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           I felt the sun radiating down onto the back of my neck as I stayed as close to Nick as possible without running into him. My t-shirt was soaked with sweat, and the sun caused inside of my helmet to become unbearable. I breathed deeply hoping to find some kind of cool relief, but found only hot summer air and exhaust from Nick's four-wheeler in front of me. The constant humming of the engines, only broken up by the occasional shifting of gears, was mesmerizing. It would have lulled me to sleep if I had been even the least bit comfortable. However, the summer heat would not allow for that, so instead it only made it difficult to hear.

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ONE DAFFY EASTER SUNDAY

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They left the house at 3:00 a.m., driving through the disorienting, inky blackness of the country. The headlights fanned in a white arc, illuminating gnarled trees beginning to shed their leaves in this third week of September, mellow summer fading into the shimmering frost of autumn. The hospital was a 15 minute drive, but in the unfamiliar darkness along the slopes and curves of a narrow dirt road, Kate was vigilant. This time of year, a phantom deer leaping from the swathe of a cornfield wasn't unusual; fur and flesh and metal colliding in misfortune was an all too common occurrence. Knowing Michael was not dying, Kate drove the car cautiously over the hills and bumps of the road.

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As the paramedics drove off with my dad inside, I sat on the porch smoking a cancer stick wondering what awaited me.  The trauma of it all had not settled in yet and I wondered if they were ever going to kick in at all. 

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Chapter 2

Callie sat at a corner table, below a faded portrait of Kit Carson, and sipped a cup of coffee. A smiling, petite woman in a blue gingham dress approached her.

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                Madison Small briefly rested on the heavy door after it closed behind her driver.  She had tipped him generously before sending him away, with instructions not to venture far.  She hoped the trip would be brief.    

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  It all started when a baby girl named Mia was brought to an orphanage in the middle of the night. She was found near the beach in a basket crying. The nuns at the orphanage raised her lovingly and when she was 16 she departed in search for work.
  Mia was a small girl, thin, with black hair of medium length. She always kept it tied back in a ponytail. Her eyes were brightly green, and she was always with a smile on her face.
  She found work in an aristocratic family's house as a maid. The pay was low and there was always work to do but she received food and shelter, things that made her contented.
  One day while the maids were doing a thorough cleaning of the house she was sent in the attic to carry up there some old curtains. Mia suddenly gasped in surprise dropping the curtain on the dusty floor of the attic. In front of her stood the same portrait at which she gazed with love and curiosity for so many years at the orphanage.
  It was the same woman engraved on her broach. When she was only four years old she was given the broach by the nuns. They said she was carrying it with her when she was brought to the orphanage. She grasped the broach with all her might, in her little hand, not wanting to be separated from it. She always thought that woman was her mother.
  A couple of days later, she asked the older maids if they knew who the woman was.
  “It’s Mrs. Raymond.” they told her.
  “Poor soul, she died with her daughter on that damn ship. And her son remained all alone at only six years old, good thing that his grandma took charge of him.”
  “Where is the son now?” Asked with impatience, trying to control herself. Feelings of joy were swelling up inside her. She was ready to burst with laughter at the pleasant thought that she had a brother and that she was not alone anymore.
  “I’m pretty sure they moved away but I don’t know where.” one maid answered.
  “I see…” Mia answered a little disappointed.
   The next weeks she tried searching for her brother but nobody knew where he was. All that she had found out was that he was named Tomas, their grandma had died, and that he was 22 years old.
One day, while she was out shopping for ingredients, some kids bumped into her and while falling she clanged to the nearest support which was a young man. Unfortunately he was caught by surprise and they both fell on the ground. When she came around, the man who looked a little puzzled was holding her.
  “I’m so sorry…”Mia started to apologize vehemently while her checks burned red. The man started laughing. Mia looked at him in surprise. What was so funny?

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