Prologue

 

It was a small community in Midwestern America 20 minutes from the closest small town. Just outside that community sat a medium sized one-story house. The house was as blue as the sky and was hidden behind a small grove of trees. Even so, everyone knew of the house. Many tried to duplicate its color and style but nobody was ever successful.

            The occupants of this house were a fairly normal family: well more normal than some of their neighbors, perhaps. Living in a small community, part of a small town, gossip was a way of life. True or not, it didn’t matter. Nobody kept their mouths shut. That is, except for this family. 

Mind you they did gossip, just not as much as their neighbors. And while everyone knew everything about all the other families in town, they knew only part of the things about the family in the blue house. Most of what was known was about the eldest daughter. However, recently many were talking about how the other daughter had gone off to Japan, gotten married, gotten pregnant, and had now returned home crying. They assumed the worst of course: he had left her, or beaten her and she was now moving home to live. What they didn’t know was how far from the truth they were, but for the youngest daughter the truth broke her heart just as much.

            The sun was high in a cloudless pure blue sky shining fiercely on the land below, as a light cool breeze danced around the trees. The family was sitting on the back deck around a white outdoor table: you know the kind, white metal legs, and frosted glass top. They had been taking advantage of an especially warm spring day, eating lunch. No one was in very high spirits in the fist place, but things had quickly gotten worse. A dangly ten-year-old boy had thrown his fork onto the deck where it had fallen between the boards never to be found again. His blond head was bowed, hiding his bright blue eyes. He had announced that his aunt, whom he thought of as a mother, had betrayed him. She had left to live in Japan, gotten married, and finally was replacing him with her own child: just as his real mother had done when she suddenly returned home with a baby girl just two years ago. Just as quickly has he had spoken those words; he jumped down from his seat and ran into the house. Only one thought broke the silence. It was a reminder that he was only a child and that he would one day understand.