Little Wolves (gxg)

Chapter 4 - The Neighbors

Our house has four bedrooms. Four! Each one even has its own bathroom. I picked the room overlooking the front of our house. The master bedroom (my parents' room) is down the hall. It has a beautiful view of the sunrise over our backyard.

The only thing in my bedroom now is a mattress. I don't know where the rest of my bed is, but I'm assuming it's still buried in a truck somewhere. The view from my window is so pretty. I can see the evergreen house across the street and the forest right next to it. If I remember right, I think it's the Auden's?

Anyway, that road we drove in on wraps all the way around the Auden's house, going down a little hill so it lines right up with the edge of the forest. It's a bigger forest than the ones over the wheat fields, too. The trees are so tall I'd be worried about them toppling over in a hurricane.

I think they're redwoods. There's a trail sign pointing into the forest that I can see from my window. I can see a little parting in the brush and, judging by my view all the way up here, the trail looks pretty well maintained. Makes me wonder how often people use it.

"Nelly! Come help me unload these boxes!" mom called. I jumped at the intrusion. I was so far lost in my own thoughts I hadn't realized I was staring into space. I rushed downstairs, straight into the kitchen.

"Cherry, do you really need all of these chickens?" dad asked, pulling out a ceramic dish.

"They're roosters, Arthur, and yes. It's always nice to have a theme in the kitchen."

My mom is obsessed with rooster-themed kitchen equipment. She's got a utensil holder for spatulas and strainers shaped like a rooster, a pitcher that never gets any lemonade or tea in it (mom just likes looking at it), and rubber spatulas with paintings of roosters on them. Any utensil you can name probably's got a rooster on it in our kitchen.

"By the way, Nel, I don't want you running off into those woods just yet. I know you want to explore but just hold off until Kiersten comes around again, please." Dad stood up straight, putting his hands on his hips as he spoke to me. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Why?" I questioned. He's never cared if I ran off before, and I'm not exactly a little kid. I can handle myself.

"I don't know. Just something that lady said. So, will you just wait? For me?" he added. I sighed and mimicked the way he was standing.

"Alright, yeah," I returned. Dad smiled and shot me a curt nod before bending down to empty more boxes. I would've done the same, but there was a knock at the front door. Mom and I peeked our heads down the hallway to see an older woman standing in the door frame, the front door already propped open by the moving crew.

"Hello!" the older woman waved with a generous smile. Mom and I looked at each other before heading her way. The woman moved to the side as the movers brought in more furniture.

"Hi, can I help you?" mom asked, stepping outside onto the porch. I tried to hide the confusion on my face. This woman had eyes almost as intense as that Kiersten lady. The only difference was that hers were green instead of blue.

Her hair was turning grey; it was pulled back into a twisted bun, fastened with a claw clip. She had this real petite nose, it kind of poked out like a witch, but it wasn't big... just very sharp. And her lips were tiny, real thin and narrow. She had lipstick on.

"Hi, sorry to visit in the heat of things. I'm Jo Auden, I live right across the street! I would have brought some dinner over for you all if I had known someone was moving in. I'm sorry I wasn't very prepared." The woman smiled, extending a hand to my mom. Mom wiped her hand on her dress before taking Jo's and shaking it.

"Oh! It's nice to meet you! Don't worry about dinner, there's no need for that. My name is Cherry, uh, Cherry Madison, and this is my daughter, Nelly." I smiled at our new neighbor, but she didn't look that friendly towards me. Jo took a deep breath suddenly, and I was worried she'd keep looking at me like I was in trouble, but soon her facial features softened, and she shot me a smile.