whatever had just been said was lost from my memory. "Sorry, mom. Guess I was staring into space again."

"Don't worry, hunny," mom said smiling down at me, but I could see her mind was already elsewhere.

After DG got off from work she went and helped dad at the windmill before they both came back to the house. I'd been sitting on the porch just watching the sky when mom came out to join me, her arms crossed over her chest. DG, as it turned out, got a speeding ticket again on her way to work. Mom wasn't happy about it and wanted to make sure DG had her head on right.

"Elmer Gulch is a menace to the community," DG said playing with one of mom's flowers.

"Menace or no, he's still an officer of the law," mom reminded her. "You're going to have to face the judge. Officer Gulch wants you in jail."

"He doesn't want me in jail," DG laughed. "He wouldn't have anybody to chase then."

"This is not a joke," mom scolded. "We'll be lucky if they just impound your bike."

"They can't impound my bike if I take off on it," DG told mom hinting at what she'd been telling me for some months now.

"I was wondering if the two of you were planning a trip." Mom grabbed something on the chair next to her and dropped it on the table. They were travel brochures I'd convinced DG to throw away the other night. She's been wanting to leave Kansas for months now and I'd convinced her to stay telling her we'd been leaving eventually. I just didn't know when.

"You went through our stuff?" DG asked annoyed.

"She's been worried," dad told her. "We both have. You've been acting strange. Distant."

"If you spend your every spare moment drawing your pictures, dreaming of another life, you're going to wind up never living the one you've got," mom told her.

"But this isn't my life," DG told her. "This town, that job, taking other peoples orders? That's just passing time. There has to be more to life than this."

"And you really think you'll find better out there?" mom asked crossing her arms again.

"Look, I love you guys I just don't feel at home here. I don't think I ever have." DG ran back into the house and, probably, up to our shared room.

"I'll talk to her." I got up from my chair and went to our room.

I sat next to her on her bed and stared at one of her drawings. It was a picture of the city between two hills and sitting next to a lake and it was my favorite.

"You sent to talk me down from leaving?" she asked me finally.

"Nah, you know I'll go with you if you want me too anyway," I reminded her.

"You told me we'd be leaving. When?"

"Sooner than mom and dad would like, that's for sure." I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her to me. "You know how overprotective they are of us, Deeg. Give them some time. Besides, you know how mom's always wanted us to stay close to home."

"She's been treating us like we're still kids," DG complained.

"That's what parents do, Deeg. Besides, you know how mom is. I'm telling you, the minute she realizes how much this means to you she'll apologize about going through our stuff."

"Knock knock," DG and I looked at the stairs to see dad walking into our room.

"You know your mom loves you more than anything in this world," dad told DG, his hands buried in his pockets.

"I know," DG told him. "I just wish she understood how I felt." Dad looked around the room before going to one of the many walls covered in pictures.

"You know, you're as good an artist as you are a mechanic. The world's going to be your oyster, someday." He turned and pointed at the opposite wall with a smile on his face. "I remember when I was in Milltown..."

"Dad, can you please stop talking about your perfect childhood in Milltown," DG asked him. "This is real life."

"Horace your old man all you like, these sketches just remind me of home," dad told us. "No matter where we find ourselves, home is where your heart is."

"We can't stay here forever," DG told him. Dad moved from the pictures to sit at DG's feet on the bed.

"There's a place and a time when we learn where we're supposed to be," he told her looking between the two of us. Guess he heard our conversation from earlier. "And the two of you are almost there, and," dad looked like he wanted to say something but seemed to say something different. "Don't forget, all of life's answers..."

"Can be found along the old road," DG and I said together.

"How about the one about the daughter of light who searches for her..."

"Frozen in time on a sea of ice," we said again.

"You've got to get some new material, dad," DG said and he just nodded with a smile. "And you've gotta realize we're not little girls anymore."

"You'll always be my baby girls." Dad placed his hand on DG's arm and she just smiled at him. "Your mom's made supper." We got up and followed him downstairs. I couldn't help but feel like there was something they weren't telling us, and they'd never have the chance while we were in this house.