Nine

I sat quietly while Sam drove, unsure what I could say to the gruff woman that would lighten the mood in the cab of the old truck. Sam and Elle’s place was a few miles outside of the main part of town and I spent the ride looking at the houses that were nestled back into the hillsides and cliffs along the ocean’s edge. I loved the way the trees seemed grow by clinging onto the rocks and how they were shaped by the coastal storms, it was all so vastly different from lands I had grown up on. I found myself enthralled by the smallest things, a peek of the ocean as we turn a corner, the bright pinks of the flowers that seemed to grow everywhere, fishermen going about their day working on the docks, my eyes ate up the details.

As we came into town, I tried to pay attention to the streets we were passing, their names and the businesses on them, so I could build a mental map of my new home. It was difficult, the uniformity of the white buildings that made the town look s