Home Sweet Home*
For the hundredth time, Powder Lane readjusted the dragonfly clip in her blue hair.
She sighed from the backseat of the family van, huffing fog on the car window. She drew a sun with her finger, but it didn't make the gray sky outside look more cheerful. The rain was battering against the windows and blurring the landscape outside. Endless stretches of pine trees loomed like dark mountains in the glass. The lights of cars and stoplights were large, colorful, glowing blotches against the gray.
Groaning, Powder tried to stretch her body in the cramped backseat, surrounded by suitcases and her backpack shoved to one side to make a pillow. But she couldn't quite get the satisfactory relief she was looking for. Her aching body increased her scowl, which matched the headache she was trying to ignore.
The mood was equally dreary and somber in the whole van. Her older brothers were napping in the two bucket seats in front of her. Her big sister – the one person Powder wanted to sit with – was at the very front, slouched in the passenger seat, feet on the dash, earbuds in her ears, head down. Presumably reading a book.
Hours ago, the trip had been a lot more exciting with the occasional DVD movie, or a game of I-spy, or Twenty-questions, or singing loudly to a familiar song playing on the radio. But those hours were long gone behind them.
"How much longer?" asked Powder from the backseat.
Instead of her sister answering, the driver did. Built like a bear, with grizzly brown hair to match, the back of a large head turned slightly in the driver's seat, blue eyes looking back at Powder from the rearview mirror.
"Nearly there," Vander said in his deep Australian accent, reverberating like a relaxed tiger's chuff, as he turned the wheel.
Powder huffed, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. She looked out the window again as the road turned and bent like a snake, going uphill. It was unfamiliar and winding, so she tried to memorize it. Miles and miles of pine trees stood like sentinels along the winding road. In between breaks in the trees, she could see the small town a few miles below the hill, in the distance.
Then the van pulled into a long, dirt and gravel driveway.
Laying across the driveway was a huge oak tree, which must've fallen over in a storm, ripped up by the roots. But instead of moving the heavy tree, the trunk was sawed in half, removing the middle portion, so the driveway was unblocked.
Vander carefully drove through.
Then… the van finally pulled to a stop.
As soon as Vander turned the key and the vibration of the engine ceased, Powder wanted to get out. She would've climbed over everything; all their luggage and her older brothers, now just rousing from their nap, to get out fast enough.
But when she looked up at their new home… she stopped and reconsidered.
It was a completely different style home than they were used to. An apartment above a bar. From what Powder knew, coming here, it was a very old house. But she didn't think it would be so… classy. Or so big.
It was two stories tall and looked like a dollhouse from the Victorian era. It had an attic under the roof, and a cellar under the ground, and a separate garage on the other side of the driveway.
Powder thought the name 'Pink Palace Apartments' was supposed to be a gimmick. But the house was, indeed, painted a very odd shade of pink, compared to the dreary landscape and misty woods behind it.
Powder knew her family wouldn't own the whole house. It was too big for that. Instead, they would own part of it. Some old ladies lived in the basement, someone lived in the attic, and her family would live in a portion of the house, divided somewhere in the middle.
The other half of the house was still unoccupied. She hoped whoever would be their neighbors would like kids. Or at least, loud music.
"Here we are!" said Vander from the driver's seat, stretching his back, "Home sweet home."
Everyone in the van stared up at the house through their windows for a moment of silence. Looking up at it, surrounded with their meager belongings wasn't exactly a moment of triumph for them. It brought back memories of mixed-up feelings, but mostly a feeling of trying not to feel defeat.
One of Powder's brothers was first to break the silence. The lanky one with a shock of brown hair like asparagus, bushy eyebrows, and crooked front teeth.
"Hey! It matches you!" Mylo teased, leaning over the back of the passenger seat, and poking a finger in the cheek of their big sister.
Scowling, with her earbuds in and her burgundy sweatshirt covering her pink hair, Violet grabbed his finger, squeezing it as Mylo half laughed and half whimpered in surrender, "Well, it does!"
Ignoring their squabbling, Vander announced, "Alright, everyone out!", leaning back as he set the van in park and stepped out the driver's side door.
Vi released Mylo, leaving him to cradle his hand. Powder kicked the back of Mylo's seat, snickering, and stuck out her tongue at him. Mylo glared at Powder and stuck out his tongue back at her.
Condemned as the smallest, Powder waited in the backseat, surrounded by the luggage they couldn't fit in the back hatch of the van. While her siblings piled out first, she waited as they took turns hauling their bags out of the van, making enough room for her to climb out.
Standing up right for the first time in hours, Powder gingerly stretched her arms above her head, feeling the blood pulse back into body parts she neglected. A yawn escaped her.
At least the rain slowed down to a light mist. But with all the soggy grass, Powder was reluctant to put her backpack or suitcase down on the ground.
With their varying collection of suitcases, duffle bags, and backpacks in hand, Powder followed as the family moved from standing on the lawn to standing under the eave of the front porch, not sure what to do next.
Powder's second brother, the large one with a mop of brown curls on his head, obscuring his small, brown eyes, was trying to daintily rub his foggy glasses clean with his big hands, using the corner of his yellow shirt.
