WE ARRIVE IN St. Est avenue to Southwood street. My insides become knotted. My heart pounds against my ribs as I read the sign one more time. St. avenue Southwood South Dakota. I'm both excited and cautious at the same time. I can't believe I'm here! I can't believe my life is...new. All new. We get stopped by a flag instructor she has red hair that's up to her shoulders and an outstretched belly in her neon-green uniform. I've only seen these in movies, I can't believe I'm seeing this with my very eyes!
"They never had this in Tennessee," I say.
"Yeah, this isn't a little town anymore. It's the big city."
My eyes roam the houses. It looks like the little town I walked around in Illinois a few days ago. It's so nice and fancy. Fancier than that other neighborhood, then someone knocks on Uncle Kimmy's window. He rolls down his window to see who is it. I see a blond boy with a flier and says, "Hey, welcome to Southwood. I'm Charli just another kid in the neighborhood." Uncle Kimmy shakes his hand as the blond boy looks at me, "Your daughter's beautiful."
"Niece," he corrects the blond boy.
The blond boy doesn't give me good vibes.
"Can I come in, I need a lift and it's 2:37 so it's rush hour." People honk at the lady as she goes over to the person's car to give them a ticket. She waves us over after waiting here for an hour and a half according, to my clock. We're finally in. He pulls into a nice driveway. It's black and smooth, while my old driveway was grey with brown spots on it that looked like dog shit and didn't have a dog. I can't believe that was just a little over a month ago. Wow.