Seeing the Rocky Mountains in person was different than seeing them in all the pictures Jade had been looking at on the computer for the last month. She had read during most of the trip to Denver from the outskirts of Salina, Kansas. Her dad and her had said goodbye to their apartment and headed out early in the morning with no real sadness. They were ready for a new start.
All their stuff had been put in the back of the moving trailer and hooked onto Jim’s SUV. It was a smooth ride. It was dead of winter, so the spring storms didn’t stop them, the summer heat didn’t burn them alive in the car, and luckily there was no snow this week.
They arrived in the city limits at four in the afternoon. A seven hour care ride wasn’t as bad as Jade had thought. She was prepared for the worse, but her nose was in her book the whole time.
“Get out of the way,” Jim growled at the drivers in front of him.
She would tell anyone that would listen how kind her dad was, and how smart and calm he always presented himself, but just not when he was driving. When he was driving, that all went out the window, and he grew six inch horns above his head.
“Dad,” Jade said, trying to bring him back to earth.
He waved his hand. “I’m calm, I’m calm.”
She smiled at her dad and shook her head. “Are we almost there?”
“If I remember right,” he said. “We should be ten minutes away.”
Jim had left Jade with his cousin for a week while he flew out to Denver. While he was there, he accepted the job at Denver’s Historic Museum in downtown, found a place to rent, and register Jade for school.
Jade’s week was not as great as she spent the week with Jim’s family. They never really liked her, and always commented how she was adopted and not really a part of the family. Jim’s cousin’s two snot noise boys would make fun of her.
“Why do you read so much?” one asked.
“Because it’s good for you,” she said.
“I don’t like to read,” the other one day.
“Really?” Jade asked, not that shocked.
“Why do you call Uncle Jim by his first name?” the smaller one asked.
The bigger one wrinkled his noise. “It’s not her real dad. It would be weird.”
Jade rolled her eyes. “No, it’s because I was given the choice, and I choose to call my dad by whatever name he lets me say. And he is my read dad, just not my bio dad.”
The bigger one put his hands on his hips. “You’re just adopted, you’re stupid.”
Jade closed her book, stood up, and said, “Well, at least I know I was wanted.”
The boys didn’t get it till an hour later, and told their mom on her. Jade was so happy to see Jim in the doorway to pick her up. She didn’t have to be around the family anymore, didn’t have to go to school with her peers anymore, she was getting a second chance to start over.
Now, driving to the city, and leaving everything behind, the mountains were a symbol of hope. A reality that was starting to hit her.
They exited the interstate and drove the streets. A couple blocks and they arrived at a large two story house. “This is the house we are renting?”
“The downstairs part,” Jim corrected her, unbuckling himself from his seat, and opening the door. He reached for the sky and popped his back. He was barley 30, but he was starting to feel like an old man.
“Oh right, the basement,” she rolled her eyes.
“Jade, it’s normal,” Jim said.
She got out, holding onto her book. She looked to the house that had seemed to overshadow her. It was a nice house on a nice street, and looked normal. Jim locked the door to the car, and walked up to the front door. Jade followed two steps behind.
She felt scared, nervous, excited, as if maybe she would explode.
Jim knocked four times on the door. There was no answer. They looked at each other, and he knocked again. “Hello? Mr. Moon? It’s Jim Cooper, from last week. I called earlier today.”
“Is he here?” Jade questioned.
“He should be. He said he would.”
Jim knocked again, a little harder, this time opening the door. He thought the owner was opening the door for them, but there was no one. Jim opened the creaking door just a little more. “Are you going in?” Jade asked.
“Mr. Moon?” Jim raised his voice a bit.
Jade had a creepy feeling, watching too many horror movies growing up, this was the start of it. “Don’t go in the house,” she told him. “That’s when bad things happen.”
He opened the door all the way, seeing the clean almost empty looking living room. “Hello?”
Just as Jim was about to step in, they saw what looked like someone was thrown against the kitchen area, landing onto a spinning office chair and crashing into the nearest wall, making the person fly to the ground.
Both their mouths dropped, and they ran past the living room and straight to the kitchen to the man.
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