Sometimes Lauren would go to school once leaving her aunt and uncles. Most days she would spend time by the ocean, playing chess with old widowed men. Lauren loved Sunset Valley. It was a small town with a warm temperature and the majority of the population was ‘old’. Lauren loved the stories the little old people told her.
Lauren found herself skipping school frequently to visit the library. At least once a week her grandfather would join her. At first, she was scared. Scared he would tell her mom or aunt. But Pop Noah didn’t care if she was in school or not. He was lazy himself, and although he was strict on raising his daughters, education had taken a back seat since Lauren was born.
Pop Noah was like clockwork in his old age. Every Wednesday at 11:00 he would visit the library to see Lauren. Lauren would attend school for the first few periods, Art and English class, then slide out the back door. Lauren in turn would always be waiting by the door, book in hand. “Today I have something special,” Pop Noah said, flashing a thick book at Lauren.
“This is our family book,” he said opening the dusty cover, “I just happened to find it while I was cleaning in that horrible outdated basement.” Lauren was intrigued. She flipped open the book. Inside were pictures of people. Very dated pictures. Above the pictures of the happy couple was the name Parkes. Lauren figured this was where her family came from. Each page showed the passage of time as the couple grew and a family was born. As each family grew the elders would pass and a new family was born.
“It stops here,” Lauren said, looking up from the page, “Gavin Brandon.” Noah chuckled. “That’s my father,” he said pointing to a picture. Lauren looked between her grandfather, who was looking away as if remembering, and the image. She could see the family resemblance. There was a long pause before Noah spoke, “He must have worked on this during a project. I guess we have to add on to it.” Lauren looked at her grandfather as he winked her special wink.
Lauren knew what she had to do, and she knew just the place to start.
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