Moonstruck

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.

-Cato (act v, sc. 1)

1. Nerves

Look inside

Deep inside

Where living dreams may hide

For there you’ll find

A brand new chase

And take you to

Another place

We drove silently in the night. The only sound was the solitary hum of the tires against the asphalt of the long road. We’ve been driving for hours and my sister and I are half asleep. I doubt any of us actually knew our journey would last this long.

I attempted to position myself in a manner of which I would not proceed to bruise my elbow by the continuous tap of the roughly packed luggage jammed in the seat between my sister and I. I shivered as I slid my hand across the frosted car window. We were close though, my parents had assured me. Our new home is only a few minutes away.

I was indecisive of whether I was genuinely excited for this new place or if I was simply fooling myself to believe my false assumption. Leaving my friends behind in Florida was nearly impossible and unbearable for my aching heart to handle. Now, we are in Oregon, nearly across the country. I myself still not understanding our reasoning for driving, because it was a hassle, and pretty brainless in my opinion. Why not take a plane? Maybe a train, perhaps. But no, not my family. We did things the difficult way just to get on each other’s last nerve. Of course that was an exaggeration, but that’s how it always seemed to be planned out.

I ceased to talk to my sister within the past hour, due to her constant nagging and annoyance. Ignoring her was the only way to filter out the nonsense. She, being only thirteen, got on my nerves more than once in a day, but I came accustomed to it. I was her older sister, and as my parents say, she looks up to me so I try my best not to speak rudely to her. But I am one for sarcasm, and sarcasm can hurt. I’ve gotten in trouble many times in the past for my mouth, and I’ve tried to hold my comments in my mind.

The clouds rolled above us, as if following our path. They were dark and moist ventilation was flowed to the backseat of our car through the open front window. A storm was approaching, obviously. If it wasn’t for my dad, who usually suffered from heat stroke when it was barely even hot, the windows would be up, and my mom, sister, and I wouldn’t be shivering our skin off.

As I imagined it, I yearned for the comfort of a cozy plane, flying gracefully in the sky, getting to our destination quicker than this lousy, scraped SUV my dad still calls a vehicle. If it wasn’t for him, a plane is where we would be. It was his brilliant idea to begin with. He said we needed more quality family time, but I translated that to ‘we can’t afford a plane.’

Going bankrupt wasn’t something I was proud of, but it was true inauspiciously. Out of all the states and places to move, my dad found a job in Oregon, as I said. Probably one of the farthest states away from Florida. Yet I rendered not to complain. My family – my dad especially – was trying their hardest to provide the life they wanted us to have, and I had to be thankful for that definitely. Not many parents would go to the extreme mine do for me and my sister’s sake. I love them, but I do not love certain choices they carry out.

“We’re almost there girls. Our belongings should be arriving at our new home any minute now.” my dad exclaimed excitedly to the backseat, peering through the front view mirror to glance at my reaction.

“Finally.” Jessica – my sister – sighed.

“That’s great, Dad.” I replied trying to give him the reaction he wanted.

“Oh, come on girls. Sound more enthusiastic. Aren’t you eager to see our new home?” my mom asked, disappointed in our responses.

“We saw it online.” Jessica pointed out. I softly kicked her foot.

“Yeah, I’m excited.” I said, trying to cheer up the mood in the car.

“Overwhelmed, in fact.” Jessica mumbled sarcastically.

The sky was even darker in the distance, I realized. We would be carrying our things into the house in the rain, I assumed. What a perfect day this was going to be, I thought, the sarcasm kicking in.

My mom sighed and stretched her arms to the back of her head. “I don’t know about you, but I need to get out of this car and stretch my limbs.” she said yawning.

I definitely agreed with her.

Of course we’ve been repetitiously exiting the car and doing various things for exercise, but we needed to get out of the car for good. My knees felt frozen in place, and if I would attempt to move them, they would certainly snap.

“So how big is this town?” Jessica asked indifferently.

There was a pause of silence. “Not like a New York City.” my dad replied, reluctance in his answer. “It’s so-so.”

“Which implies . . .?” she stressed.

“It’s smaller than Tallahassee.” my mom straight-out said.

“Oh boy.”

“Come on Jess, cheer up.” I said beginning to get annoyed again. I rolled my eyes at her belligerence.

“Ugh.” was all she replied, not wanting to quarrel with me. We were all too tired to even sit up, rather than argue.

And then we were there. Our new home, shadowed by the threatening storm that hung overhead. It wasn’t large mansion-like, but it was decent. Not a shack either. It was painted an off-white with nice paneling and we’ve been informed a new door and windows were recently installed to brighten the place up. The porch stairs were wooden and pretty ancient toned. Due to our lack of wealth, we would have to put creating a new porch on hold.

