Wybie skidded to a halt, looking back toward the now distant Pink Palace. He sighed and adjusted himself on his bike and took a moment to look around and noticed that he was near the old well. He had been up there more than a million times and didn't hold any interest for him at the moment. He started up the engin and headed for home. As he pulled up to the house he revved the engin for no reason what so ever, other than just to make it roar, and put it away inside the garage. As soon as he reached the kitchen door, he wiped his feet on the door mat that was already too caked with mud and grease to really be of any use, and went to...

"Oh, no you don't," said his grandmother very sternly, glaring at him with the mop in her hands, "I just finished! You go and take those filthy shoes off out on the front porch and then you can come inside." He rolled his eyes, but he did as his grandmother told him to do and went around the house. As soon as he entered the house, he walked up to his grandma and said while pulling out the envelopes:

"H-Here's the rent from everyone." She took the envelopes and looked down at him and said:

"You didn't go inside now, did you?"

"No grandma," he said sighing, "of course not." She narrowed her eyes and then looked down at the envelopes while waking away.

"Thank you Wyborne, you're such a good boy."

"Thanks grandma." he said while walking over to her chair and looked at the paperwork that she was looking at earlier.

"So grandma," he asked, "when are the new renters coming?"

"Well," she said from the kitchen walking back toward him, "they're from out of state, and they need time to sell their house. I would presume about two to three weeks from now, or at the beginnin' of next month."

"Hrm," said Wybie wile still looking at the paperwork, "so, it's a family?"

"A young couple," she said gently taking the paperwork from him and sitting back down in her chair, "writers I think."

"Oh," he said sadly, looking away, his eyes falling onto a very old photo album, "Hey," he said while picking it up, "I've never seen this."

"Oh, this old thing," she said smiling slightly and taking it from him, "I found it while looking for some old paper work. I haven't looked at this thing for years. All of these are from when I was a young vixen." she said smirking at him and hand a bit of song in her voice. She opened the book and motioned him to come and sit on her lap to look with her, but he felt to old to sit there so he settled to look over her shoulder. She flipped a page and saw a young woman standing next to a old oak tree wile smiling brightly.

"That's me," she said pointing to the girl, "when I was oh...I'd say 15. And here," she said pointing to a picture of her when she was a bit younger with a older woman, "is me and my grandmother making cookies." she continued to flip pages and each picture held a story; each story she told the more he voice sounded like she was in a dream. She flipped another page and when she saw it, she blushed and brought her hand to her mouth and happily chuckled.

"Ooh! There he is," she said pointing to a picture, "there's your granddaddy when we were kids." Wybie took a look at the picture, he had never seen a picture of his grandfather as a young man. In the picture, was a smiling couple holding each other in a loving embrace in front of what looked like a old oak tree, sitting on a old well.

"Mmm-hmm," she said while stroking the face of the man in the picture, "he was such a ladies man. We would always secretly meet by the old well every Saturday night just to be together."

"Why?"

"Things were different back then Wyborne," she said looking over at him, "and besides, it was so romantic. Ohh...we felt like a modern day Romeo and Juliet." she said chuckling and smiling at the memory.

"And when he proposed...Ohh," she said closing the book and looking faraway, as if seeing it all over again, "it was so romantic. He showed me this," she said showing her wedding ring to him, "and was so nervous, he could hardly talk. Daddy was SO mad!" Wybie opened the book to where they were and looked at the picture again.

"Because grandpa was white guy?"

"Yes," she said getting a little more serious, "daddy warned me that I was pickin' a hard path in life; asking for more trouble than I could handle. And he was right, it was very hard for us, but nothing we couldn't handle. Not many people were happy about our marriage, but times changed and things were better, we had your mama and had ten more wonderful years, but then," she said looking at the picture with sad eyes, "there was that accident at the factory." Wybie look up at her and then looked down at the pages he looked down and saw his granddad holding a little baby in his arms.

"Hey, is that mom as a baby?" he asked pointing to the picture. She looked at it and nodded. He started to get excited.

"Are there anymore of her in here?"

"Not in this one Wyborne," she said looking at him, "this one is mostly just of me and your grandfather."

"Then how about we go to the beginning of the book and see you as a little girl." he said reaching for the book, but his grandma suddenly slammed it shut and got a little tense.

"I really don't have any pictures of my childhood, there was only the one and...I don't have it anymore."

"Oh," he said wondering why she suddenly go so cold, "what was it of?" She didn't say anything, but more or less slouched into the chair.

"O-Or if you don't remember what it was of," he asked, 'M-Maybe you can tell me about when you were a kid. I-I-I mean y-you never talk about..."

"I think it time for you to get into the tub and then start on your chores." she said while getting up with the photo album in hand and walking to her bedroom. He looked over at her and sighed, she always would do that whenever he asked her. All he really knew was that she was a twin and her twin sister disappeared while her family lived at the Pink Palace before it was even called that. The only other thing he knew about it was that his great-grandfather had worked hard to purchase that house for his family and worked even harder to keep it, and when he and her mother passed away, she got the house and turned it into apartments. That was it, nothing more. He sighed and even though he was going to go explore the woods on his bike, he thought it best not to make his grandma any more angrier than she was and headed up to take a bath.

The next couple of weeks were just your standard summer days, however this summer was quite dreary and grey. Despite the weather, Wybie was having probably the best summer he ever had. Now that he had his bike, he could do more longer. He could go further than before and carry more than ever. He found things and places he had never seen before and everyday was more interesting than the last. Soon enough, a month flew away as if it was just a week and his grandma was getting ready to head over to the Pink Palace to supervise the cleaning crew for the new renters.

