Change (Is Good), chapter 2
Chapter 2
The plane ride to Toronto was a complete throbbing migraine. They had to travel to Toronto first, and then take a plant to Ottawa because there were no direct flights. And Carrie thought that walking all the way would be better than the torture she endured during the plane ride.
She and her sister were sitting together. Her sister by the window, Carrie in the middle, and on Carrie's other side, some old, fat woman who for some reason, wouldn't shut up about herself. About half way through the ride, Carrie thought the woman was about done with her life story...until she began talking about her cats. All Carrie did was smile and nod politely, pretending to take notice in what ever the woman was telling her about "little Muffykins". Thankfully after another twenty minutes, which seemed like an eternity, the lady nodded off.
On the plane from Toronto to Ottawa, her family sat together. Nothing relatively interesting happened because they were all exhausted from their day of travelling. They finally arrived at eight-fifteen in the evening. They called a taxi and all got in for the drive to their house. Carrie looked around the bare, gassy fields ten minutes away from the airport. This wasn't what she expected. It was different than San Francisco. It was more serene. It had a perfect town kind of look, where everyone got along well, and it was all peaceful. But that's just how it looked on the surface, and you should never judge a book by its cover.
They arrived at their house finally. This was not what Carrie had expected. So far, she'd only seen pictures of the house, but it was a lot smaller than it looked in the pictures. She liked it though.
"It looks like those cute cottage houses," she thought.
Her parents loved it. It was located near a grocery story, only a few minutes walk from downtown, a short car ride away from their school, and her dad would set up an office in the house for him to work in, and her mom could easily walk to work.
Her dad worked for a company called CITA, which was international, so he did a lot of travelling. But, he decided to move to Ottawa because most of his colleagues worked here. Her mom, thanks to a friend, found a job at a furniture and kitchen accessories store called Ma Cuisine.
Carrie had applied to go to an arts school. She was an expert violinist. And she had been since the ripe age of five. She wouldn't go a single day without playing her violin unless she was travelling like today and had no access to her violin.
"Shall we go in?" came the voice of Carrie's dad.
"Come on, Daniel, we can't admire the front forever. Open the door," Carrie's mom said, shivering slightly in the windy night.
"OK, then," Carrie's dad said, putting the key into the lock and turning it. "Welcome home," he said smiling, and opened the door.
"Wow!" Carrie said. Sure the outside looked small, but the inside was huge. The house may have been narrow, but it went back a long way and made up for its small appearance.
"It's huge!" Carrie's sister exclaimed, stepping inside. The first thing she did was run around trying to find the stairs, when she reached them, she practically leaped up them to the second floor. "I CALL THIS BEDROOM!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Carrie ran up stairs yelling, "What! That's not fair Daw," She looked at the bedroom her sister had "called". It was beautiful. Pretty big, with one big window and two smaller ones on another wall, giving the room a lot of light, and throwing the setting sun's orange rays into the room.
"Fine." She muttered. She was jealous. She looked at the rest of the rooms. Obviously the biggest one was the master bedroom for her parents. And the one with the desk was going to be her dad's office. So she was left with a small room. It had one big window, facing towards the setting sun, and another, facing the backyard. She didn't mind though. At least she wouldn't have to share a room with her sister. There was a tree right in front of the smaller window. It was a maple, a big one, growing in the backyard. It was casting little maple leaf shadows onto the hardwood floor of her bedroom. Sure she was jealous, but she had to admit, "This room is pretty cool."
Carrie rolled over on her sleeping bag the next morning. She looked at her watch on her wrist. It read 2:04 AM.
"That can't be right," she thought. She looked outside. It was light and the sun was up. Then she remembered, "We're in different time zones." She looked at the clock on the wall. 5:05AM. "That's more like it."
Carrie couldn't sleep. She was way too excited. She wanted to go strolling around Ottawa everywhere. Go sightseeing. She wanted to see Parliament Hill, the Royal Canadian Mounted Rockies, the Rideau Canal, and the Ottawa River.
She couldn't lie still a minute longer. She stood up quietly. As she walked towards the window in her room, facing the backyard, she noticed there was a screen over it. She took out the screen and opened the window. It took a while before she could open it, giving her the impression that it hadn't been opened in a long time. She looked at the tree's branch, lying not fifteen centimetres away from the window. Carrie looked back into her room and looked out her window. There was no one out on the street, and the branch was almost invisible from the street anyway because of the other limbs from the tree that covered the branch. She placed one foot, over the edge of her window onto the branch. Testing its strength, and finally satisfied, she put all her weight on it. She had good balance and won an award for it when she was in pre-school. She brought the other foot over and carefully sat down on the branch. "This is the life. Sitting here peacefully."
