Part 1
My black hair whipped around my face. I was so happy in the field, with my horse. Starlight was my horse. Black as the nighttime sky, her tail and mane were silver. Her bright blue eyes were full of happiness. So were my green eyes. With Starlight, she looked like the sky. With me, I looked like snow. I had snow pale skin and rose red lips. I was getting ready to go riding. Starlight had a silver saddle. Diamonds decorated it. My mother had given it to me, just like my locket. The locket was made of silver and shaped like a heart. I keep it hidden under my dress at all times, it was valuable. I swung onto the saddle. My silver skirt covering my boots. My whole outfit had black thread. My friends said I looked like a moon on Starlight, or any other time. They say they envy me. Me, with my mother gone and a father who never talks to me. I envy Annie. She has beautiful sunny blond hair, tanned skin, pale lips and blue eyes. She always wore pink, most of the time powder pink. But most of all, she has both her parents. I wish I had that. Also her horse had blue eyes. Her horse was white, with a light tan mane and tail. The horse was named Daisy. She had a locket as well, except her locket was gold. I turned Starlight to our favorite path. It was Waterfall Water. We rode through the trees. Small rain drops fell. But I didn’t mind rain, the waterfall would be dry. I loved the felling of the rain on my skin. It was just the right temperature. Pitter-patter, pitter-patter. The rain was falling heavier now. If we stayed in it much longer, we’d be soaked. Starlight wined. She always whinnies when we near the waterfall. I could see the waterfall now. Its water came of from Gem River. We reached wet rock. That’s what we call the rock we take shelter under. I slid of Starlight and she went to get a drink. I sat down on a cool rock under wet rock. Wet rock sat right next to the waterfall. I could fell the spray of the water on my face. It was warm, as warm as the rain had been. I took out the letter my Aunt had sent.

Dear Kristy,
Kristy, I hope you are well. You seem to be taking your mothers death very well. But from what you have told me, your father never talks to you. I suspect he is still very sad over his wife’s death and needs to get used to it. Remember, he hardly saw you before. He might not know what to say. What I suggest is to let him be. Next week, talk to him. See if he is ready to talk to you. If not, tell me. I might need to talk to him if it’s taking him so long.
Your Aunt,
Jane

I finished reading the letter. I knew Aunt Jane was right. That was the problem with father. Or maybe he didn’t like me; I was the only thing that reminded him of my mother. I heard horse hoofs. They stopped right outside wet rock. I heard someone slide off their horse and land in the water. “Hey!” Hannah poked her head under the rock. Her curly brown hair hung over her face, the same color as her brown eyes. She always wore yellow, so she looked like a sunflower. Her horse, Sunny, poked her head under the rock as well. She was brown with a cream yellow mane and tail. Her eyes were the same color as Hannah’s. Hannah came down to sit by me. She read the first few sentences of the letter before I closed it back up. “Who was that from?” She asked. Hannah was always curios. I gave her a look that said ‘none of your business’ and she fell silent. We sat listing to the sound of the waterfall. I was thinking about mother. About all the fun we had under the rock. When I was three we had a picnic under here. I had one bad memory of the place. This was the place mother had got sick in. She and I were sitting here, reading. It was summertime, so mosquitoes were out. Mother had yelped out in pain. She had been bit by a mosquito. Then she fainted. The mosquito had carried the deathly sickness called Malaria. She died one week later. I started to cry. I couldn’t help it. That memory was so sad. Hannah saw that I was crying. She came over and hugged me. We were close friends. Our parents were like brother and sister, now that mother had died. Her father had died, so my father and her mother talked more. We didn’t need to talk. We understood each other in a way no one could talk about. “Are you ok?” Hannah whispered in my ear. I nodded and she released me. We went back to listing to the waterfall. I wondered what she was thinking about. I could still hear the rain on the rock. After a wile Hannah got up. “Coming?” She asked. I nodded. As I stood up, I knew I needed to ask Hannah something. As we jumped on our horses and started to ride back I was quiet. But I needed to know this. I rode up to her.
“Hannah” I said “I need to ask you something.”
“I’m all ears.” She replied.
“How does your mom react to your father’s death?” I don’t know why I asked, I just needed to know.
“Well, she won’t talk to me. And it’s been a month now.” That surprised me. A month!
“I could ask my Aunt Jane to talk to her.” Hannah smiled.
“Thanks. I think she would like that.” By that time we had reached the field. I was not surprised to see all my other friends. I saw Annie, with her blond hair blowing around her face. I saw Mary, with her blue eyes, dirty blond hair and a blue dress. Her brown horse with a black mane and tail named Cookie. I saw Amy, with her dark brown hair, aqua eyes and a green dress. Her black horse had a cream colored mane and tail. She was named Oreo. Her eyes were the same color as Amy’s. I saw Cary, with her gray eyes, brown hair, and brown dress. She was the only one sitting on her horse. Her horse was tan with a white mane and tail. She was named Lily. All my friends were there. All of them were smiling. We rode up to them. As we rode, I could hear the mud under our horse’s hoofs. It sounded squishy. It sucked as they picked up their hoofs, then it squishing when they put their hoofs down. The clouds were still in the sky, so the sky was still gray and cloudy. It wasn’t raining any more. But I could fell drops from the trees. The wind was blowing and it was bringing drops from the leafs.
