Lilly, her
eyes gazing out the window at the passing scenery, noted their entrance to the
park. The sight brought memories of her
younger self floating to the surface as she recalled all the time she had spent
at this lake, at first with her parents and siblings, then with her friends and
finally with her husband and their first two children. She gave a quick glance into the backseat
where her youngest sat, his two favorite dinosaurs held in his lap. At eight-years-old he had not been born when
Lily and her husband Brad moved away and she wondered what he thought of the
upper mid-west area, so different from the southern California coast he was
familiar with.
She turned
back around, rolled her window down and paid the entrance fee to the
attendant. In the driver’s seat Brad sat
tapping the steering wheel with his thumb in rhythm to the song emanating from
the speakers. He had been opposed to
this trip back; rather vocal in fact about his opinion she should leave well
enough alone, that there wasn’t anything to gain by coming back and, yet, she
felt deep down there was. No doubt Mike
had in his keeping the book that had caused so much contention between them. Not that he could use it or make anything of
it; it was handed down mother to daughter when the daughter was ready to take
on the mantel of responsibility possessing it required. Something she had never wanted, going so far
as insisting her younger sister be just as involved in the study of the
knowledge contained inside as she was.
All she wanted was a normal life of hanging out with her friends,
movies, concerts and shopping, even a regular, uneventful, job as a
receptionist for a local manufacturing company was better than the crazy,
bizarre world of her mother’s family.
She sighed
as Brad pulled the car into a parking spot next to her sister’s vehicle and
resolved herself to make the best of things.
To Be
Continued…
