In A Parking Lot
In a parking lot in Glendale, Caroline and Francine left the cars they had stolen. They had no idea what to do with them so Francine emailed her mother for advice.
Graduated
Somehow she was graduated and flew home to Los Angeles. A week later, Caroline was joined by her two friends from Cheltenham, the girl from the Emirates whose father was still in prison for forging financial documents and the Corsican girl whose parents continued to...
Unwound Again In The Stadium
They couldn’t hear her coming, She was making too much noise. Soaring past the goalposts, Taunting all the boys.
The Mythology Of New Friends
Her two new friends pressed Caroline to tell them stories of California, whose mythology was already embedded in their minds. They soon came to realize that the myths they were so tightly drawn to were actually incorrigible truths.
Caroline
Caroline soon befriended a quiet girl with impossibly large emerald eyes from the Emirates. Her father was in a British prison for forging financial documents. The two of them soon took up with a Corsican girl whose parents, they learned one night when the three of...
Outcast
She was quickly branded as an unsophisticated outcast. There was nothing for Caroline to do but take pride in her new identity. This was not because she was an American. There were other girls from the States she considered as condescending and spineless as the...
Dulwich
When her parents left Dulwich for Southern France, they moved Caroline to a boarding school. Under different circumstances, The Cheltenham Ladies College may have proven satisfactory, but a cruel collection of frictions soon surfaced.
Gipsy Hill
They enrolled Caroline in a school by Gipsy Hill. Somehow, her parents realized how much of a mistake this was before she did.
Marathon on the Florida Keys
After Marathon on the Florida Keys and Wellfleet on Cape Cod they moved on to Great Britain, where they settled in Dulwich for a year. Their pain and restlessness knew no bounds.
Teddy Roosevelt At The Grand Canyon
Teddy Roosevelt At The Grand Canyon made it clear… “In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not...
Their Own Fashion
In their own fashion, each understood their loss was unique. Caroline knew her mother’s pain differed from her father’s and that her own feelings differed from those of her parents. She also knew she was not of an age to distinguish this.
The Conversation
The conversation each of them looked so forward to never took place. They found they didn’t know how to talk about their loss. No attempt was made to express their feelings, although their feelings were as real as the boundaries which blockaded their expression.
Destinations
For the next few days the three of them weighed the pros and cons of different destinations. Each understood the futilities they would take along, pain to be unpacked like sweaters and shoes and worn every day.
Father
Caroline’s father brought a stack of travel books back to their hotel room. Florida and New England, London and Western Europe. They browsed through them and dog-eared pages for hours on end. The only problem was the discord, how the travel writers draped the...
Two Sweaters
Caroline packed her favorite framed picture of her brother in her own suitcase, wedged between two sweaters. She didn’t want her mother to come across it but figured at some point the picture would be welcome.
Window
Caroline guessed as best she could what her mother would want packed. Out the window, she watched her father talk with their neighbor who would keep an eye on their house.
Suitcases
They checked into a hotel in Burbank. She asked her father if they could head out on a long trip. Caroline and her father went home to pack suitcases. Later on they would decide on a destination.
Afterward
Afterward, on the drive home to Burbank, Caroline’s fading mother announced she could not return. Someday she might step into their house again but not now. Not with glimpses of her son in every room. Not when she heard his voice rising and falling like a distant...