“Hello” All my friends said at the same time. Hannah and I said hello as well. Hannah slide off her horse and walked over to our friends, leading her horse. She looked like she was walking to our friends but I could tell she was heading to the barn. Indeed she was. When she reached it she went inside. I fallowed. Starlight’s stall was in the back, next to Sunny’s. I noticed that the hay on the floor of the stall was dirty. I went to get a shovel. When I got back I saw that Hannah was brushing Sunny. I cleaned out Starlight’s stall. Then I started brushing her. Starlight was always silky, but I wanted something to do. I heard a sound. It was crying. The sound was loud. I poked my head out of the stall. I turned my head and saw it was Hannah crying. Tears pored down her face. Her brown eyes were wet. Her tears dripped onto Sunny. Her usually curly hair was stringy, it covered her face. I didn’t know if I should go in the stall and try to comfort her, or let her cry. I didn’t want someone else to see her cry. I opened the door of the stall. It creaked quietly, but not so loud that Hannah could hear it. As I got closer, I noticed how much she was crying. Her whole face was covered in tears. Her face was red. I walked over to her. I was as quiet as I could be. I put my arms around her. She still didn’t hear me. I pulled her into a hug. She turned her body so she could hug me as well. I really wanted to know why she was crying, but I thought it might be rude to ask.
“Shh” I whispered in her ear. She pulled away. She looked at me.
“I know you’re wondering why I was crying.” She told me. I hung my head. I could just see her face. Her frown had turned into a small smile. I nodded. “Its okay” she told me “I need to tell someone I trust about it.”
“About what?” She started crying again. As she cried she told me.
“My mother has become very sick. I just found out but already she has doctors around the clock. No one knows what she has, but they think it is deathly.” She burst into lots of tears. She flung herself onto me. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t think Hannah had ever burst into tears. I patted her back. “If it is deathly and she dies, I’ll have no one. Nether of my parents had any brothers or sisters. Their parents had died last year.” Now I understood why she was crying. If her mother died, she would have no one to live with. I heard someone else come into the barn. They were leading a horse. They stopped outside the stall right next to the one we were in.
“Hey” It was Mary. Her dirty blond hair was wet. “It started raining again. Want to come to my house for hot coco?” Hannah pulled away.
“No thank you Mary. Mother expects me home.” With that she left the stall. Mary looked at me.
“You?” I shrugged.
“Sure.” Mary smiled and left. As she headed to the door of the barn she told me
“Meet us at love tree in fifteen min.s” I was happy that she’d used my name for the oak tree. Love tree was an oak tree, the oldest in the woods. Right beside it was a weeping willow, and a pine. All their roots were mixed under the soil. I called the trees tear tree, life tree and love tree. Tear tree was the weeping willow, life tree was the pine and love tree was the oak. Together, three life. I arrived there five minutes later, having have feed Starlight. Right beside the field was the graveyard where mother was buried. I walked in to see her grave. It was in the corner, under a flowering tree. Having the season just turn spring, the tree was full of buds. Mother’s grave had a carving of three life on it. Above that was the saying, ‘Cry is tear, live is life and heart is love.’ That was mother’s favorite saying. It was talking about three life. Above that was mother’s name, birth date and death date. It read, ‘Angel Mary Love Moy, born 19th of June, 1965, died 19th of June, 1995.’ Mother had died on her birthday, one week after she got ill with Malaria. I stood there for sometime, thinking. I was thinking about how life had been with mother. We always laughed and we always had fun. We rode together. She on her horse Moonshine and I on Starlight. Moonshine was Starlight’s mother, just like Angel Mary was mine. We always went to wet rock, under the waterfall. We never talked there, we just sat and read, maybe drew. Other times we’d just sit, arms around each other, and listing to the water on the rock.
“Mother” I whispered, “Can you hear me?” The day was cold, but when I said that I felt a breeze. A warm breeze, like one someone craves on a hot sunny day. “Mother, you can hear me?” I wanted to talk to her. But then I burst into tears. What had I expected? A sprite to rise out of the ground? An angle to come down from the skies? A voice? I turned and left the graveyard, to sad to stay. When I got to three life I saw that Amy had arrived. She was starring out into the graveyard. As I neared her I heard crying. Closer and I could see the tears running down her cheek. Her aqua eyes wet with tears. Her dark brown hair hanging around her face. She heard me. As she turned I saw her wipe tears from her eyes. Then she burst into tears, throwing herself on me.
“Kevin, my little baby brother died last month. He was buried here. I thought I should tell you, you know how to handle this sort of thing.” Then she pulled away and turned towered the path. I turned too. All our other friends were coming. Annie, Mary and Cary were laughing and talking as they came. Cary was the one who noticed them first.
“Hi guys!” She called. That made Annie and Mary turn and say hi. Then Mary turned to the road.
