Teen Ink

Back to North Carolina...Again

The ride back to North Carolina seemed forever. My parents and I unloaded our stuff and unlocked our old house. You would've guessed that someone would've bought it already, but no one did. The house was the same as always, dirty and dusty. I sigh and sit on the ripped sofa. I take my sweater off and put my hand in one of the pockets. I feel something weird in there, but I can't get it. It sort of feels like a piece of folded paper. Finally I get ahold of it and open it curiously. In blue fine print writing it says, Chimney Rock Park. September 15, 1998. I look at it as if it is alien of something unknown. I go to my room and pack my stuff away, then I decide to lie down on my bed. Birds chirping and crickets making music disrupt my thoughts. I take out a pink journal from my drawer which I hardly ever used, and write down something about, Johnny. I can only imagine how sad he is right now, knowing he didn't want me to leave. A tear crawls down my eye like a spider crawling down a wall. With the light beaming down on me and making me feel warm, I decide to take a nap. I awoke after an hour and go down stairs to see what my parents were doing, but they were just lying down on the sofa asleep with a bag of chips scattered all around them. I shake my head in disgust and clean them up. After I was done, I decided to go sit on the front stairs. This was my, "Thinking Spot," as I used to call it. It had a nice view. There was a river running through my backyard and sometimes I would just go there, put my feet in it, and lie down on the fresh cut grass, listening to the birds' songs. That was my, " Relaxing Spot." I smile slowly appeared on my face as I thought about my younger days. There was just something different in the air that just wanted to make you smile all the time. It was a sweet summer smell. It's summer now, and it just doesn't feel the same. School is out and I don't really remember anyone here. " Hey," a young girl said walking up to me, " I'm Joanna."

" Hi, " I smiled, " I'm Dawn."

" Did you just move back?" she asks.

" Yeah," I reply, " why?"

" Just asking. A while back, I would see you sitting on the steps. But then suddenly you disappeared."

I laughed. The girl was probably only eight and there was just something cute about her. Her mother calls her and she skips all the way to her house. Flowers surround their house. I smile and say to myself," Maybe this isn't going to be so bad at all.