Love, Loyalty and Family by Anysia Eaton (color ebook reader .txt) 📖

from the room. I followed seconds after, landing next to her.
“Three. Two. One. Go” I said.
It was a tradition of mine and Irena’s to race back to the house. We shot off at a speed I knew nobody that was now looking out of the windows would have been able to see.
We beat Dad and Alec home. Irena and I rushed in. Mom had been busy. She must have spotted the storm as well. She had started packing the essentials.
Perhaps I’ll get an answer out of these two.

“What happened?” asked Mom.
“Billy Wright” I replied. “Decided he didn’t want to sit and talk like civilised humans”
Men these days. So egocentric. Where is Alec and your father?

“There on their way.” I replied. I could hear both Dad and Alec’s thoughts now. They were close. They’d be here in about three minutes. “Three minutes away”
Irena and I went and packed up the essential parts of our room. As we always do in this house, we moved the less essential stuff into the loft and pulled down the holiday home furniture. Dad and Alec arrived exactly three minutes after us, and helped with the pack away. I would have moaned that we didn’t have the time but I decided that would just slow us down even more.
We were packed, car loaded and ready to go within the hour. Dad replaced the number plate on the car with a new one and then we were off.

CHAPTER TWO
Wednesday 18th May 2011.
Dear Travel Diary.
Yes, I’m back to write another entry. We slipped quite big. We hadn’t realised how big this slip was. Mr Wright instantly called the police once Alec and I had left. I should have seen that coming, but he decided to do it just second before he did, and he was already out of range by then.
We managed to switch all the furniture, wipe away any trace that we had been in that bungalow, and head off in the car within the hour. We had to pass by the school, which was risky but it was the fastest route out of the state. Just as we passed, the police were heading out of the school in the direction of our house.
Dad thinks we should go to the other side of the country. They expect this to be a big thing for a while. So, we are heading for Wisconsin. Well, he’s driving in that direction and that is where his mind is heading. He hasn’t actually announced it yet.
Mom is hoping for somewhere hot, well I can tell her now, that isn’t what we’re getting.
Irena is fusing about how she never got to go to Prom with her knight in shining armour, Bradley.
And finally, Alec is imagining fighting with Billy Wright. It was comical. Alec was beating Billy over and over again. Every time he beats him, he’ll start the fight over again, attacking in a different fashion.
It doesn’t get any better than this. Dad making decisions without consulting us, mom wishing to go somewhere what is not going to happen, Irena gushing about boys, and Alec imagining a fight. Typical family routine.
We passed through my birth city on our way, Las Vegas. It felt good to see it again, even if I didn’t quite get to go to the strip. I missed the heat of Las Vegas, and then the surprising snowfall over Christmas. It seemed strange to get snow in such a hot place but it snowed, and it wasn’t tampered with. It snowed, naturally. But I missed it.
As evening approached, we spotted the black ‘We Come in Peace’ van heading in the opposite direction. I just managed to catch their thoughts before they went out of range.
I hope we can catch them this time. Dad will be so proud. I’d take them to his bedside, so he can see them at least one time before he leaves us.

“One of the original ‘We Come in Peace’ members is ill” I told the rest of the family.
“One less problem” laughed Alec, even though all of us knew it didn’t quite work like that.
Nobody said anymore but I knew all of our thoughts were now in sync. With one dead the others will work more eagerly. The other five will realise they only have a short amount of time to finally find us before they pass on as well.
We pulled into a motel in Cedar City, Utah.
Dad and Mom shard a room. Alec had a room to himself while me and Irena shared a room. I could hear that Irena was still fussing about that Bradley guy. As she dried her hair I was monitoring her thoughts.
Should I try and contact him? Hmmm. Maybe not. Maybe I’ll go back in a few years? No. I bet he saw how much of a freak I was. I bet he knows I’m not normal.

“You should stop fussing about that Bradley guy” I told her as we settled for bed. We’d turned out our light and were lay back in bed.
“He was a nice guy” she sighed.
“On the outside, I’ll agree with you. But his thoughts almost lead me to breaking his neck” I told her.
“Really?” she sat up with a mixture of shock and intrigue.
“Yes. You can do so much better than him. They’ll be plenty of nice people where we’re going” I replied.
“Do you know where we’re going?” she asked me.
“Yes. Dad decided as soon as we pulled away from the house. We going to somewhere in Wisconsin.”
“Wisconsin. We’ve never been there before”
“Nope. Should be good. Mom wanted to go somewhere warm, but Wisconsin isn’t really that warm.”
“I don’t want to be Dad when he tells her”
We shared a quiet laugh.

