Sunsets
By: Michelle Elizabeth
Tags: Novel, Creativity, Fiction, Hidden Lake, Writing

Peach. That was the color of the sunset the night they discovered Susie Taylor was missing.

The community Memorial Day barbeque was in full swing. Katie walked behind her parents a little apprehensive about showing up to a party and not knowing anyone there. Her family had only moved to Hidden Lake two weeks before, and in that first week, they had met all their immediate neighbors. The people of Hidden Lake were very eager to know them and ingratiate themselves into their lives.

She met their first neighbor the day they moved in. Katie was sprawled out on the front lawn as if marking her territory. She looked up at the crisp blue sky and watched as a flock of geese overhead called out flying orders. A box sat at her side labeled bedroom, its contents ready to burst through the stretched packing tape. The bright green of the trees enveloped her and made her feel insignificant, just a speck of humanity with all the other specks. She closed her eyes and thought about all the endless lazy summer days she had ahead of her, endless in their opportunity yet so fleeting.

“Are you going to lie there, or do you plan on helping me,” Katie’s mother Laurel squawked at her sounding exactly like the geese flying over the lake.

“I’m just taking a break. We have a lot of boxes.”

“It seems your father is taking a break as well,” Laurel said before returning to the house.

Katie could hear the sounds of her father strumming his guitar faintly from the garage. He played a familiar tune as Katie picked up the box and walked into the garage to join him. She always found it fascinating that somehow, he managed to be in a band only knowing three cords, but he had personality. His presence on the stage was such that the rest of his bandmates overlooked the fact that he only had four songs in his repertoire and pretended to play along with the rest.

“Mom’s looking for you,” Katie said and dropped the box down at his feet.

“She’s always looking for me, and I’m always around, yet she never seems to find me,” Tom said with a wink before grabbing the box and taking it into the house.

Katie trailed behind him. The new house was a mansion in comparison to their condo in the city. Living downtown had its perks. The first Laurel would exclaim at the closing, “Thank God for expensive city living.” The condo was worth $250,000 more than the house they bought which left them with a great deal of money in the bank.

But even with all the financial perks, Katie didn’t see the benefit of leaving the city life behind for the slower one in a rural small town. But they got the large house; the American Dream wrapped up in a big red bow. She got to have her room instead of a loft and lots of land to run around. But at thirteen, Katie was past the age of playing in the backyard, making mud pies. It gave her space to dream and space away from her mother, and she was grateful for that.

Laurel met them in kitchen, tired and already profusely sweaty from the effort of moving in. “You don’t have to get all the unpacking done today, but I would like to at least get everything into to the house so you can return the truck,” Laurel said to Tom before taking a swig of water which was interrupted by the doorbell.

Laurel asked no one in particular, “Who could be ringing the door; we just got here?”

“I’ll get it,” Katie said already in route.

“Hello.”

“I’m Zack,” the boy said standing in the doorway. “My mom sent me over to help. We live across the street. Well across the street and down the hill a bit but around here that makes us neighbors.”

Katie ushered him inside and reported to Laurel that they had another set of hands. Laurel was all too eager to put him to work considering that Tom often disappeared and took way too many breaks in her opinion. With Zack Murphy’s help, they would have the rest of the boxes and furniture in before dinner.

“If you’re going to order from Little Italy”, Zack suggested, “Don’t get anything besides cheese pizza and definitely stay away from the wings unless you want to be on the toilet the rest of the night,” and he grabbed his stomach, pretending to be ill which made Katie chuckle.

“We’ll take that advice, thanks Zack and tell your mother thank you for sending you over,” Laurel said as she walked him out. Laurel tried to give him some cash but he protested, she shoved it into his shirt pocket anyway.

Laurel watched as Zack started down the drive and then turned around to pronounce that he had forgotten to tell them about the Memorial Day Barbeque and he hoped to see them there.

The next two weeks until Memorial Day flew by in a flurry of unpacking, arranging and then rearranging. Laurel threw out half of the things she packed making Katie wonder why she even packed them at all. They fell into their routine pretty easily. Both of them worked from home except when they had to travel.

Tom ran his firm, Katie was never quite sure what he did, but she knew it involved a lot of meetings and dinners. Laurel worked as a real estate agent and only went into the office once a week to check in unless she had a closing. When they were in the condo, Katie hated having them around so much. They were always tripping over each other, and she was constantly told to keep quiet, one of them was always on a phone call.

In this bigger house, each of them had an office with a door they could close. But it made the house feel empty and lonely without the background noise of deals constantly made.

Katie settled in and found a routine to keep her occupied over the long summer break. Every morning she took a walk around the lake, and if she timed it right, she would run into Taylor’s dog Skipper, out for his morning run.

After her walk she would come home for brunch with her parents and after, when they retreated to their respective offices again, she would settle in the backyard with one her favorite books. Life was quiet, and it was exactly what Katie’s parents wanted. The small-town life, where nothing ever happened.