Chapter One

Deep Breathe, you can do this, I think to myself. Was I crazy for moving to the unknown, because of a rumor? But what choice did I have? To live in solitary for ever. No, I have to push on. I have to find others.

            A light breeze billowed through the air raising goose bumps on my pink arms. My white hair fluttered around cape of my neck as I look out to the rolling hills that form my new home. The scene was beautiful, yet a wave of nostalgia washed through me with a faint bit of nerves. I missed the friendly neighbors that I had surrounded myself with for the last five years in the small town of Riverview. Here in the big city of Sugar Valley, I didn’t know where to start.

            When I first turned 18, I looked everywhere to find people like me, to know I wasn’t alone. I wasted nearly two years of my life to the search only to hit a dead end after dead end. I finally decide to give up and waste no more time on the hopeless. I promised myself to be done yet here I am, at it again. Done with my self-pitying, I decide to finally go inside to my new abode.

            It wasn’t much, just two bedrooms, but I was lucky to have found it. There were not any houses surrounding it which was my main requirement when I was looking. Unfortunately, that left me next to a junk yard. I guess the caretaker, or who ever worked there, was off duty as I saw an old car begin to pull away. The car suddenly came to a screeching halt.

A middle-aged man stepped out. He was wearing a faded old flannel shirt and a pair of faded blue jeans. He began to walk towards me.

“Sir, can I help you?” I called out to him

“I’m sorry ma’am, but I have to ask. Are you pink?”

Great, just what I wanted, to be put on spotlight, when all I want was to go inside.

I waved him off and began to turn around as I answered “Yes, sir. I am.”

“Ma’am I don’t mean to offend. It’s just I haven’t seen a berry since I was a young child.”

I stopped. “Wait, what did you call me?”

The man was now at the bottom of my poach steps. “A berry, colored people like yourself. I thought people in this town ran them all out.” He seemed to be talking to himself.

“Sir, did you say you knew people like me?”

“Yes, there once was a time in this town when berries where the run of the town. I went to school with them before, well before the rebellion. I’m sorry, I didn’t even introduce myself. I’m Harry Phillips”

“Katie,” I said “Harry, are there ‘berries’ still left in here?” I was getting excited. Maybe I wasn’t as crazy as I thought I was. I might not be alone.

“Not that I have seen, though there have been rumors about berries being seen during the night. That’s why I stopped when I saw you. I just had to talk to you. Do you live here now? Do other berries live with you?”

“No, no one lives with me. My parents died when I was a baby. I never got meet them.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok. I’m here because I’m looking to find more about what I am and maybe meet another.”

“Well, I’m happy to help in any way possible. I won’t bother you anymore tonight. If you ever want to talk, I work over in the yard there.” He pointed toward the junk yard.

“Thank you, night,”

“Night, ma’am.”

I walked inside my home; my head racing with thoughts. This place was giving me hope. Maybe I wasn’t alone.

Author's Note: This is the beginning of a new story I'm writing and I really don't know where I'm going to go with it. There aren't that many pictures (only two), but I will try to put up more picture for my next chapters.