Chapter Five

"Um, like fifteen minutes..." I told Fiona on the phone after she asked how much longer before I got to Uncle Chris's.

"So, you're almost there." she said in a sad tone.

I sighed.

"Yup, I am... This is going to bite so hard..."

"It already does! School was even more horrible today and yesterday then usual. I didn't even get detention! Cody, I'm lost without you!" 

I laughed as I turned onto a back road.

"You'll be fine, Fio." I said. "If you can't think of anyway to be devious, call me and I'll help you." Fiona laughed.

"Okay, sounds good..."

"Hey, listen, I gotta go. I coming up on a town and there's a lot of people."

"Alright. Call me later, okay?"

"I'll try."

"Bye."

"Later."

I hung up my phone and slowed down as I passed a sign that said Welcome to Little Creek Tennessee.

Little Creek. I thought. You can't get anymore hick than that.

I drove through the little town, passing grinning people and playing children. It was filled with little family owned business. Not a Walmart or Dunkin Donuts in sight. I knew right away it would be worse than I thought with no Dunkin Donuts. Regular coffee is fine, but I need my Dunkin Donuts to survive. I can get through a morning with a normal brewed cup, but the whole day with out my DD? I don't think so. I was ready to just turn around and go straight home. What could Dad do? He was in a different car. But, I kept going.

I drove through the small town and down a long dirt road before getting to a very large, white farm house. It was very traditional looking. White house, red shutters, large, open front porch with rocking chairs and a side table, giant red barn in the back, huge paddock for the horses, cows and sheep grazing in a field, chickens pecking around in their coop and a couple dogs, a yellow lab and a border collie. Both of them ran headlong to our cars, barking and wagging their tales like crazy. I pulled the car to a stop and inspected my new home. It was certainly a nice house and I was looking forward to staying in a big place. But, what concerned me was all the animals. This wasn't a vacation for me. More of a punishment. So, I knew that I would be working with all the animals. I love animals, but not that kind of work. Me and Dad stepped from our cars, the dogs eager to inspect us.

Keeping my eyes fixed on the house like it might attack me, I reached down and swiped one of the dogs heads. The two of us walked up the stairs onto the porch. Dad peered inside through the screen door before knocking. Next to the door was a small, hand painted wooden sign hanging by a piece of twine on a nail, Welcome to the McQuaid's was painted in swirling letters with little ducks and flowers around it. My Uncle Chris came to the door with his trademark cocksure smile. He really wasn't that arrogant, not seriously anyway, he joked that he was, but he did look pretty full of himself sometimes. He opened the doors and welcomed us inside his country home.

The first thing he said was, "Hm, still got that blue hair I see." with a frown. I ignored his comment and inspected the house. The inside was just what you'd expect by looking at the outside. Pictures of family, animals and landscapes hung framed on the wall, there were small tables with vases and flowers and doyleys and more pictures, hard wood floors spotted with small carpets here and there, the whole place smelled like fresh baked cookies and hay.

As we walked into the kitchen I saw the expected corn decorated curtains on the window over the sink, fridge covered with children's drawings of stick figures, photos and a calender, oak cabnits with windows so you could see the perfectly displayed plates and bowls, and low-and-behold, steaming cookies ontop of the old stove. I smiled slightly. Aunt Hailey made the best chocolate chip cookies ever. The two dogs kept sniffing me and Dad, then going to the stove and back again.

"Gunner, Trixie, come on now, and stop being so annoying. Sit down." As soon as the words left Uncle Chris's mouth the dog's obeyed and sat down right were they were, only turning to face him. "Good dogs."

I smiled.

"Which is which?" I asked.

"Trixie's the collie and Gunner's the lab." Uncle Chris said. He called out Aunt Hailey who emerged from a room down the hall. She grinned wide when she saw me.

"Oh, Kodah!" she cried, using the nickname she used to use when I was little. "Look how much you've grown!" She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. When she pulled away she looked me over. "Still got that blue hair, I see." she said. I nodded.

"Not a whole lot has changed since I was twelve, Aunt Hailey." I said. I had dyed my hair when I was 10, but the last time I saw my enitre family was at a family reunion when I was 12. Aunt Hailey touched my hair before clearing her throat and moving past me to the stove.

"I made cookies, does anyone want some?" she asked. Me, Dad and Uncle Chris all eagerly said yes at the same time.

Aunt Hailey retrieved some small, decorative flower plates from a cabnit, slid on two cookies each, got four glasses of milk and set everything on place mats on the big oak table in the dining room. 

The table was very long, seating one at each end and five on each side. In front of each chair was a white place mat and in the center of the table was a short, wide green pot with real daiseys sticking out.

The four of us sat down, the dogs at our feet and we started eating the heavenly cookies. We made small talk, talking a bit about what's happened in the past five years, about the shops, lake and boardwalk in town and in the next town over, we talked about school and work, basically going over the gist of what I would be doing during my time there. Dad stayed for about an hour before he helped me bring everything inside to my new room and got ready to leave.

My room was upstairs and was actually pretty nice. I had a nice big, full sized bed with a white and green bed spread. I had a large window (which I have to say is great to 'escape' from because the roof juts out under it and theres big bushes under that), a big dresser with a mirror on it, a nice spacious closet and a small TV. The whole room was very bright and sunny, making me feel warm and content, even though I wanted to be angry. I sat down on the cushy bed and ran my hands over it. I knew that this would be my heaven after working on the farm.

"So, do you like it?" Dad asked, looking around. He wiped his finger across the top of my dresser.

I shrugged.

"It's not home, but it's nice." I answered. "The bed's comfy..."

Dad smirked.

"It'll become home soon enough, hun." he said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

I stood up with a sigh.

"I suppose." I replied. Dad and I looked awkwardly around for a minute before Dad said he should leave. I was ready to just let him walk out, and it looked like he was going to, before he stopped and wrapped his arms around me. My arms were suspended to my sides for a second before I slowly wrapped them around him. Me and my dad never really had moments, we never really hugged, we rarely even said I love you. But, I could tell that part of him felt bad for leaving me here in the strange place so far from family and friends.

I hugged him tighter and longer than I had hugged anyone before and I heard him sniff a little. I almost lost it, but was able to hold most of it back. When we pulled away both of our eyes were watering and we smiled.

"I'll see you soon, sweety, okay?" he said.

I nodded, shoving my hands in my pockets just like him.

"Okay, Dad..." I replied. He walked to the door then stopped one more time and turned to me.

"I love you, Cody." he said, staring straight into my eyes. "I really do." I nodded.

"I love you too, Dad." I said. He smiled a little and walked away.

I took a deep breath, falling back onto my bed.

Reviews

[craybeast]

I have noticed that your story would be a lot easier to read if you separated the paragraphs and used the tab button. Maybe you should enlarge the text a bit too.

[Elizabeth Reed]

I think I can probably do that =)