The houses that surrounded the location were a yard or two away, which gave us just enough personal space.

Though I intended not to, I gave credit to my parent’s choice of structure. This house wasn’t as bad as I had presumed, and we hadn’t even gotten a look inside yet.

The U-haul trucks were parked across the street and the drivers and workers were unlatching the trunks to unload our belongings. My dad approached them, inquiring if they needed assistants. My mom unlocked the front door and flicked the lights on. Jessica and I waited anxiously behind her.

The view we soaked in wasn’t half bad in my judgment. Jessica grinned for the first time since we left Tallahassee.

“Impressive.” she murmured as we followed Mom into what we assumed to be the kitchen.

“Not bad, eh?” I asked my mom who had her hands on her hips and smiled joyfully at her new home.

“Not at all. You?” she smirked.

“I agree.”

We all seemed to sigh at the same moment. “Well let’s help the guys out.” Mom suggested.

“Fine.” Jessica allowed.

We unloaded most of the important things and saved the rest for the next day. I took my boxes up stairs, and realized we hadn’t chosen our rooms yet. Jessica was suddenly right behind me, breathing down my back.

“Well Maria . . .” she began, a hint of amusement in her tone. Her eyes flickered back and forth from the rooms upstairs. She was probably mentally figuring out which one was the biggest.

Just so we didn’t quarrel, I said, “Remember, Mom and Dad get the largest room.”

“I know, I know.” she said waving her hand as to push that concept aside. “I get the second largest of course.”

I used my usual excuse. “I’m older. I was on this planet before you were even thought of.”

She scowled. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Rock, paper, scissors?” I suggested with a shrug, setting my boxes on the floor.

“Maria . . .” She rolled her eyes. “I’m thirteen.”

“You’re never too old for rock, paper, scissors!” I gasped. “I’m sixteen.” I reminded her.

“Fine.” She held out her fist.

Then we said in unison, “Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!”

I won. “Yes.” I rejoiced.

“Not fair. Re-do.”

“Nope.” I smiled and lifted my boxes back up and examined the size of the rooms to get the second largest.

“Mom!” she complained.

“Go ahead, tattle-tale.” I snickered. It was fair. I wouldn’t have complained if Jess would have won. Or maybe I would have. But who cares.

I let the light on first before I scanned the rooms. They weren’t very huge, but it was better than nothing. In fact, if Jessica would have seen them first, she would have noticed that they are all fairly the same size. I picked one that appealed to me and set my belongings on the bare wooden bed frame that wasn’t yet accompanied by a mattress.

There was an old table located in the far right corner of the room so I took my box of necessities and emptied them on it. I went through the things I would need for tonight. Tooth brush, soap, wash cloth, contact case. My eye sight wasn’t very bad, but the eye doctor insisted I wear contacts. Of course without my parents knowledge, I rarely wore them. If I needed to read or something of the sort I pulled out my glasses, which was the next thing I retrieved from my box. I put them to my face and then rubbed them on my shirt to allow them clear.

I set them on the table and scowled. I did not want to wear glasses at all. I didn’t have much self confidence when I wore them. I felt lame, even though people told me they looked fine on me. I still thought otherwise.

Jessica was now at the door opening.

I glanced over my shoulder. “What’s up?”

“This room isn’t that big.” she scoffed. “You probably chose the smaller one in fact.”

I shrugged. “Whatever, Jess.”

She completed that she wasn’t about to irritate me and left silently.

Now it was time to see the outside world. I walked over to the window and pulled the string so that the blinds would fly up. As they did, dust poured down on my face. I coughed and eagerly looked to see my view.

It was nice, in fact. It showed the neighbors house across the street and their nice lawn and garden. A few trees in the backyard and the trampoline in the side yard, which I immediately matched up to the laughter of children that came from their backyard. I lifted the window up to get a breath of fresh air that relieved me from the humidity that lingered in this house. Though it was chilly outside, the warm, moist rain created uncomfortable humidity.

It was then I realized it had rained. The grass was shining and the sidewalks were dark with precipitation. The obscure clouds had passed and now the sun shone brightly through the remaining white marsh mellows that floated above us. The faint wind that managed to blow was calming to me and I also lifted the screen of the window to let it all in.

Then I returned to my unpacking.

Dad entered my room. “Hey honey, how do you like this place?” he asked anxiously.

I smiled. “Very cool.”

He raised his eyebrow and came over to me, watching me organize my things on the old table.

“You haven’t said much today, Maria. Everything’s okay, right? I’m not trying to butt into your business or anything, and you don’t have to tell me anything. I know it’s awkward to talk to me about things but–,”

“Dad, it’s alright.” I interrupted, cutting him off. He let his mouth close. “If anything was wrong you would know. This is just a big change for me – for all of us. You know that.”

