“Oh, Joseph, we are so glad to see you!” A petite woman with graying hair that had once been red wrapped her arms around him. She squeezed him so tight it sent a red hot pain to his ribs and he couldn’t breathe, but he managed to keep his mouth shut. “I am you grandmother-”

No duh, Joe thought,

“-And I am your grandfather”, a man interrupted her. The man was tall with a shaggy brown mustache that matched his graying shaggy brown hair. He looked like a shaggy, unkempt hick until you looked at his crystal green eyes, and realized that if you shaved off the mustache and subtracted twenty or thirty years, he would look like a warrior prince or something like that in another life.

His grandfather stuck out his hand. Joe tentively reached out his and instantly his grandpa grabbed it and delivered a wringing handshake.

“What do they call ya, Joseph, Joe, Joey?” he said the last with a touch of sarcastic humor.

“Joe, sir”.

“None of that now”, the man said sternly. Joe wondered what he could have said to upset this odd guy. “Call me Grandpa Jack.”

“Alright”, Joe said, slightly relieved.

“And I am grandma Brambleberry to you, young man,” the old lady cut in, her eyes twinkling mischievously, reminding Joe of his mom, causing a sharp pain in his ribs as he caught his breath. His grandma looked like an older version of his mom, especially when she smiled. Except that her ears were slightly pointed at the tips in an odd way. His mom’s ears were a little more round.

Suddenly Joe felt like running away and hiding, or screaming his head off, or maybe all three. It didn’t do any good for these loonies to pretend. Mom and dad were dead. Dead! His grandparents had to take him in, why force cheerfulness that wasn’t there? What was the point?

“Come on honey, we’ve kinda got a long trip home, and I’ve got cookies I took out of the oven right before we left. I hope you like chocolate chip?” Grandma Brambleberry asked.

Joe dumbly nodded and picked up his suitcase, mechanically following his grandparents to wherever home now was.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The drive home took about forty five minutes. Joe tried not to notice how beautiful it was, how green it all looked. There were forests and cliffs in the far distance.

When they pulled into the driveway, Joe couldn’t help but feel a thrill of excitement. He quickly squashed it, but his eyes darted back and forth, taking it all in.

A tall, wide, rambling white house stood on a small, gently sloping green hill. There were lots of windows, and each had a pair of bright green shutters that matched the green door. The green seemed to exactly match the green of the whole place everywhere.

The lawn was huge. Beautiful flowers lined the cobblestone walk up to the house. A few fruit and shade trees were scattered around. Decorative bush like trees, (or maybe they were tree like bushes), made a kind of fence or border around the yard.

But the thing that made Joe catch his breath was a large pasture some way off from the house. It was fenced off by a pristine white fence, which was connected to a small barn that matched the house. Inside the fence about eight horses milled about. Before Joe could take a good look at them, Grandma Brambleberry laid a hand on his shoulder and spoke, making him jump.

“Why don’t you come inside to have a bit of a snack and unpack. After that, your free to be looking around and do a bit of exploring.”

Joe just nodded. He turned around and grabbed his suitcase out of the van and trudged after his Grandfather, who was already walking up the path.

The inside of the house was just as awesome as the outside. Everything was bright and clean, it was cheerful and the plentiful windows let in lots of light.

Grandma bustled in after him. “Joe, why don’t you set that suitcase down right here.” she nodded at a spot just inside the doorway. “Bathroom is down that hall, second door on the right. When you get back we’ll have ourselves a snack”, she continued.

Joe nodded again and walked to the bathroom. It felt good to wash the traveling grime off his hands. He could almost feel the germs having a hey-day. The soap smelled sweet and made a creamy lather that he almost hated to wash off.

When he came back out the small kitchen table was set with three glasses of milk. A plate of chocolate chip cookies sat in the center. Suddenly he realized he had just been standing there staring like an idiot. He flushed and quickly sat down, accidently skewing the tablecloth. He self consciously righted it, cheeks flaming even redder. Talk about an awkward moment! He thought he heard his grandma chuckle but he couldn’t be sure.

  So thats all I have right now. Actualy it would be more honest to say thats all I'm putting down, I've actualy got over twenty pages in my notebook. but if you havent had enough literary scribblings shoved down your throat, heres some more..............

                                        Words of Wisdom

When your life

Hits a brick wall,

Hold the hand you love tighter,

Pray harder,

Laugh louder,

Sing more,

Grit your teeth,

And keep on going.

                                          Nothing

Nothing hurts

Like a betrayal,

Nothing wounds

Like stinging words,

Nothing crushes

Like shattered dreams,

Nothing consumes

Like ongoing anger,

Nothing weighs you down

Like despairing sadness,

Nothing destroys

Like hoplessness.

Thats all, adios!!