I feel someone taping my shoulder, but at the moment I don't care. I just want to be left alone, leaving Leah was like losing my mom all over again. The person taping me finally gives up and sighs. I hear a door open, someone get out, and then the door close. I open my eyes and take in my surroundings wondering if I've slept through the entire trip. I feel my eyes and the pillow I'm laying on and find them both still damp with tears. This causes me to sigh.  

I look over at where Aunt Sarah was and then out the window. Apparently we're not there yet, we're just at a gas station. I guess Aunt Sarah went to the bathroom because she isn't standing by the pump. I sigh again, it's becoming a habit, I guess it's a side effect to depression.

I hear a bell ring and I look up to see Aunt Sarah walking out of the store. She sees me and waves me over. I sigh again, but still get up and head over. I look at the sky, it's just stating to get light out so we can't be too far from home-I mean my old home. I sigh again and walk up to Aunt Sarah.

"You'll get through this kiddo. Don't worry too much okay?" She says and I nod not having the ability to talk at the moment. "Do you need to use the restroom?" I nod again and she points to a door in the back of the convenient store. I walk to the door and walk in. It's one of those one stall bathrooms were only one person can go in at a time.

I lock the door and stand in front of the mirror. I look like a reck so I turn on the faucet and splash some water in my face. Then I take a paper towel and dry it. My face looks a little better now, but my hair is still a mess so I comb my fingers through it and put it in a braid. Then I use the bathroom, wash my hands, and exit. My Aunt is waiting for me when I get out.

"Are you hungry?" I look down at my stomach which growls in reply. I look back up at my aunt and nod. We walk over to one of the mini fast food places. I look up to see its name and smile, but quickly stop myself as if it's not okay to be happy without my best friend.

"Do you like Dunkin Donuts?" My aunt  asks and I nod this time concentrating on not smiling. It's not to hard to do when you have a dead mom, missing dad(who also might be dead), and a friend who lives far far far away from you.

The cashier gets done with the people in front of us and we walk up. "Hello ladies, and what can I get you two on this fine evening?" My aunt looks at me and I point to my favorite doughnut. "Boston Cream?" my aunt asks and I nod.  "Okay we will take two Boston Creams, two glazed, and two brownie batter doughnuts please."

The cashier nods, grabs them, and hands them to us. "Thank you." My aunt says. Then she pays for them and we leave. We both walk to the car and get in. My aunt hands me a napkin and one of my doughnuts. Then she does the same for herself. She is about to take a bite and stops. "Do you like it?" She asks as I take a bite and I nod.

"You're going to talk at some point right?" She asks and I shrug, I mean who knows. "Not that I'd blame you if you don't, I mean you're going through the process of a move and a death, and your stronger than any other kid who's done the same. I just..." she trails off. "I've never been a mom and I'm afraid I'm doing something wrong, I just want you to be happy...and don't want to lose you to." She cries a little and I sigh. "I'm not going anywhere Aunt Sarah. I promise." We hug each other and cry a bit more. I guess I forgot that my mom was her sister and she's going through the same thing as me. After our hug she starts the car and we get back on the road.

The rest of the trip goes by fast. We pass most of the time by singing along to the Miranda Lambert songs on the CD I brought. She's my favorite artist and Aunt Sarah is a pretty big fan of her too. When we finally reach Aunt Sarah's house it's around noon the next day.

I get out first and Bear as well who had slept at my feet most of the way. Just looking at her reminds me that I had to leave Baby behind. I sigh, and watch as my aunt hops out. "So this is where we will stay until the movers get to the other house with our stuff. This house is mostly empty and we'll be sleeping on the floor, sorry." My aunt says. "No that's fine. Hey is Uncle Chris here or is he still at work?" I ask. "He should be home." She says as we walk Bear into the house.

"Uncle Chris!" I yell into the house. I hear stirring upstairs then I see my Uncle walking down the stairs. "Kate!" He smiles and walks toward me, then pulls me in to a hug. After a few seconds he releases me, "How you feeling?" He asks. "I'm surviving." I say. Aunt Sarah was right I was handling the death of my mom better than most. Is that bad? Should I be in tears every second or is it good to be strong? Like I don't want to be disrespectful, but I don't want to look like a wimp either because I'm not.

"So how was the ride here? Not to difficult I hope." Uncle Chris asks Aunt Sarah. "No not that bad..." I walk into the other room leaving her words behind me. I begin to unroll my sleeping bag and then lay it on the floor along with the two blankets, a pillow, and one stuffed animal that I grabbed from the car. It's a white bear holding a rose between its arms. My mom got it for me when I was younger.