"How long do you think you'll be?" asked Wybie excitedly, finally having the place to himself for at least for a afternoon.

"At least three hours, maybe more," she said while putting on her shawl, "That apartment actually hasn't ever had anyone in it since...well when I lived there. We've always rented out the other middle apartment. I only gave them this one because they really wanted the extra space."

"When are they moving in again?"

"Either tomorrow or the next day," she said grabbing her keys, "just depends on when they arrive."

"Well, have a fun time bossing people around," said Wybie grabbing a book and sitting down to read it, "I'm just going to stay inside today, you know since you just finished washing my jacket."

"Yes," she said glancing over her shoulder at him, "and it left the water dark brown. Honestly Wyborne, I swear you role in the mud on purpose. I've never seen a boy who can get so dirty so fast." He shrugged his shoulders and continued to read.

"And while I'm gone," she said turning back to him, "don't be watchin' no mind rottin' garbage on that t.v., I don't want you turin' into a no-good gang banger or having to take you to a psychologist because of some horror movie."

"Yeah grandma," he said sighing and looking up at her, "better be careful about what I watch, 'cuz if I watch that no good Mr. Rogers, the next thing you know I'll have tattoos and nose rings and a gun and be in a gang and have track marks on my arms and a meth lab and..."

"Don't you sass me boy," she said very sternly, "and that's exactly what I'm talking about. You shouldn't even know about those things! When this is over, I'm goin' to get one of those 'V chip' things I've been hearin' about." He groaned at that and just slumped down into the chair.

"I'll be back soon." she said and went out. He continued to look at the book until he heard the car start and drive away. He got up, looked out the window to make sure she was gone and immediately ran to the kitchen, made a horribly unhealthy Ice-cream Sunday with brownies and cookies and for all weird things canned cheese whizz toppings and ran back to the living room. He wasn't going to miss the Zombie Gore Feast Marathon on t.v. for anything. He put a pillow on the ground and turned on the t.v. and found the right channel just in time.

After a good two hours of watching bad zombie movies, Wybie himself looked like one. He was so into the movie that he didn't even hear the cat meowing for him outside the window. After several minutes of wasted breath on the cats part, the cat decided that since the boy wasn't coming to him, he would just go to the boy. The cat made its way to the roof of the house and found a open window. The cat squeezed his way thru the window and made its way downstairs. While still at the top of the stairs the cat looked down at the boy. It went down the stairs and walked up to the boy who's face was in his hands while lying on his belly on the ground watching some poor sap getting mauled by a gang of zombies. The cat walked up to him and rubbed his head against his arm. Wybie, without looking at the cat gently shoved the cat away and said in a monotone way:

"Shh...zombies....must....watch..."

The cat seemed to get annoyed with that and started to gently bat his face with his paws. Wybie rolled over and moaned, acting as if the cat had actually hurt him.

"Oh, why must you torment me! My one and only day when I can watch this and you want me to give you attention! You're a wild cat," he said rolling back to where he was, "go get a moose or something and eat that." The cat started to beat his face again, not taking no for an answer. He groaned and slowly got up and looked up at the clock.

"Ugh...I guess it was a good thing you got me up, there's only about ten minutes before grandma gets home." He went to turn off the t.v. when a particularly gory bit started to play. A man getting ripped in half while being eaten alive by zombies.

"Choke on them!" the man weakly called out.

"Ssswwweeeeeet." said Wybie and flicked off the television set. He stretched his back and felt his back pop and started to gather his plates and empty soda cans. After the living room was cleared of any debris, he walked into the kitchen and while he was making his famous 'stray cat delight' cat food, he started to talk to the cat as he usually did.

"I bet you're wondering why grandma isn't here right now, kicking you out of the house with the broom huh? Well, she's over at the Pink Palace supervising the clean up crew that's cleaning out the big middle apartment." Although he wasn't paying much attention to the cat at the moment, he could have sworn the cat growled a bit.

"I'm going as fast as I can, hold your horses." he said to the cat. "Anyway, grandma says that the new renters will ether move in tomorrow or the next day. Maybe I'll go over and see who they are, you know from a distance. I swear grandma has this sixth sense when it comes to the Pink Palace." He set down the mixed meat platter he fixed up for the cat. The cat sauntered over to the food and started to eat it. Wybie just finished putting the meats back into the fridge when...

"How many times must I tell you," said his grandma with hands on hips and a stern voice, making him nearly drop the plate, "to NOT let that ratty thing the house!"

"H-He found his way in grandma." He said in his defense. Grandma however wasn't in the mood for excuses; grabbing her broom and shuffling toward the cat.

"Shoo you! Scat! Outside with ya! Go on!" The cat looked up at her and if a cat could, would certainly would be rolling his eyes. The cat stood up and sauntered at his leisure toward the kitchen door, despite being batted by a boom. She opened the door and the cat walked out, sat down near the corner of the steps and looked up at her as if saying, 'Satisfied'? She closed the door and walked over to her grandson and said while patting his head.

"Alright, you head upstairs and have a bath and get ready for bed." He nodded and did as he was told, as he was ascending the stairs he had the sneaky suspicion that he forgot to do something.

"Wyborne Lovatt! What on earth have you been watching?!?"

"Oh, that what it was..." he said to himself rubbing his hands, "f-forgot t-to change the channel before I turned it off."