𝕆𝕟 𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℍ𝕦𝕟𝕥 ➾ 𝕆ℂ 𝕩 𝕆ℂ [𝕋𝕎𝕀𝕃𝕀𝔾ℍ𝕋 𝕊𝔸𝔾𝔸]

Gwen

La Push, Washington

May 4, 2006

 It was nearly 4:00 pm when Gwen pulled into her dad's empty driveway.  Empty.  Yep; no one seemed to be home.  All of the lights in the two-story house were out and there was not a single noise to be heard.  Gwen clenched her fists as she got out of the car.  She walked up the front porch and spotted a yellow post-it note underneath the doorknob.  She snatched it up and read it.

"Hi, Gwen,

 I'm sorry that I'm not home to meet you but my coworker had a family emergency so I'm covering his shift.  I told your brother about you and to stay home to meet you, but he never really listens to me.  I left the front door unlocked for you.  Your room is the guest bedroom next to Paul's.  When you get settled, there is Chinese in the fridge and the TV remote is on the coffee table.  I should be home around 10:00 tonight.

With love, Dad"

The girl let out a huff before crumpling the note in frustration.  She tried to turn the doorknob but it was locked.  'Great. I've been waiting over seventeen years to meet this guy and he's busy working!'  She scoured the entire porch for a spare key (she finally found it in the dirt of a potted plant) and unlocked the door.  The house was dark but Gwen could still see thanks to the sun shining through the windows.  She turned the lights on and looked around.  The only sign of life was the overflowing trashcan, the messy countertops, and the sink full of dirty dishes.  She gagged as the smell of dirty dishwater and stale food hit her nostrils.  She turned down the hall to look for her new room.

It was plain and small, but bigger than her old room in Seattle.  But now that she thought of it, this entire house was twice the size of her old one.  As a matter of fact, most of the other houses in La Push seemed much smaller in comparison to this one.  'Must be from his job.'  Gwen turned on her heel to get her bags from the car.

▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪

 Gwen was exhausted once she got done unpacking but her stomach ached with hunger pains, so she ventured out to the kitchen.  She opened the refrigerator for the leftover Chinese food that her father mentioned, but she couldn't find it anywhere.  Actually, the fridge had barely anything in it!  She slammed it shut in frustration, but her unnatural strength caused the whole house to shake.  As she was about to check the freezer, something caught her eye.  'Your f****ing kidding me!'  There on the counter were numerous empty Panda Express cartons.  The sauce from the orange chicken looked way too fresh to be from earlier in the day.  Gwen couldn't contain her growl and clenched her fists.

'Breathe in....., breathe out,'  she reminded herself, not wanting another incident.  Gwen was at the end of her rope.  She peered around at the pigsty that was in the kitchen and decided that she might as well do something about it.  She was hoping that cleaning it would distract her from her anger.  And her hunger.  

So after 40-something minutes of pure determination and hard work, the kitchen was finally clean.  Gwen scavenged as many snacks as she could find (two stale Uncrustables and a crushed Twinkie) and scarfed it down.  After all of that driving, unpacking, and cleaning she did, all she wanted to do was sleep forever.  So she quickly brushed her teeth and changed.

Gwen was out as soon as her head hit the pillow.