I walk to the door shut it and then lie down on my sleeping bag holding Rose (that's the bear's name) close to my chest. I start to think about my mom, my dad, and Leah. It's all very depressing so I turn my face to the pillow and sob myself to sleep.

"The fireflies, follow the fireflies..." "momma!?" I yell. I can't see anything, but I hear her voice. I try again, "Momma! Where are you?" "Kaitlyn, be strong my love, you will survive." "But I don't want to survive, I want to be with you!" I yell and feel hot tears roll down my cheeks. "Please don't leave me." I beg into the air. "I will always be with you. No matter where you are. Now listen closely my dear. Your father is not dead. He is not with me in this world which means you can find him. Don't give up hope my child, just follow the fireflies..."

Then I wake up and I turn to the window to my left, the only window in this room, and see that it's night. I get up and walk to the bathroom. I dry my eyes so that no one will be able to tell that I've been crying. Then I walk out of the bathroom and check the clock on the stove. It reads 6:56, I guess I slept for a while, I must have been exhausted.

I look into the living room and see my Aunt and Uncle. Uncle Chris is the first to look up and see me. They're playing LBP (Little Big Planet) on their play station. "Well look who's awake." He says and then Aunt Sarah turns her head. Then she gets up and walks over to me. She gives me a big hug and then walks into the kitchen. "I was just about to make dinner so it's perfect timing. Are you hungry or hungry." "Hungry" I say and giggle a little, she reminds me so much of my mom. My mom, the dream, it all comes back to me so fast that I have to sit down.

Then a thought occurs in my head. "Hey Aunt Sarah?" I ask. "Yes Kate?" She replies. "Are there fireflies in Florida?" She's making spaghetti stirring the pot of noddles, when I ask my question I notice a slight hesitation. Normally I would shake it off, but with everything that's been happening who knows, maybe she knows what my mom meant about the whole firefly thing.

"Yeah, Florida has tons of fireflies. Why do you ask?" She finally answers trying to caver herself, but it's too late I saw he hesitation. "Oh nothing really, there's just this saying my mom told me before she died, it was "the fireflies, follow the fireflies" and I thought it might help me cope switch everything if I found some and just spent a night being with them. I thought it might help me remember my mom while being happy." It's not like I completely lied to Aunt Sarah, I mean I do want to find fireflies, just for different reasons.

"Well how about once we settle in to the new house we take a camping trip and find some? That sound good?" I nod my head and grab a plate. Then I fill it with the now hot and ready noodles. Then (you might think this is weird, but) I grabbed the ranch from the fridge and put it an my spaghetti.

Ring Ring

I watch as Uncle Chris picks up the phone and answers it. Man this spaghetti is so good! "Thanks for dinner Aunt Sarah!" I say turning my attention to my food instead of my Uncle. "Thank you Kate."

"Really? Wow, um well thank you. Yes. Yeah, we will try to leave tomorrow. Alright thank you so much. You too. Alright. Bye." My Uncle hangs up the phone and I'm about to ask him who it was that called when the phone rings again. "Hello? Yes she is. That would be me. Nice to meet you too. Sure thing just give me one second." He sets the phone down and walks over. "Someone wants to talk to you." I jump up. It must be, has to be Leah. She's the only one with this number. Well her and Zack of course.

"Leah?" I ask to excited to believe that it's anyone else. "Why of course. Who else would have the nerve to call you during dinner." We both laugh and I walk in to the room I slept in this afternoon, taking my food with me. "So..." I say between bites. "How are you Leah. Miss me already?"

"Duh! I've been missing you since you left my house."

"Same, how's my cat?"

"You're cat is fine." She whispers the next part. "Your boyfriend however, not so much. He really misses you. Of course I told him to suck it because you were my friend first, but he's still crying like a big baby." We laugh again.

"Well tell him I miss him too."

"How much?" Zack says and I smile at his voice.

"So much I would sell my collection of Miranda Lambert CD's just to be with you, but unfortunately I can't because my Aunt has grown very attached to them." I giggle and so does he.

"Ok enough romance people. So when will I see you again? Ouch! Fine. When will we see you again?"

"I don't know. Could be a year, more or less. I'm hoping less."

"Same. Well we got to go, but it feels good to talk to you."

"Yeah. Thanks, I needed the talk. It really helped."

"Bye."

"Bye."

I start to cry as soon as I'm sure our lines have disconnected. Apparently my Aunt heard my sobs, because she walks through the door and gives me a well needed hug. "Thanks." Is all I can say between the sobs. She nods in reply. I'm so lucky to have her, especially at a time like this. If it weren't for her I'd be an orphan with no family and no home. I don't think I'd be as lucky as Annie, I'd probably have ended up being one of those kids who stays in the orphanage until eighteen and then leaves because I would be considered an adult. Thankfully she saved me from that horrible fate.

