The Lunar Phase

CHAPTER 1: A BAD GIRL’S SAD TALE! YEAH RIGHT!

It rains all the time here in Forks. Sometimes I wonder if the rain-gods up were in some kind of conspiracy to drench the moods of the decent people here. I, for most of the part, seriously love the clean freshness that follows after every shower. Post the first shower… when it is still drizzling, the air fills up with a kind of minty breeze… you get all sort of smells… some good some bad…some unforgettable… like the smell of wild flowers that adorn my backyard… leading to the forest behind. When I was a little girl, still trying to understand why mum and dad were no longer together and why did I have to write a letter instead of staying with my sister, I would walk into the wilderness pretending I was little red riding hood. I had a red cloak to match my imagination. Curiously the wolf never bothered me. The picture books would describe the meanness of the wolf in bold strokes. But for me….the wolf was mean because nobody played with him. As for eating grandma…well…he was hungry. I smiled remembering how easy it was for me back then to figure out things. Child’s mind is so simple. Black and white. But my wolf never came out of the trees. Leaving me empty and void and I would then sadly walk back into my grim reality. Equally painful.

Mr and Mrs Swan, my parents were divorced officially by the time I turned 6 and my sister Bella 8. I was never too close to my mom who honestly scared me with her weird ways. Dad was normal only because he spoke less. Bella was my only hope to a normal life and now she was leaving with Mom to Phoenix. “Mom would be lost without me, Bee” she explained to me the last night we slept in the same room. Even at that age she was mature, the caretaker, and my sister.” But what about me, Bell?” I asked with my throat already clogging up. Strangely that was the first time I realized tears have a very prominent odor. Perhaps she knew nothing she said would make the pain go away. So she just hugged me to sleep. Next day they left.

In my frustration I became a menace. I held both my parents responsible for my hurt. I became distant and fought with anyone who would try to help me. Between 4 to 10 there wasn’t a single day in my life I hadn’t come home with a bruise on my cheek. I fought with bullies…. I fought with boys… I even kicked the neighbor’s dog that in turn bit me but not before I hurt his leg. My father was at his wits end how to discipline me. Ironic, my dad is the town Chief.

One day my dad packed my clothes and send me to a distant friend of his. This was how I came to the Reservation- my own paradise. Billy, my dad’s friend, was a kind man and saw behind all my “toughness” the raw pain I was into. It helped he had a young son too. And two daughters. Twins. It was this family that tamed my wild spirits. Funny, if I had the premonition to see the future events of my life I would have….what? Never came into their life? No. Not in a million years.













RISING MOON