We didn’t unpack and went straight to the store after taking everything out of the car. Kael spent the drive looking around the town. I was happy to see a new park had been built. It had a playground, a small baseball field, and, to Kael’s excitement, four basketball courts.“I can walk here,” Kael said. “It’s only about a mile from the house. Is that okay?”Pinecrest Valley was a small, safe town, at least it used to be. Nothing I saw made me think that had changed.“That should be fine. Do you want to go play basketball later?”He shrugged in a casual way, like most teenagers do. I understood it as, “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.”The grocery store was near the center of town. It was small, but it had everything we needed. Once inside, Kael grabbed a cart and started filling it with chips, cookies, and other junk food.“You know we also need fruits and vegetables, right?”He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”We turned into the canned food aisle, and that’s when my day got even worse. A
Last Updated : 2026-04-21 Read more