"So I was thinking ice cream for dessert. You?"  My Aunt asks. I know she's trying to cheer me and probably herself up so I nod and smile at her. Even though inside I'm crying so hard that by the end of the night I will have enough tears to fill an ocean. She gets up to leave a gestures for me to follow. So I get up and we walk back to the kitchen.

"So..." Uncle Chris starts. "I have good news and bad news. Bad news is we have to load the rest of this house into the cars tonight. Good news is that we are doing this because the moving trucks just got there tonight and they want us there as early as we can be tomorrow."

My aunt smiles at this. "I think the good new ms out ways the bad news in this case." She says. Then she takes me with her to the room I'm staying in. They've been keeping most the boxes that are left to pack in this room. We start to load right away. It's not until we have most of the boxes out of the room that I realize how big it really is. My aunt said this is where they kept their storage. She said it use to be even more packed with boxes.

I look at the clock when we finally finish all the packing. Midnight. Well 12:07, but close enough. Before I go in I garb a few more things from the car so that I can clean my teeth and take a shower. By the time I finally get to go to sleep its 1:42 am. I fall asleep as soon as I hit the pillow.

"Momma? Can you hear me?" I ask into to the darkness that surrounds me.

"Kaitlyn I can't stay long. What is it? Are you okay?" She answers.

I nod and the realize she probably can't see me. "Yes, I'm fine, but I need to know, does aunt Sarah know what the fireflies are? Can she help me?"

"Darling the fireflies are just ordinary fireflies. There is no deep meaning. As for your aunt, yes she knows I was obsessed with them, but she doesn't know why. So she won't be much help. Now I have to go. I love you my sweet little girl, please stay safe, and of course follow the fireflies...

I wake up with a jolt. When I look around I realize I'm in a car. Aunt Sarah and uncle Chris must have not wanted to wake me and just put me in the car. I look at the driver's seat and see my uncle. Next to him in the passenger seat is my aunt and she's asleep. I don't blame her we were up really late last night.

"Oh you're awake!" My uncle says looking in his rearview mirror. "Yeah." I respond. "I just woke up." Then a thought pops in my head. "Hey you knew my dad right? Like before he disappeared?" I ask and see him nod. "What was he like? I'm starting to forget and..." I pause not really certain where I'm going with this. "and now that I've lost my mom...I mean I don't know, I guess I'm just afraid I'll forget them completely."

He takes in everything I just said and then nods in an understanding way. "Your father and my older brother were best friends. He was like an older brother to me. He helped tutor me during school, which was easy for him because I was four years younger. He was really good at school, no matter what subject. His favorite was math though. Oh how he loved solving all those equations and finding what the missing numbers were..." he starts to smile a little and pauses for a second before continuing.

"That's how your parents got together. Your mom was struggling in math and my brother knew that your dad a crush on her. So he told her that he knew this great tutor and after one session they, well, they zinged so to say." We both let out a small laugh. Then he puts on a more serious face.

"Any time you want to talk about either of your parents just let me or your aunt know and we'll be glad to tell you anything you want to know." I nod at this and mouth thank you too concentrated on my dad to say anything.

A few seconds after this my aunt woke up, probably because my uncle and I had been talking. She yawns and looks around. "Are we almo-yawn-st there?" She asks yawning again. "Yes." My uncle says and nods. "Just a few more minutes, we're already in the neighborhood." My aunt smiles and then lays her head back down. Almost instantly she falls asleep. My uncle then laughs at this reaction, I laugh too.

It feels good to laugh, but at the same time it feels very very wrong. Do I have the right to be happy when my mom is dead and my dad lost? It just doesn't feel right so I stop and look out my window to take my mind off of everything.

Outside it seems like everyone is having a good day. The sun is shining brightly, butterflies are flying from flower to flower, and there's a light breeze blowing through the trees. It's a beautiful sight and the people outside our enjoying it. Some kids are playing on swing sets in there yards, while others are swimming in pools.

As we pass by a blue house with a white door I watch the two kids playing in front of it. Two girls who look to be only few years younger than me. They're running around playing tag and remind me so much of Leah and myself. How we would play together on a hot summer day. No school, just each other and our imaginations to guide us.

I sigh and face forward once again. I really miss Leah and all the time we spent together. I sigh again and watch as my uncle turns the wheel left into a driveway connected to a big white house.

Hello new life.

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Hey guys!!! Sorry it's been soooooooooooooooooooo long. I've been really busy with school, but I hope this long chapter will make up for it. Don't forget to vote and comment, I love hearing your feedback on my writing, it always puts a smile on my face. Well that's all until next time, bye!

❤️❤️-Emmy