As I casually strolled into the kitchen, I noticed my mother looking out toward the street with a look of concern on her face reserved for only for friends and family. I followed her gaze and noticed that there was an inordinant amount of activity around the Ketterman house, two doors down on the opposite side of the street.
I had noticed, of late, that "Ma" Ketterman , as the folk around the neighborhood reffered to her, had some help move in with her. I only noticed because of the fact that she was a quite attractive brunette, probably in her mid 20's, I'd guess, and I was never one to not notice a cute brunette. There was also a younger girl that was around alot too, maybe 9 or 10, she looked alot like, what I would assume, to be her mother...well maybe I had misjudged her age, if she had a daughter that age she would have to be in her late 20's, or maybe even early 30's. I wondered if the younger girl had any idea she was living 2 houses down from Hanson.....if she found out, we'd probably have another permanant porch fixture.
I paused and stood by my mom.
"Whats all the concern for, Mom?".
"Oh Issac, hon, Lilly Ketterman passed away this morning, she was always so to herself, I'm feeling sad that I never took the time to get to know her."
My mother always wanting to be so much more than she would ever have the time or energy for. She has always been so there for our family, much more so than any of my friends moms, I think they all envied my family, that's why our house was so full with other kids in addition to the 7 that lived here.
She and my father have been so encouraging and supportive, especially with the music. There was so many times and so many rejections before we actually made it, and they never even suggested that we give it up. We knew that they would always be there, even if we had never had signed with Mercury, they would have just kept hauling us to birthdays, bar-B-ques and malls-because they knew how much we loved it.
I watched out the window with my mom as the dark station wagon drove away, the brunette left with a young man in the Kettermans Catering truck, following shortly behind.
"Bummer," I guess that means she'll be moving on to a new job, and we'll have new neighbors again. That sometimes proved to be interesting , however....

Chapter 2

Shortly later, the house began to buzz again, the peace that I had with my mom that afternoon had been nice. We had sat down and reminiced a little about grandma, and had a good mother- son talk.
Dad walked in with the girls and Mackie first, they had been to Avery's soccer game. It was approaching 5, so I knew that Zac and Taylor wouldn't be far behind. As if on cue, they came bursting through the door, with Jack and Dave.
"Mom, can they stay for dinner, we have the same history paper we're working on, and I need some major help" whined Zac
Taylor was gone as quick as appeared, he had probably gone to check the computer and see how much email had built up during the day. If one of us doesn't keep up on it every day, we spend hours cleaning out the mailbox and don't even get to read very much.
"two more mouths around here aren't going to make any difference" was my mom's favorite response when we asked for friends to stay.
Dinner smelled like it was nearly done, so I voluntarily began to get the table cleared. Dad and Zac had pulled salad makins from the fridge.
It was always amazing to me, how this household ran like a finly oiled machine, without even a word spoken. We all knew what was expected of us, my parents had just raised us that way.
Sitting around the table that nite, Dad filled us in on the next months schedule, we had to do the bi-coastal thing one more time,10 days on each coast, and then we could be home for an extended stay, which was good, I had been falling a little behind in school and needed some regular school hours and long days to study. I was determined to be able to graduate with my other friends, many of whom were home schooled like us. Zac and I always seemed to lag a little but not Taylor, he was going to be able to graduate a year early I'm sure. He is so serious and dedicated to everything he does, and always suceeds at it too, sometimes it was almost irritating...