"Aren't the movers supposed to be here?" Claggor voiced to the group.
Everyone looked around but it was obvious the moving truck wasn't in the driveway.
"I'll call them. They should be here soon," said Vander with his deep voice. He then winced, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Hey, you okay?" Vi asked, her eyes on him like a hawk. It was the first time she took out one of her earbuds in hours.
"I'm fine, Vi," Vander said, his eyes twinkling the way they always did when he smirked, waving it off. "Just sore from sitting. I'll feel better in a bit."
Vi didn't seem a hundred percent convinced as Vander went to the front door, but she didn't pursue it. Vander dug into his leather jacket and pulled out a jangly key ring.
"Why don't you kids go settle in and explore a bit?" Vander said as he unlocked the front door with his brass copy of the house key. "Just be careful of going too far from the house," he warned, looking at each of them, "I heard there's an old well somewhere on the property. Don't want you kids falling in or getting lost."
"We won't," said Vi, shouldering her backpack, standing a little taller.
As soon as Vander opened the door, Mylo suddenly pushed past Claggor and Vi, shouting, "I call dibs on the best room!" then ran into the house, haphazardly pushing through the front door with the stained-glass window.
Claggor tried but missed grabbing Mylo at the back of his brown hoodie. Putting his suitcase under his arm, Claggor chased after Mylo.
"You don't get to call dibs every time!" he called as he also lumbered through the front door, rattling the fragile door.
"Guys! Don't go breaking something in the first ten minutes of us being here!" Vi shouted after them, but Powder knew it was useless at this point.
Their brothers were gone, their voices carrying from some distant place throughout the house.
With a sound between a chuckle and a relieved sigh, Vander took out his cellphone and walked along the length of the porch, phone to his ear. Vi rolled her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, grumbling under her breath.
Powder stood still, staring at the very dark interior of the house.
"Come on," Vi said, smiling brightly to Powder, "Let's see what we're working with," taking both hers and Powder's suitcases in her hands before stepping inside.
The interior of the house was dark, almost pitch black, shapes not yet fully formed, yet Vi walked fearlessly inside, like it was nothing.
Powder stood still in the doorway.
Despite being twelve, Powder was rather reluctant to follow her sister immediately inside. It wasn't like the house was particularly scary. It was just old. But she still swallowed a lump in the back of her throat.
She tried to convince herself, like she did in the car ride, how she was going to love exploring this new place. New sights and wonders to find. But now, in this moment, there was no turning back. No more of the familiar to retreat to. This darkness was more scary than exciting.
"Wherever you guys are, can you at least find a light switch?" Vi's voice called from somewhere in the darkness.
Her palms a little sweaty, Powder held her breath and stepped through the doorway. At first, it took Powder a moment for her eyes to adjust somewhat to the dark. She tried to feel for the wall but didn't find anything like a switch. Ahead of her, she heard someone rummaging in the shadows until there was a click and a light appeared from above.
She found Vi thirty feet away, standing at the bottom of a staircase, her hand on a light switch on the wall. A chandelier above them glowed warmly. Its lightbulbs were dusty, but bright.
Vi smirked at Powder, a glint in her eyes that seemed to know everything. Powder smiled a little and nodded back.
With the light on, the inside of the house looked just as old and antique as the outside, albeit empty of nearly all furniture. When Powder took her shoes off, she felt the hardwood floor was polished smooth and slippery. A very, very long, dirty, beige carpet runner extended all the way down a very long hallway, from one end of the house to the other. The carpet was the only thing that made the floor walkable.
The walls in the hallway had faded, pink, floral wallpaper. The kind of wallpaper that repeated its flowery pattern over and over again to a dizzying degree. Powder thought she could smell old glue. By the front door, she opened a plain, wooden door that squeaked on its hinges. She found an empty coat closet and an umbrella stand with a few walking canes left behind.
In a few steps from the front entrance, the hallway opened into the foyer with the staircase. Beyond it, the hallway extended. Other doors to other rooms branched off from there. Dust floated in the air in the light. Otherwise, the house looked rather bleak and grungy.
Violet glanced up the staircase that curved up the wall to the second floor. Keeping half an eye on her big sister, Powder wandered a little away, stepping through a pair of double doors into a nearby room.
A living room. No, a drawing room, she believed it was called.
Powder didn't find a light switch right away, so her shadow stretched on the floor like a tall, thin woman. Lacy curtains hung from the tall windows, dimming most of the light. Powder went to the closest and pulled the curtains apart. She coughed at the clouds of dust, waving a hand over her nose.
The bleak weather outside barely helped lighten more of the room, but she could see everything. The walls were pale, mint-colored wallpaper. A weirdly round wardrobe stood behind a fancy sitting couch. The couch faced a stone fireplace built into the wall. Two windows stood on either side of the chimney. The third window, above a coiling radiator, looked somewhere out onto the lawn – but Powder didn't know where yet.
She noticed there was no cable outlet installed in the walls and there wasn't a place to mount a TV. Powder knelt beside the fireplace and wondered if it had been used to make real fires before. She tried to stick her head inside but couldn't see the sky.
