Prologue
Prologue
TRISTAN
In his home in Montreal, Tristan Delacroix couldn’t imagine how a woman could scrub at a pot so furiously or how she could be so upset that they were getting new neighbors but his mom was. He was surprised that she hadn’t scrubbed a hole right through the bottom of the pot. She was glaring out the window and through the rain as she scrubbed away. Every now and then she would murmur under her breath, something that he couldn’t discern. He was in the living room, drawing with his Crayons, while his brother, Lucas was playing with Lego and watching TV.
Suddenly his mom threw down the dish cloth and shouted, “Ugh I’m going to go fold laundry downstairs. Watch your brother, Tristan,” causing him to jump. He was afraid that any noise that he made would set her off so he nodded quickly and watched her walk down the stairs, basket at her hip. He didn’t get why his mom was acting that way. Sure, the old neighbors were nice; an elderly couple that always brought extra food over and would offer to babysit, playing board games with them and telling cool stories, whenever his mom had to go out, but how his mom could judge the new neighbors so quick he couldn’t understand. She was acting like a caged animal with all the pacing she had been doing that day.
Tristan walked over to the glass doors and watched the movers move furniture in the rain. At this point the rain was coming down lightly and he could see that the sun was trying to peak its way through the gray clouds. Every couple of seconds his breath would fog up the glass and he would wipe it away with his sleeve to get a better view. There was a man at the front door of the house across the street directing the movers as to where things went. The man was probably around the same age as his mom, with graying dark hair and steel blue eyes. He was tall, dressed casually and he seemed friendly enough. He continued to watch the movers and he noticed a pink bicycle.
“Oh, the new neighbors have a girl,” he told Lucas. Lucas barely glanced from the television, apparently not interested enough in the prospect of a new friend. Eventually the man from the front door went to a parked SUV and opened the door. Out came a girl about five years old, the same age as Lucas, and two years younger than he was. She had long chocolate brown hair peeking out of the hood of her red raincoat and she was wearing matching red boots. She glanced around the neighborhood shyly and her gaze caught hold of his. She had beautiful evergreen eyes; it was like all the greens of a forest were captured in one place. He didn’t even realize he had been staring until he heard a crack. He had unconsciously turned the water on the glass door to ice, the sudden freezing causing the ice to crack. Finally, Lucas took notice and walked over to him.
“Mom’s going to kill you for doing that,” Lucas said as he touched the crack. He batted his brother’s hand out of the way. He didn’t want Lucas to get cut, which would no doubt get him into even more trouble.
“I didn’t mean to,” he replied as he continued to stare at the girl. She was no longer staring back but was helping her father move some small boxes. Her tiny body looked small compared to the box.
Lucas said, “She’s pretty cute.”
Tristan noticed Lucas was staring at her just as intensely as he was. Maybe Lucas wasn’t so oblivious to girls as he had previously thought. He began to feel nervous but couldn’t figure out why. It was as if he just got something special and was about to lose it.
“You think she will want to play with us?” Lucas asked.
He thought about it, and based on his mom’s earlier attitude, he doubted she would let them play with the new girl. The girl was going inside and she took one last glance at the two, side by side watching her and she gave them a smile. Shyly he gave a small wave and the girl went inside.
“Well I hope we can become friends,” said Lucas as he walked back to the couch to watch his show. He stared at the crack that he had made and thought to himself that he doubted they would ever be friends.
ASH
Ashlinn Fairweather had thought that the two boys across the street were cute. The one boy was older with raven dark hair but the one with the hair that looked like sunshine was about her age. It would be nice to have some friends for once, if her dad let them stick around. She moved around a lot with her dad and her dad had promised that they finally would be able to stay in one place. She turned towards her dad and asked, “When it stops raining, do you think I can go play with the boys across the street?”
Her dad turned towards her with sad eyes and said, “I’m sorry sweetie but you must stay away from those boys; it isn’t safe,” her dad ruffled her hair and then turned and went to unpack. She went upstairs to her new bedroom and stared out into the rain, pondering the warning her father just said.
