She walked to the kitchen groggy. This morning the kitchen was silent and cold. A note on the fridge read “Helping auntie Vasquez move some furniture, back by dinner, please remember to eat breakfast and lunch!” Auntie Vasquez was the only other Vasquez in town, she was her Great Grandmother's younger sister. She was a kind woman, however she always had something to say about Esme’s height or hair.
Esme made herself two large egg, cheese and tomato sandwiches with some bread left over from last night's dinner, then took a seat on the back stairs.
She stared at the morning sky, the sheep in Farmer Jedidiah's pasture and the geese swimming in his duck pond.
Five more days.
Miguel always told Esme that she had so much restless energy because she was a New York baby put into this tiny box of a town. Things were always changing in New York he said, the only things that were consistent were its inconsistency and the bodegas.
Esme didn't remember almost anything about New York, since she was only five when they moved to Hartsfield. Maybe she remembered the flower shop across from their apartment, or the restaurant down the street that sold Miguel's favorite garlic fries, but those memories were so faded she wasn't even sure they were real, and not just leftovers from old dreams.
Most of her memories were of Vasquez Manor, wheat fields, cruel children, attentive Fathers and Lavender Celestial Moonshine. Also the incident. But she didn't like to think about that very much.
It was half past nine when she decided it was possibly time to start packing for college. As tempted as she was to leave it until the night before, she wasn't sure Miguel could handle the anxiety of sending her off to college and her packing last minute.
She opened the dusty downstairs closet where winter jackets, umbrellas and rarely used luggage were stored. Since Esme hadn’t traveled since she was five, Miguel had said she could take his suitcase as hers was miniscule. She grabbed his suitcase from the top shelf, which caused a thick layer of dust to rain down on her. After a brief coughing fit, she dragged it to the back porch and smacked the dust off of it, then dragged it upstairs into her bedroom.
She riffled through her drawers and pulled out all of her boxers, all of her shorts, all of her t-shirts and all of her sports bras. Also her only pair of jeans.
She rolled everything tightly and crammed it into the suitcase. Her wardrobe wasn't exactly extensive, but being 6’5” everything barely fit. Staring at the crammed mess before her, she could feel she was forgetting something. Two little Father voices in her head chanted “your winter jacket Esmeralda! You may be especially warm blooded but even a wolf gets cold in the winter without her winter coat!”
Esme felt comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts in anything above -10 fahrenheit, a side effect of being not quite human she supposed. Even so, she decided to humor her parents.
She ran downstairs to the hallway closet and grabbed her long orange winter coat. At first she tried to cram it on top of all the other clothes, then soon realized that effort was completely futile and decided to carry it separately.
After the clothing was packed, she boxed all the art supplies she thought she would need for the semester, as well as some she definitely didn't need…
Then, after moving her suitcase and boxes inside her closet, she flopped down onto her bed, face first into her pillows. Turning her head, her gaze made its way to the key sitting on her bedside table.
The monotony of packing had kept her mind occupied and away from thoughts of the key.
It felt like it had its own gravity, like it was pulling her into its orbit. So pulled in she was.
She rubbed the rough iron between her thumb and index finger. She noticed last night and again now, an image of a fang stamped into the metal at the head of the key, right below a loop she assumed was for fastening it to a key ring.
Uneasy as it made her, she felt connected to it somehow. She thought of the string of fate Lavender had told her about when she was little. She said there was a string tied between every person and their soulmate, and that when two people who were meant to be together met, they could feel the strings tugging them towards each other.
She wondered if one could be soulmates with an item instead of a person.
She pushed herself up and walked over to her scrap drawer, pulling out a leather cord from underneath some spare felt. She couldn't quite remember where she had gotten it, but she thought it would do.
She strung it through the loop at the top of the key, then tied it around her neck to avoid pushing it over her hair. She stared at the key in her mirror, wondering what exactly she was thinking, then tucked it into her shirt.
~~~
Just as the sky began turning pink, Esme heard the front door open, then Miguel and Raul chattering.
Esme had been laying in bed staring at her ceiling for an indeterminate amount of time, uninspired to paint, and feeling uninterested in anything else. Her head felt too full to do anything at all.
Soon, the smell of garlic and caramelized garden tomatoes filled the house, accompanied by Frank Sinatra on vinyl. Esme’s parents only used Grandma Vasquez’s ancient record player when they were in especially good moods.
She wondered what they were so happy about. A silly and very young part of herself, felt like they shouldn't be feeling such joy right before their beloved daughter was about to depart for college, despite her wanting nothing more but to go. Fighting a secret urge to revert back to a toddler crying for her parents, she stood up and walked briskly downstairs.
Her Father's were dancing in circles around the living room rug. “Mi Amor! Come join us!” sang Raul.
“Ahhh I cannot believe our little girl is going to college in just five days. I’m going to miss you so much amor.” Said Raul, kissing Esme’s bent head.
“No don't say it! It’s been such a good day, I'll end it crying!” said Miguel leaning into Esme.
Esme smiled to herself, how ridiculous she was to wish for them to miss her when they were just trying to hold it together.
“What are you two so happy about anyway?”
Her Father's glowed.
“There are new gays in town darling!” Said Raul.
Miguel laughed, “Why are you saying it like that?"
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