Chapter 3

Pulling up in the driveway after 20 nites away from home was the best feeling you can imagine.
"YESSSS, my own bed" Zac blared as he raced from the van.
I knew better than to get in the way of all of them, I just sat back and let the van empty.
Almost immeadiatly, the smooth hum of the Hanson household was once again under operation. I paused and looked out the window to the Ketterman house, half expecting to see a real estate sign in the yard, but there sat the Kettermans Catering truck in the drive just like always.
"That's odd" I stated to my mom, who was warming Zoe's bottle.
"The Kettermans truck is still there, and the house lookes like it was painted." There was also a blue coupe style car parked on the street in front.
"Lilly had very little family,from what I understand, maybe they are a little slow at getting her affairs taken care of." Mom said as she strolled over to have a look for herself.
We stood there quietly as mom handed me Zoe and her bottle, silently indicating for me to do bottle duty.
As I turned around, I jumped, Taylor stood directly behind me, and I almost dropped the bottle because he startled me.
"Who ya talkin about, Ike?" asked Taylor
"Ma Ketterman's house looks like someone still lives there, kinda spooky huh?" I said back.
Taylor followed me to the living room, where I settled into the rocker with Zoe.
"So I guess that brunette who was there for the past few months moved on then, too bad Ike, I know how you like older women" Taylor chuckled.
Zac's pounding feet could be heard coming down the stairs and approaching the living room.
"Ah, Ike, Mom said I got to give Zoe her bottle" "Mooom" he hollered as he went back to find out why I got his favorite job.
"That's okay, I'll let him do diapers when I'm done, " I said to Taylor with a big grin, we both snorted with laughter knowing that was Zac's favorite job...

Chapter 4

The next morning, I sat at the kitchen table with my coffee and my books spread out in front of me.
"Hey Ike," Taylor burst into the kitchen, "look out the window!" I raised myself slightly to get a look.
There walking down the street past the house, was the brunette and the other girl.
"Sheee's back!" laughed Taylor.
I smiled slightly as I watched her walk, she had a great stride, kind of a bounce to it, that's what led me to believe that she was younger than I knew she had to be. She was holding her daughters hand and smiling as they walked. It looked looked like they were having a great conversation.
Mom walked in as we were looking, and giggled (I swear she really giggles just like a little girl)when she catches us looking at girls.
"Isn't that Lillys nurse and her daughter, what are they doing back here?" my mom said as she watched her too.
"Yeah, I thought after nearly a month, she'd be gone to another job" I said back
"She's real cute, for a girl her age, Huh?" said my mom as she glanced at me.
I knew she wondered why we had chosen to delay our dating, besides the obvious reasons, and whether we would start up soon, now that the hysteria had slightly died down. It was really nice to not have a constant herd of teenies hanging out at the driveway, I guess the word had gotten out, that we were rarely out and about when at home, and most of our friends came to see us. I think Zac missed them, though, They were a constant source of entertainment for him. He would love to make an appearance and then watch them all have heart attacks for the next 15 minutes. Taylor and I ,to this day ,will still never understand the crying and screaming that the mere glimpse of one of us produced. It was good for the ego though....
Not moving from the table, I went back to work on my books, I was determined to get current this week so that I could actually have some study time with friends. Daydreamer that I am, within a half an hour, I found myself staring out the window, and listening to my mom do the lessons with the younger kids. in the school room down the hall.
"There she is again" stated Taylor as he walked in to get a coffee for himself.
"I saw her " this time she was alone I noted. I looked at the clock-9:05. I'll have to remember that, I made a mental note.

Chapter 5

Two weeks had passed, and everday, I sat at the kitchen table watching her scheduled comings and goings. 8:15, 9:05, 2:45, 3:10...the first and last , the younger girl was always with her, obviously, this was her daughters school schedule.
I stood at the front window watching her pass, noting what she wore. I had decided that I preferred her in simple jeans and tees to some of her other clothing choices.
I took to wondering about some other things about her life though...who was the dark haired man who stopped by on occasion, why did she always walk everywhere when the car sat unused in her driveway, then there was the county car that pulled up like clockwork once a week? This lady and her life had grown into a facination with me, and I was enjoying imagining all the details of her life.
My mom walked in one morning and caught me watching her again.
"If she has you so facinated, why don't you go introduce yourself?" my mothers voice came from close behind me.
"Ah , mom, you know I don't do that, I have to meet someone by accident""beside, she's, what, probably more than 10 years older than me?". I stated flatly.
"I don't know, I saw her in the grocery the other day, she appears to be awfully young to me..."my moms voice trailed off as she left the room.
The next morning, I was at the table, coffee in hand, waiting for her to leave, so I could get a look at her before I had to start my day.
My mom's voice startled me...
"Ike, can you take Wicket out for the walk this morning, zac was up late with his paper last nite and I'm going to let him sleep"
Boy, she thought she was so slick, I laughed to my self...she was creating my accident for me...