She relaxed as the wind lashed her loose hair around her face. Even though it was a warm summer morning, the wind and the shade made it considerably cooler. She was able to rest her back against the side of the house without her butt sagging, making her feel uncomfortable. Carrie was about to go back inside when she her some noises. Peering through a small hole in the mass of maple leaves, with her hazel eyes, she saw two boys, a couple of years older than her going down the street on skateboards. She could hear their voices talking about random things, no doubt. They scared her. She was never one for weird freaks. She climbed back into her room and looked at the clock again. An hour had already passed. Carrie went to her bags which were dumped in the corner of the room lazily yesterday night. She got a towel somewhere from the depths of the bag and a change of clothes, then she went to the bathroom to shower.
One week later...
It had been only a week later, but the thrill of moving had left. In fact, she was almost bored of the town already. It was a disappointment to find Ottawa clogged with freaks. She had tried to avoid downtown trips with her parents because of the many odd folks. So, she did what Cassie Morgan always does when she's bored. She picked up her violin with great care, checking to see if her violin was in tune, applied resin to the bow, tightened it, and started playing. She eventually lost herself in a world of Mozart and Bach, Sonatas and Arias. She played till she couldn't read the sheet music and her fingers were stiff. And then, she laid it back down in her case.
As Cassie put her violin case in a corner of the room she reserved for it, she thought about her new school. It would be starting in less than a month. She was excited. She wanted to finally make friends. She lay down on her bed, in the corner of the room. She had picked that place for her bed when the furniture came in yesterday, because it was right next to the window with the tree outside. She really enjoyed that tree being right there and would often climb it. Soon, though, it would serve a better purpose.
Cassie's eyes wandered to the window, looking through the tree. Even though she was scared of the people on the world out there, she always wanted to go around, strolling, walking, whatever. Cassie always had a desire to wander away, leave, only to come back later, even though she didn't always want to. She longed to have the courage to stray away and live her own life outside with people like her. Cassie had never found some she could connect with, which is why she made her own people to connect with, in her imagination. Her person was almost alike with her in every way. Her name was Carrey, blond hair like her own, played violin, smart. Cassie would often subconsciously talk to Carrey. She never got a reply, of course, but she at least had someone to relate to. And as the clock ticked deeper into the night, Cassie found herself whispering to Carrey.
The plane ride to Toronto was a complete throbbing migraine. They had to travel to Toronto first, and then take a plant to Ottawa because there were no direct flights. And Carrie thought that walking all the way would be better than the torture she endured during the plane ride.
She and her sister were sitting together. Her sister by the window, Carrie in the middle, and on Carrie's other side, some old, fat woman who for some reason, wouldn't shut up about herself. About half way through the ride, Carrie thought the woman was about done with her life story...until she began talking about her cats. All Carrie did was smile and nod politely, pretending to take notice in what ever the woman was telling her about "little Muffykins". Thankfully after another twenty minutes, which seemed like an eternity, the lady nodded off.
On the plane from Toronto to Ottawa, her family sat together. Nothing relatively interesting happened because they were all exhausted from their day of travelling. They finally arrived at eight-fifteen in the evening. They called a taxi and all got in for the drive to their house. Carrie looked around the bare, gassy fields ten minutes away from the airport. This wasn't what she expected. It was different than San Francisco. It was more serene. It had a perfect town kind of look, where everyone got along well, and it was all peaceful. But that's just how it looked on the surface, and you should never judge a book by its cover.
They arrived at their house finally. This was not what Carrie had expected. So far, she'd only seen pictures of the house, but it was a lot smaller than it looked in the pictures. She liked it though.
"It looks like those cute cottage houses," she thought.
Her parents loved it. It was located near a grocery story, only a few minutes walk from downtown, a short car ride away from their school, and her dad would set up an office in the house for him to work in, and her mom could easily walk to work.
Her dad worked for a company called CITA, which was international, so he did a lot of travelling. But, he decided to move to Ottawa because most of his colleagues worked here. Her mom, thanks to a friend, found a job at a furniture and kitchen accessories store called Ma Cuisine.
Carrie had applied to go to an arts school. She was an expert violinist. And she had been since the ripe age of five. She wouldn't go a single day without playing her violin unless she was travelling like today and had no access to her violin.
"Shall we go in?" came the voice of Carrie's dad.
"Come on, Daniel, we can't admire the front forever. Open the door," Carrie's mom said, shivering slightly in the windy night.
"OK, then," Carrie's dad said, putting the key into the lock and turning it. "Welcome home," he said smiling, and opened the door.
