I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew I woke up on a soft sofa my mother looking down at me looking, worried actually. She held the back of her hand to my forehead.

“Do you feel okay baby?” she asked.

I didn’t answer; I wasn’t used to her taking care of me.

Dear Diary,

I got so tired last night I forgot to continue writing in my journal. I actually got so tired I passed out on the prickly grass.

Anyways, I left off … oh yes; I could have had a chance at a better life if I had stayed in my coma. I don’t know exactly what happened but waking up on the sofa with a caring mother by my side, was just a dream.

Back to the will, after I was released from the hospital I went home and went to the little shack. I knew all the secrets of her house, some we made together; some were already there as a mystery, we were always trying to solve them together. So I snuck into her home and looked around; everything was gone except for an envelope left on the floor.

“I never got to say goodbye to anyone.” At that moment I didn’t cry, I didn’t sniffle, and I didn’t do anything; I just stood there thinking.

‘Why, why, why would she go? She’s all I have. Why?’ I thought

Just a minute I want to put my family’s photo here for future generations to come to see. I miss those times shown in the photo.

Family Photo

Isn’t this adorable? Look at me! I’m so adorable when I don’t want my picture taken. Aren’t I?

Back to the story, that was totally off-topic. So I was where???!!! Oh that’s right.

I was depressed when she left. (not clinically like my mom when my dad left, just sad for a few days.) And even though I was depressed I knew that I would have to deal with it when I read the letter.

September 9, 2006

Dear Geraldina,

I love you and I owe you so much for teaching me how much I love children. Please forgive me but I need to find my soul mate before I die. I don’t think that I have very long to live. Something doesn’t seem right. When you turn Eighteen* find out if I am dead or not. If I am then look for my will you will be in it, I promise; if you aren’t then, then, I don’t know what will happen but you will be in it. You can trust me. Again please forgive me. If you still want to act as if I am the authority figure in your life then here is your set of instructions:

There is a small suitcase in one of our hidden compartments in my old bedroom, find it. There will be a set of clothes in it for everyday, formal, athletic, sleepwear and swimwear.

Take the map that should be behind it in the secret compartment that you found your suitcase in. Look at the map and go to one of the places I have X’ed with a red marker with the items I have listed in step three.

These are the items that you need to take with you: The map, the suitcase, a basket with other things you need to pack (you can find it in the compartment in the old kitchen.), another basket in the same spot that you found the other basket which has berries, nuts, dried vegetables, and jerky. You will also need the 5,000$ I left in a crack in the floor boards.

After you have gathered these things and found where you will go you shall take these things to a cave that was marked on the map.

Hide in the cave and eat berries, jerky, and nuts until you turn eighteen*

When you do turn eighteen* move to Riverview in the will it will tell you that I have left you a large plot of land.

- Sincerely

Wisteria Gressed

________________________________________________________________

* I would like to point out that this is partly the reason that the title ‘Eighteen’ came to be, the other reason is that her life started over when she was eighteen, and she had finally gotten away.

I didn’t hide in the cave, but I did hide out in her house for a long time, until I was eighteen. And I had saved the money she gave me. I had gotten a job to pay for the ticket to Riverview and to buy things that I needed. I didn’t waste money on food, I just picked it from the community garden and from the woods.

Now I am eighteen and I know that I am going to be great!

- That’s it for now

Geraldina Gerdly

     Dear Diary,

I was telling you that she gave me some long boring speech right? Okay, well here’s a shortened version of it:

“Oh Geraldina, I love you so much, like you were my own. But I have dreams too big for this town. I was plannin’ on leaving when you were seven, and I made the plan when you were six. But when you were seven, that you know, thing happenened. And I knew I had to help you cope. But now I know you are old enough to take care of youself.” She bit her lip and blinked back tears.

“Ms Gressed don’t go please!” I pleaded

“You’ll find out soon enough that I am doing this for you.” she said with tears running down her cheeks

“No you aren’t! You’re doing this selfishly! You are the only thing that I have that’s even close to family! I thought you cared about me!” I burst into sobs

“Please forgive me.” her quiet voice sounded scared and sad

     I became delusional, it was happening again, just like it had happened with my mom and my dad.

     She shook me like I belonged in the wacky house. “Snap out of it!” she screamed

“Mom, Dad , You…. gone” I mumbled

I was talking about Ms Gressed last time I wrote, right?

     Well the reason I loved her so much is because she was basically my “mother.” She talked to me about gardening and cooking.

