Serene

I’ve always loved books. The stories that could be told on their pages have always held me captive. I could spend hours browsing library and bookstore shelves, and I do. I’ve always seen it as a way to escape from this reality, much to be pleasure. Books have always held that for me.

I didn’t own many books, but if there was one thing that always went with me wherever I moved, it was my books.

My mother is dead, and my father absent, leaving me alone; an only child with no siblings and no parental figure, but plenty of other family that didn’t want anything to do with me. My mother past at childbirth and at the tender age of 7 my father decided he didn’t want anything more to do with me.

So I’ve moved around a lot most of my life. I’ve found myself being passed around like a hand-me down that no one wanted, but just couldn’t get rid of. But I’ve come to enjoy each. Each new place I come live at brings me new libraries and unexplored bookstores to spend my days.

And that is exactly the situation I found myself in today, sitting on a Greyhound Bus heading to a new house, or “home” as my social worker called it. He considered this one a promising place. I’ve learned to ignore these fantasies of his.

I was headed to a small town right on the east side of North Carolina. I had started my journey from Georgia just a measly 15 hours before, would be pulling into the station in less than 30 minutes.

I picked back up the book I had been reading, before I got lost in thought. I began reading and found myself stranded on a small deserted island with a bunch of bratty boys, The Lord of the Flies, one of my favorites. Something about seeing humans at their worst attracted me.

I had just gotten to the part where the boys discovered the fallen pilot when the bus slowed down. We had gotten off of a main street and were headed into town. My social worker had kindly informed me that the town was small, only home to a bit more 500 residents. He thought I would like the place, being as anti-social as I am. But what he doesn’t understand is that the less people there are, the greater chance of me standing out.

The town wasn’t much; I could tell that we were passing through what would be the downtown district. There were a few quaint stores. One in particular looked promising. I small sign over it said Bottom Shelf; the words were set over a stack of books. I made a mental note to check out the store later.

The bus turned into the parking lot of the bus station, which was nothing more than a trailer made-up into a ticket station. I stuffed my book back into my book bag and headed off of the bus. Two other people were getting off with me. They were two boys, had to be about my age, and twins. I had seen them get on the bus at a stop we made a few hours back.

I looked around. It appeared that my new “keeper” wasn’t here yet. I grabbed my one suitcase and headed over to one of the benches to wait.

With a new place comes new friends, well that’s the saying, but I never expected to make any and I never wanted to. What was the point? But to my dismay one of the twin boys noticed me. He spoke to his brother who was unloading his stuff and he glanced at me. They headed over my way with broad smiles on their faces. I tensed up not looking forward to an unwelcome social situation, but did my best to put on a small smile.

The twin who noticed me was the first to speak “Hey, you must be.....”

“Serene.” His brother finished his sentence.

I was taken aback by the fact that they knew my name, but then I realized that news must have spread before I even arrived.

“Yeah, that’s me. It’s nice to meet you…uh…”

“It’s Toby,” again the one who had noticed me spoke, “and this is my brother Lance.”

Lance nodded at me. He seemed like the reserved brother out of the two, much more likeable than his over-friendly brother Toby.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you.” I smiled weakly.

Toby continued, “I hope you don’t think it’s weird that we already know about you. But you are staying with Dr. Connie aren’t you?”

I motioned to speak, but he didn’t even give me a chance.

“She’s like one of the main doctor’s in this town and everyone loves her. She lives all alone, so its good that she’ll finally have some good company.”

“Toby.” Lance interrupted, and placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder.

“Oh, sorry. I do that a lot,” Toby laughed softly to himself and sat down beside me.

I gave a look of thanks to Lance who nodded back before he sat down on my other side. He seemed to understand me.

Five minutes with by without a sound from them, although Toby seemed to want to speak really badly.

They didn’t seem as bad as I first thought, Toby was a bit too friendly, but Lance knew how to keep his brother in line.

Finally, after a bit more waiting a white Volvo pulled into the parking lot.