He nodded knowingly then patted my shoulder.

“I love you. Hope you like it here.” he said as he exited.

The sky made a loud thundering noise which startled me at first. I went to my window once again and glanced over the sky. The clouds were pacing at a furious rate, and the blue that once overpowered them was turning a fierce navy blue.

It had just rained, and now it seemed as if it were to happen again. Would I ever see sunlight?

I finished unloading me possessions and figured I should head downstairs for a tour of the whole place. I met up with my mom in the hall.

“Hey hun, I haven’t seen you. What have you been doing in there?”

“Just unloading a bit.” I shrugged. We walked down the stairs and into the kitchen where Jess was leaning against one of the counters.

“I’m hungry.” she moaned throwing her head back.

“Anyone feel like going out to eat?” Mom suggested.

I mentally considered it. I guess I was more hungry than I thought because at the mention of eating, my stomach rumbled like the sky had earlier.

“Sure.” I replied.

“Jess?” Mom asked.

“Okay. I’ll get Dad.”

She ran up the stairs to find our father. I went to find the box that contained our shoes, but then noticed the shoes have been unpacked.

“Jeez, you guys got a lot of things unpacked since we arrived.” I commented.

“We’ve been here for a few hours, whether it feels like it or not.” Mom replied.

I nodded knowingly and searched for my white tennis shoes. Once I found them I browsed through the coat rack for a jacket.

“It looks like it might rain.” my mom exclaimed after slinging her purse on her shoulder. “Better take umbrella’s.” She walked off into the next room searching aimlessly for the items she obvious forget where they were placed.

I found a reasonable jacket for this occasion and put it on. That’s when Jessica returned and I knew she was about to complain, considering this was her jacket, not mine.

“Maria . . .” she began as she entered and when she took a glimpse of me she scowled and charged over. “That’s mine. I want to wear it.” she stated.

“There are plenty of other things to wear, now settle for something else.” I said and began to walk away when I was abruptly tugged backward from a grasp on the jacket. “Be mature, Jess.” I told her.

She sighed and gave me a dirty look as she went to find a different coat.

The car ride there was unbearable. We were all overly exhausted from riding in a car, and it took even longer when realizing we had no good idea of where anything was located in this small town of

After we received directions from a passerby, we stopped at the nearest restaurant.

“Table for four?” the waitress asked at the podium.

“Yes.” my mom replied. We were seated at a booth in the far corner of the room. After the waitress handed us each our menu’s, mom asked, “I want a cheeseburger, what about you guys?”

My mother was always straight forward and came right out and said what she wanted. I appreciated her.

“Same.” Jess mumbled as she pushed her menu aside.

I shrugged. “Sure.”

Mom looked at my dad for his response. “Well don’t give me a chance to look.” he chuckled. “I’ll have what you all are having too.” He also set his menu aside.

“Cheeseburgers all around then?” Mom declared.

We nodded.

The food wasn’t the greatest, but it appealed to our starving stomach’s. We each had fries to go along with the burger, and the fries were a little too salted, but just the way my dad liked his. And for desert we each had an ice cream cone. I preferred strawberry, Jess liked chocolate, my mom liked vanilla, and my dad ordered cookie-dough. When we were finished, back to the car we went.

“Well I’m full.” my dad stated rubbing his stomach.

No one said anything but it was obvious we all agreed.

“Where to next?” Mom asked, turning around in the passenger’s seat to gaze at my sister and I.

“Home.” Jess snapped.

“We were just there, don’t you want to get to know the town?”

“I meant Tallahassee.” She scowled.

Mom sighed and Dad narrowed his eyes. “Jess, don’t be difficult.” Mom urged.

Jess said nothing.

To break the tension, I said, “I’m pretty tired. Maybe we should go back to the house to rest, we all have to be exhausted. We can explore the city tomorrow.”

Mom glanced at Dad for his opinion. He nodded. “Alright.” my mom declared with a frown.

We scampered through the doorway and I settled on the couch in the room closest to the kitchen.

“What day is it?” Jessica asked.

“Sunday.” Dad replied hanging up his coat.

“Do we have to go to school tomorrow?” she asked unexcitingly.

“Of course.” Mom replied. Both Jess and I sighed.

“Come on kids, you know you have to go back to school sometime.”

“I’m never going to make friends!” Jess shouted.

“Don’t talk like that. Of course you are.”

Jess didn’t agree, and with that, stomped her way up the wooden stairs.

It was apparent my mom felt bad about moving so far away, and making us attend school tomorrow, but she is our parent and it’s her job.