"Hey, Powder! Come here!" Vi called from somewhere further back in the house.
Powder stood up, brushing off her sooty hands on her pants. She followed her sister's voice past the bottom of the staircase, down the hallway, past a long dining room with a long table, into what she realized was the kitchen.
The walls here were pale yellow. So were the cupboards. The floor changed from polished hardwood to boring, blue, and white, square tile. The countertops were gray, and the backsplash was plain, white, square tiles.
Vi was standing in front of a white gas oven, testing the knobs, and making the pilot light ignite. On and off. On and off.
"Check this out! This one works a lot better than our old, crappy oven!" Vi said with a proud grin, patting the oven like it was a car. "I am gonna miss that old girl, though," she admitted with a little sigh.
Ever since Powder could remember, she had always seen Vi sneak off into the kitchen. From following their mother around in the kitchen to making a separate meal for Powder to eat.
Powder had always been a picky eater and could always count on Vi to make something else that she would like.
"Remember when Vander tried to make those chickens?" Vi snickered to herself.
Powder merely nodded from where she stood in the doorway. Tight knots twisted in her stomach for a moment, wondering what dinner would be tonight, but her big sister didn't notice.
Just then, the girls heard an engine, like a semitruck, heading up the road. From the kitchen window above the sink, they looked out and could see the moving truck appear, turning around a corner behind some trees and backing into the driveway.
"Looks like they're here," Vi said, readjusting her sweatshirt, dusted herself off, and looked up to the ceiling. "Come on, guys, let's go!" she called into the house for Mylo and Claggor.
Vi led the way back down the hallway toward the front door. Her strides a little faster, rolling up her sleeves to her elbows.
Powder followed Vi a few paces behind as she left the kitchen, heading into the foyer toward the front door. As Vi walked out the front door, Powder stepped into the foyer.
Suddenly, a figure jumped out at her from around the corner, wearing a gorilla mask.
"BWAHH!" the creature shouted in Powder's face.
Powder yelped as she tripped backward, falling on her tailbone. The gorilla took the mask off his head, bent in half from laughing.
"That wasn't even funny!" Powder snapped.
Mylo wiped a tear from his eye. "It was still worth it!"
"Mylo! Are you gonna move your ass or what?" Vi's voice called from outside.
It was evident from her tone that she hadn't witnessed what had happened.
"Yeah, yeah, coming!" Mylo huffed, tossing the mask aside. He was still snickering to himself as he went outside, leaving Powder alone.
Claggor slowly came around the corner and looked apologetic. He held out a hand to her.
"Sorry, Powder. I thought he was gonna target Vi," he said.
Still stung from the scare, Powder didn't know what to say. She didn't acknowledge him as he helped her stand up.
Powder tried to forget the sting of failing to catch herself before falling. She brushed herself off and walked toward the front door again.
Once Powder stepped outside in the obscure, overcast, sunlight, she found Vi waiting for her on the porch. It was clear on her sister's face that she had no clue what just happened.
"Hey, you okay?" Vi asked, gently.
Powder shrugged. "I guess," she said, looking at her feet.
Her big sister put an arm around her shoulders and led her off the porch. "It'll take a while to get used to it, but we've done it before."
Powder wanted to roll her eyes and say, "Yeah, five times already," but Vi sounded too happy to interrupt her.
"We got the rest of summer to make this place our own. I'm glad we're here. It'll be a new chapter for us. You'll see. You'll make new friends before you know it."
"New friends?" Powder asked, confused at Vi implying she had any to begin with.
"Yes, friends," Vi said.
"I don't want friends," Powder scowled.
Vi pinched her nose. "Too bad. You need at least a few good ones. You can't keep avoiding making them because you're scared."
"I'm not scared," Powder frowned. "I'm not like you, or Claggor, or Mylo! It's easy for you to make friends! You guys get to be in the same grade!"
"Powder, I'm not –" Vi started, but shook her head. "Yes, it will be different without us in the same school, but you'll see us at home. And we get the weekends to ourselves, you know."
Powder shrugged. "Sure, fine."
Vi smiled a bit. "You'll be ready. Don't worry."
Her sister said that so often that Powder wasn't sure what it meant anymore.
Standing beside her, Powder eyed the house, pursing her lips in an unsure frown.
Before Vi could walk away, an idea suddenly brightened Powder's mood. She remembered something important and jumped to grab her backpack on the porch.
"Oh, Vi! Look at this!" Powder dug for her sketchbook. "I drew it in the car –"
But she barely got a word in before they heard Mylo cry out. They both looked up and quickly spotted him struggling to lift a cabinet off the moving truck in the distance.
"Mylo! Let the movers take that!" Vi called as she quickly ran across the lawn to stop the cabinet from falling on top of their brother.
Powder stood on the lawn with her sketch book and sighed, hugging it to her chest. It was so easy for Vi to get called away at a moment's notice, these days. And it was so hard to predict when she would be free again.
Powder could vaguely hear Mylo and Vi arguing, but she didn't listen. She didn't want to get into all of that. She didn't like people fighting.
Sighing, Powder took her backpack and dragged it into the house.