     You’re probably wondering why she gave someone whom she wasn’t even related to such a large area of property. Well it’s because of the fact that she never married; let me explain. When she was 12 her last relative other than her mother died. And when she was sixteen, her mother died aswell. The law from where she was, Veronaville, was that she had to be eighteen to be living on her own. But in Pleasantview it was that you had to be 17. So rather than waiting 2 years she only spent 1 year hiding in caves, eating berries and fish, and working her minnimum-wage part-time job until she had enough money to buy a train ticket. When she was finally 17 she bought a small shack on a hill a few houses down from where my family would later live. Thirteen years later my mother and father moved in, they were newly weds, only twenty years old. Ms Gressed was 30 at the time. Five years later my parents had me, she was 35 then.

     As you know, my father left when I was young, I was only seven. So I was about 8 when she became my “mother”.  She taught me to cook, to clean, read, and write. She also tutored me, I was never was a good student. She also taught me to be a good mommy and to always be polite. She taught me until I was 15.

     When she left for Riverview to seek her soul mate she was fifty. She gave me a long speech I remember very clearly. After all it was only three years ago. I’ll give it to you tomorrow. I just am hungry so I’ll write back soon.

                                              -Geraldina

I have come home from my sight-seeing. This is not the lot I inherited!!!! I was supposed to get a rich soiled plot of land that has a beautiful stone home with three stories, and five bedrooms!!!! I should get out the will, just a second. Ohhh. It says that I could build something like this. Well this is a disappointment, well no turning back now. I thought that was what I had inherited from sweet Ms Gressed. Ms Gressed was a sweet, pretty lady of thirty; but she looked about twenty-five.

Ms Gressed

Ms Gressed never married and I think the only reason is that she was a hopeless romantic and she was searching for her “soulmate”.

     – Thanks for listening Ill write again tomorrow

Geraldina

   A new beginning is not possible. I say this because the past is the past and nobody can change that. It may be a new layer, or chapter of your life but the old layers and past chapters don’t dissapear. I accept this and I would like everyone to know that I do. And basically what I am saying is that no matter what, my mother was my mother, my father was my father, and the past is the past. And I love it all the same. But I am looking toward the future. I am out of not-so-pleasant Pleasantview, away from the beatings, and beginning a new chapter in my life in Riverview. 

     - Scincerley, Geraldina   

What can I say about my mother? Well she was a great mother. Sweet, Good Cook, Comforting, Smart, and helpful; well at least until my father left. She nearly lost her mind when he left. I never told her or anybody else for that matter about that night my father left. He simply walked out the door. Well back to my mother, my father was a crazy man in short. My mother right, I wish I had someone to keep me on track; like a husband. MOM!!! No more distractions!!!! My mother beat me after my dad left because she became depressed. That’s really the only information I have on her. Picture Time!!!! These are pictures I’ve drawn.

This is me running from my mother

Family Photo

This is our teeny tiny House and my father is telling my mother that if she keeps being such a loser one of them will have to leave. (This is the conversation they had the night before he left, but she never thought that he was telling the truth)

Thanks For listening                             

  -Geraldina

        Im going to work on this for a while to make it good and get some more peoples to follow this blog. Check back in 3 weeks okay Soon. Dont forget about me!

Dear Diary,

Dont forget about me either Im the important one!

- Love Geraldina

This train has brought back so many memories. One of these memories is from a long time ago. It is of the jacket. It was snowing outside; my father was like any other father. He worked, smoked his bold pipe, and loved us both so much. But he was different somehow, I didn’t know why when I was younger but now I belive he was wiser, more sophisticated, and loving than other fathers, than anybody else actually. Anyways he kissed us goodbye and left for a business trip to Philidelphia. When he first came back he was just like he always had been. But he slowly began to change. I ran to him and jumped into his arms. His jacket was so good to feel and smell, it was nice and familiar. It was soft and warm, it smelled like his pipe and his favorite cologne, there was snow covering it. but one night I was getting up for some water and I saw my father pull a suitcase out the door. I said “Daddy?” He looked at me with a with a wild look on his face that scared me, I had never been scared by my father before. He said “Shhh I’ll be back when….” then he became confused and wandered into the snowy woods. He might have muttered something under his breath but if he did I did not hear him. His voice had sounded hard, grey, firm, and hopeless; nothing like his old cheerful, happy voice. I stayed quiet as he left. Odly enough at the same moment he left the wind blew and it made my hair sway and my nightgown swish agains my legs. I bit my lip to hold back tears. He disapeared for days until one day we got a call from my father “I won’t be back.” His voice was grim. That day my mother and I did exactly what we had been fighting not to do; we wrapped ourselves in a scrappy comforter and cried.