“Are you nervous, Maria?” Mom asked me, taking a spot next to me on the couch. I flipped aimlessly through the channels, attempting to come up with a reasonable reply.

“I’m fine.” I said. “What do you want to watch?” I found it a little too obvious I was trying to change the topic.

I took a look at my mom’s expression and she didn’t look her happy, cheerful self. “Don’t worry about us.” I insisted with a grin.

“I know.” was all she answered.

I reminisced through my yearbook from my previous school. As I scanned the faces of former friends and classmates, I reluctantly became homesick. I wouldn’t see most of these people ever again. It’s not like I could drive back to Tallahassee for the weekend and visit. The ache in my heart burned for the presence of a familiar face, and I could do nothing to cease this passion.

What would I do tomorrow when I roamed through the halls of the foreign school? As I imagined it, I would surely be lost. Worrying about tomorrow was ruining my day, and I had to make the best of it. This is the first day in our new home, and all I was doing was locking myself in my room, yearning for the past. I had to pull myself together or my parents would come to the conclusion that I was utterly depressed, which was only a fraction of the truth. Depressed is a morbid word, but it was difficult to live without.

I flipped through the last few pages of the book and soaked in the last of the faces which were so far away. And at last, I came to the page titles “Autographs.” This is the place where I had my friends and classmates sign before the school year ended, and this was before anyone knew I was moving to Oregon. I read a few phrases. “Good year, Maria! See you next year! - Jan.” “BFF, have a great summer vacation! - Ryleigh.” “I love you Maria! Can’t wait to hang out this summer! - Gretta.”

The signatures continued on. I had to stop before reading these phrases made me physically sick.

I closed the book with a thud and slid it under my bed frame. I frowned at the lost memories, but was quickly distracted when a loud knock on the front door caught my attention. Becoming curious, I slipped down the stairs silently and peered around the banister. My mom unlocked and opened the door, to find a woman with a tray of cookies. The woman smiled pleasantly and handed my mom the tray. “Welcome to the neighborhood.” she greeted.

“Thank you.” I heard my mom say. “Please come in. Would you like some coffee?”

The conversation continued on out my hearing ability. At least we now knew we had one friendly neighbor. I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone my age lived around these parts, but it didn’t truly matter. I wasn’t contriving on making any good friends soon.

I figured meeting someone knew would due good for me, so I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen where my mom was brewing up some coffee as our new neighbor spoke about the city.

I walked into the kitchen and my mom immediately introduced me.

“June, this is my other daughter Maria.” she said with a smile. This woman obviously was introduced to Jessica already.

I smiled warmly as well.

“Nice to meet you.” she told me.

I nodded as if agreeing the same.

And that’s when I realized I didn’t particularly want to socialize and made my way into the living room to watch TV with Jess.

“You’re daughter is so pretty, Kate.” I heard the woman – June – compliment as I left the kitchen.

I watched meaningless cartoons with my sister for awhile until it began to become late. Dad yawned and stood up from the reclining chair. “Time for bed for me.” he said and stretched his arms behind his back. Before he departed to the upstairs, he entered the kitchen to say good night to my mom and June, who still sat at the kitchen table. “Good night girls.” he called to Jess and I as he wondered up stairs.

“Night.” we both replied in unison.

I looked up at the clock. We did have school tomorrow, so going to sleep wasn’t a half-bad idea. “When are you going to bed?” I asked Jessica inevitably. She shrugged and kept her eyes glued to the TV. “We have school tomorrow.” I reminded her skeptically. With that, she scowled.

“Don’t remind me.” she grumbled and flipped the channel.

I sighed. “Don’t stay up too late.” I wished her a good night and went to do the same to my mom and our guest in the kitchen.

“Oh, I didn’t realize it was this late. I better be going.” June gasped as she checked her watch.

“Night honey.” Mom said to me. She got up and escorted June to the door. “Thank you so much for the cookies, June –,” I walked up the stairs and into my room, closing the door behind me. I laid myself on my bed, which I realized my mattress had been placed there finally, and peered up at the dark room.

I searched for a hooked up phone, dying to talk to one of my former friends back in Florida. I hadn’t thought about communicating with them all day, fearing I would surely break down when I heard their voice. Instead, I searched for my cell phone which had been placed in my purse. My purse was nowhere in sight, which was unusual in my case, being as I always had to have my purse with me. I checked Jess’s room and then peeked into my parents room, attempting not to wake my dad. Unfortunately it was in their room, for whatever odd reason as it may.

I tip toed into the room and grabbed my purse from their vanity and snuck out without making a single creek. I rummaged through my purse and located my cell phone, flipping it open eagerly.

For the rest of the time before I went to sleep, I read the text messages I received throughout the day from my friends down in Florida.

All thirty messages.