"Wow!" Carrie said. Sure the outside looked small, but the inside was huge. The house may have been narrow, but it went back a long way and made up for its small appearance.
"It's huge!" Carrie's sister exclaimed, stepping inside. The first thing she did was run around trying to find the stairs, when she reached them, she practically leaped up them to the second floor. "I CALL THIS BEDROOM!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Carrie ran up stairs yelling, "What! That's not fair Daw," She looked at the bedroom her sister had "called". It was beautiful. Pretty big, with one big window and two smaller ones on another wall, giving the room a lot of light, and throwing the setting sun's orange rays into the room.
"Fine." She muttered. She was jealous. She looked at the rest of the rooms. Obviously the biggest one was the master bedroom for her parents. And the one with the desk was going to be her dad's office. So she was left with a small room. It had one big window, facing towards the setting sun, and another, facing the backyard. She didn't mind though. At least she wouldn't have to share a room with her sister. There was a tree right in front of the smaller window. It was a maple, a big one, growing in the backyard. It was casting little maple leaf shadows onto the hardwood floor of her bedroom. Sure she was jealous, but she had to admit, "This room is pretty cool."
Carrie rolled over on her sleeping bag the next morning. She looked at her watch on her wrist. It read 2:04 AM.
"That can't be right," she thought. She looked outside. It was light and the sun was up. Then she remembered, "We're in different time zones." She looked at the clock on the wall. 5:05AM. "That's more like it."
Carrie couldn't sleep. She was way too excited. She wanted to go strolling around Ottawa everywhere. Go sightseeing. She wanted to see Parliament Hill, the Royal Canadian Mounted Rockies, the Rideau Canal, and the Ottawa River.
She couldn't lie still a minute longer. She stood up quietly. As she walked towards the window in her room, facing the backyard, she noticed there was a screen over it. She took out the screen and opened the window. It took a while before she could open it, giving her the impression that it hadn't been opened in a long time. She looked at the tree's branch, lying not fifteen centimetres away from the window. Carrie looked back into her room and looked out her window. There was no one out on the street, and the branch was almost invisible from the street anyway because of the other limbs from the tree that covered the branch. She placed one foot, over the edge of her window onto the branch. Testing its strength, and finally satisfied, she put all her weight on it. She had good balance and won an award for it when she was in pre-school. She brought the other foot over and carefully sat down on the branch. "This is the life. Sitting here peacefully."
She relaxed as the wind lashed her loose hair around her face. Even though it was a warm summer morning, the wind and the shade made it considerably cooler. She was able to rest her back against the side of the house without her butt sagging, making her feel uncomfortable. Carrie was about to go back inside when she her some noises. Peering through a small hole in the mass of maple leaves, with her hazel eyes, she saw two boys, a couple of years older than her going down the street on skateboards. She could hear their voices talking about random things, no doubt. They scared her. She was never one for weird freaks. She climbed back into her room and looked at the clock again. An hour had already passed. Carrie went to her bags which were dumped in the corner of the room lazily yesterday night. She got a towel somewhere from the depths of the bag and a change of clothes, then she went to the bathroom to shower.
One week later...
It had been only a week later, but the thrill of moving had left. In fact, she was almost bored of the town already. It was a disappointment to find Ottawa clogged with freaks. She had tried to avoid downtown trips with her parents because of the many odd folks. So, she did what Cassie Morgan always does when she's bored. She picked up her violin with great care, checking to see if her violin was in tune, applied resin to the bow, tightened it, and started playing. She eventually lost herself in a world of Mozart and Bach, Sonatas and Arias. She played till she couldn't read the sheet music and her fingers were stiff. And then, she laid it back down in her case.
As Cassie put her violin case in a corner of the room she reserved for it, she thought about her new school. It would be starting in less than a month. She was excited. She wanted to finally make friends. She lay down on her bed, in the corner of the room. She had picked that place for her bed when the furniture came in yesterday, because it was right next to the window with the tree outside. She really enjoyed that tree being right there and would often climb it. Soon, though, it would serve a better purpose.
Cassie's eyes wandered to the window, looking through the tree. Even though she was scared of the people on the world out there, she always wanted to go around, strolling, walking, whatever. Cassie always had a desire to wander away, leave, only to come back later, even though she didn't always want to. She longed to have the courage to stray away and live her own life outside with people like her. Cassie had never found some she could connect with, which is why she made her own people to connect with, in her imagination. Her person was almost alike with her in every way. Her name was Carrey, blond hair like her own, played violin, smart. Cassie would often subconsciously talk to Carrey. She never got a reply, of course, but she at least had someone to relate to. And as the clock ticked deeper into the night, Cassie found herself whispering to Carrey.