Thursday 19th May 2011
Dear Travel Diary
I didn’t get much sleep last night. The events that lead us to leaving ran through both mine and Alec’s head. We’d been the cause for us having to leave the place all of us love. It was my fault because I was the one who did the paint bomb in the locker and Alec thought it was his fault because he was the one that slipped and used his powers. Though I feel grateful that he cared for me so much that he would act like that, I’d have preferred it if he didn’t. Sometimes I wished he would stand back and just let me deal with the threat myself. I’m not a vulnerable as he always made me out to be.
We woke and had a leisurely breakfast. Mom and Dad were quiet. Dad had broken the news that they were going somewhere that wasn’t hot and Mom was particularly happy. She get over it but she is in a bit of a mardy, whining in her head.
We loaded up in the car, and set off. We reached the highway at about eleven o’clock. It was Mom’s day to drive today, while Dad recovered from yesterday’s journey. Mom drives only just slower than Dad, so it didn’t really make much of a difference.
We crossed the border into Colorado by four o’clock.
We’d never been to Colorado. As we drove through it I could tell mom’s thoughts were on Colorado.
This would be a lovely place to settle. I wonder if he’ll change his mind. No, probably not. And I can’t really argue with him, I’d only last a second before I give in. But just look at the scenery. We’re coming here the next time we move, it’s just so lovely.

Dad was reading the map. They’d drawn on the route that we were going to take that would get up to where we want to go, well to where Dad says we’re going to.
So, we need to take the 170 east, then, oh, 170 east. So we stick on the 170 until we get to Wisconsin. That’s handy.

Irena was lost, her head was empty at the moment. She sat just staring out of the window. She was thinking nothing. I could never truly understand how she was able to do this, but she managed it.
Alec was thinking up a game strategy for football. I’d doubt if he’d ever get to use it, no coach so far has ever taking in his strategy’s.
Irena came back to life as the night started to come. She was thinking of the planet we had never known. The planet that was supposed to be our home planet. We never even stepped foot on it.
I wonder what it was like. Maybe it was like this one, blue and green, Land and sea. Or maybe it was like Africa all over, a dessert planet. Perhaps it was... no. Mom told me not to do this. We’ll never get back now we’re here. We’ve passed our due date. But I wonder whether if more of us are here. Perhaps we could get a ride back with them. Maybe. Or, a school trip. They might to school trips here. That would mean other people my age. I wonder if they’d like me. I hope so.

We didn’t manage to fully cross Colorado so, we stopped at Brighton. We’d cross the border tomorrow, I guess. It appeared to be like we were half way when I looked down on the map through Dad’s eyes.
We should reach Omaha tomorrow. Then we’ll be able to pass through Iowa the next day. Well reach the house late that night I should think. Brilliant. Only two days more of travel. One day for me and one day for Janice.

As much as I hated looking through Dad’s eyes – he was always thinking something far too intelligent – he was useful at times like this. Only two more days of travel. Good. I didn’t not like travelling but I didn’t like it either, not none stop like when we travel from place to place.

Saturday 21th May 2011
Dear Travel Diary
Sorry I missed yesterday. I couldn’t find you.
The weather is starting to get colder. We passed over the border into Nebraska at around midday on the Thursday. Nebraska was rather pretty. I could see Mom’s head hoping again, that we would stop here. Here is warmer than Wisconsin

, she thought. Though she never plucked up the courage to actually ask dad whether we could stop. None of ever attempted to argue with Dad, we could try and convince him to our way of thinking – you only get one chance though – but none of us ever did.
Irena was planning our next shopping trip. We would have to go and get some warmer clothes than the ones we had for California. She was planning out the whole family wardrobe. She was dressing Dad in cool dad clothes, mom is beautiful winter dresses – mom didn’t like wearing trousers, always a skirt of dress. Alec had the usual homecoming king attire, me, a glamorous winter model line, and the same but younger version for her.
We passed slowly through Nebraska, stopping at Omaha for the night, just like Dad predicted.
When we woke the next day, even thought it was raining, we were all buzzing at the idea of finally reaching the house.
Dad had rented a four bedroom house. It was going to be bigger than the bungalow we had before. It has a kitchen, a dining room, a lounge, a study, a basement, an attic and a heated indoor pool. How much better can you get than that?
We’ll be living in Plum City. What a cool name! Alec will be going to the high school. Irena and I will be starting in middle school. Alec will be finishing this school year as a