“My mom’s coming. Stand back!” She told us. Her mother drove a white car, like the one I had, but much bigger. She drove fast. As she stopped, she went a foot longer. The window went down and she poked her head out. She had blond hair and blue eyes like Mary.
“Come on in” She said. We walked towered the car. Amy and I were in the back, walking very slowly. I could tell that she was upset, but she did not want to cry in front of the others. In the car we sat in the back, were we could talk and not be over heard. The car had a glass window between each row of seats. There were three rows. Amy sat beside me, staring out the window. She didn’t say anything. I didn’t ether; I didn’t want to make her cry any more. But I shouldn’t have worried. Tears were running down her cheeks. My hand found her hand. We stayed like that the whole ride. When we neared Mary’s house, I started to look out the window. Her street was lined with maple trees, waving in the fresh fall breeze. Her house was two stories. The paint was white, with chocolate brown shutters. The top story windows were partly open. Her lawn had a few maple trees spread about. As we pulled up Mary’s mom yelled out, “We’re here!” As we stepped out Mary’s dad came out. He had a lose light blue shirt with jeans. A cup of coffee in his hand. His hair was shortly cropped, jelled over but still rumpled. (probity because he ran his hand through it so much.) His hair was dirty blond, a few gray streaks. His eyes were blue. “Hi Jim” Mary’s mom said. She was wearing a red sweater with light blue jeans. She had light blue eyes. Her blond hair was bulled back into a ponytail by a red hair tie. She had small red gem earrings. Mary’s dad walked over and hugged her. Then he went over to Mary and said,
“There’s my girl” as he rumpled her hair. As we walked to the house Amy keep holding my hand. If anyone else noticed, they didn’t say anything. The inside was just as pretty as the outside. The walls were an off white, with brown wood frames full of photos of Mary and another kid I didn’t recognize. The kitchen had a veiw of the trees in the front. It had brown wood cabinets, a brown wood table and brown wood chairs. And in one of those chairs was a boy. It was the boy in the photo. He had blond hair like his mother but he had green eyes. His hair was like his fathers, neat, but still messy. He had on a green shirt with blue jeans. He looked about our age. He was drawing a picture. I went grass. There were a few trees here and there. There was a picnic set up under the biggest tree. A girl and boy were sitting there. He only had the heads, but the girl looked like me and the boy looked like him. Mary’s mom saw me looking at him.
“Oh that’s Alec. He’s Mary’s twin.” Alec looked up from what he was doing.
"Hi" he said. Then he turned back to his drawing. Though I don’t think anyone else saw it, his eyes flickered to look at me. Then he started on the body of the boy. As I turned back to face the other girls I heard the water boiling.
“Why don’t you go into the dining room and wait?” Mary’s mom suggested.
“OK” Mary said. As we walked there I saw that Alec had stood up and followed us. The dining room was amazing. The walls were a deep blue with famous paintings. As I walked up to one I saw Alec’s name on it. I then saw how the paintings were made with pencil. The floor was a rug that was a deeper blue then the walls. It was soft. You could step and sink a little down. The table was a dark wood. When we had gotten in there a maid had been setting the table. The table had deep blue mugs on it. Though I think soon it would be set for dinner. Alec sat down in one of the seats. All the other girls had sat down. As I walked over to a set I noticed that all the seats had a deep blue cushion. We all just sat in our seats as we waited for the hot coco. As it turned out I had sat down next to Alec. He was now drawing the girl. Now I knew the girl was me. She was wherein the same dress I always wore in the spring. That was the season I guessed it was in his drawing. In the drawing I was wherein a short black dress. It just went over my knees. The sleeves where straps. He was wherein what he was now. Though the shirt was black and his hair was neater. I loved the drawing. I could almost fell the nice breeze and warm sun on my back. I could taste the fruit that was in the basket. An apple, a strawberry, a grape, a pear and an orange. Now I heard Mary’s mom coming with the hot coco. She pored some into each cup. She left us marshmallows and cookies. Also ice cubs. After I took some marshmallows I took a sip of the hot coco. It was creamy, I could taste the chocolate. She had added a little sugar. I dropped in two marshmallows. I took another sip. I got a marshmallow that time. It was creamy and sugary. I could taste the chocolate it had gathered up. I was in heaven with it. As I was drinking the chocolaty goodness I heard the doorbell ring. Mary’s mom opened the door and said,
“Come in” I could hear footsteps nearing the dining room. “They are in here.” Mary’s mom said. I put down my mug and cleaned my face. The first thing I saw was the back of Mary’s moms head as she said, “Here we are” And then she stepped back. The girl was wearing a red dress with a ruby necklace. She had red hair and brown eyes. I did not recognize the girl but Mary did. “Alice!” She said. The girl looked up at that name, so I guessed it was her name. She walked over to Mary and whispered in her ear. Mary looked startled at what Alice said. Then she whispered back an answer. Alice nodded, and smiled. Then Mary turned to face the rest of us.
“Guys, this is Alice. She lives at the stables.” Then Cary remembered.
“I saw you” she said “I saw you cleaning one of the stalls