Khristen

"Don't worry daughter, you'll see that everything will work out."

My mother said lovingly resting her hands on my shoulders when she told me the news that she had gotten a job at the 'Kane Fortress'. Of course I have heard of them before, who hasn't? They were known all over the planet, respected by the president himself, praised by the most important firms and idolized by who wanted to be like them. My classmates used to hung posters of the Kane heirs in their lockers, in their notebooks, and on the walls of the school.

What obsessed idiots.

They were simple human beings, I did not understand so much adoration as if they were divinities. Yes, they were handsome, but they weren't the only handsome men in the world either. Yes, they also had money to cure the famine in five countries, but they had not done it. Therefore they didn't represent anything mind-blowing to my perspective. There were some rumors that they possessed special abilities related to the elements of the earth.

What a stupid!

It was no longer enough for their followers to revere them as gods of Olympus, they also had to invent powers for them!!!

I was so fed up with the Kanes that when my mother told me that we would live with them, I felt a stroke of irony smash my face. Fate, chance or whatever was out there was making fun of me but out loud.

"What are you thinking about?" My best friend shakes her right hand in front of my eyes fixed on infinity." Oh, I know, on your wonderful luck.

"Don't play with me." I react by refocusing on the blackboard with at least forty math exercises.

"Khris, a million girls would kill for that job."

"I'm not in that million." I'm sure she's made the reference because of her favorite movie.

Lilly Stewart, my best friend since I was five years old. We met in kindergarten and since then we have become inseparable. We know our tastes and what goes through our brains without saying it out loud.

"Come on Khris, admit you're a little excited." She pricks my cheek with her pen.

"Of course not, I'm sure I'll hate that damn house since I set foot in it."

"Silence please." The teacher scolds us with a stern look through her round glasses.

I focus on the exercises again but the numbers cross me on the board. Great now I suffer from sudden dyslexia ...

"Khris just because the Kanes are internationally recognized doesn't mean they're going to be egomaniacs." Lilly whispers this time.

"You just have to see the pose they adopt in front of the cameras." I raise my eyebrows, remembering the self-sufficiency that the eldest son shows.

"Maybe you will have no choice but to put up with them, no matter how much you dislike the idea, you will live in Fortress Mansion."

I am about to seal her mouth with duct tape when the blessed bell of the last school hour saves me from the ordeal of listening to my best friend and therefore, from mathematics. The hallway is instantly filled with crazy teens running for their freedom. My public school is the typical place where the rules are flushed down the toilet. Lilly and I squeeze through the crowd to get to the front door early when someone pushes me so hard to get ahead of me that my friend has to hold me down from kissing the ground.

"Where is your animal education!" She shouts at him

"Education, what is that?" The boy snorts, getting on his skateboard.

"We studied in a Neanderthal center," she complains "are you okay?"

"Yeah." I massage my shoulder.

We finally left the outskirts of the School and went to the bus stop to wait for the bus that leaves us one block from home. It takes time, as always ... When it arrives, we occupy our usual seats located at the end of it. Lilly and I, are girls of habit, so she better than anyone understands how difficult it will be for me to relocate to another place. I have lived my entire life in Palm Springs and have never left the state of California, much less the country. I just hope to get the maturity that the situation requires when the time comes and that is tomorrow afternoon. My mother can't wait for me and it's not fair for me to get spoiled when she has found the best paying job she could ever dream of.

"Khris ... wake up." Lilly snaps her fingers.

We stay at the corresponding stop and I say goodbye to her before going down the corner that turns my house.

"You will come the Sunday, right?" I ask, fearful that she has repented.

When Lilly found out that I would be leaving she was crying for a week until yesterday, which she decided to pretend to be glad at the news. What has turned out worse, because he keeps getting the "good" points of living with the arrogant biggest in the United States.

"Of course you do, you can't leave without 'L Luck'."

"L Luck ..." I laugh. "You'll never stop using it, right?"

"Never." She winks at me. See you later redhead.

She leaves putting on the headphones and I start walking still laughing at his witticisms. The 'L Luck' was born the day that Lilly was protesting her little fortune in life and accidentally stumbled upon a wad of bills larger than the remittance her parents gave her monthly in a year. Since then every time something good happened to him, he attributed it to 'L Luck'.

I cross the entrance of the garden of my house and greet our neighbor Daysi who is watering her Indigo plants like every afternoon. Daysi is more than a neighbor, as she has been present at all the important moments. She was also the one who helped Mom get her new job in the 'Fortress' because she has connections beyond what I can imagine. She has always been good to me and is another of the people that it pains me to leave.

"How was your day darling?" She asks after hugging me.

"Same as every day." I shrug. "Does it smell like what I imagine?"

"That's right," he smiles, "your favorite blueberry pie, I made it especially for you. Come on I know you're eager to try it."

I walk behind her knowing that I will miss every inch of her fabulous cakes. Also her chocolate muffin and of course, the natural jellies that she makes. Daysi is a magician in the kitchen, my mother has learned a lot from her. I follow her into the dining room, and although I have entered this house billions of times, I never tire of admiring the decorations.

To anyone it would look crazy. In fact, Mrs. Daysi is called crazy in the neighborhood. Her bizarre customs and unorthodox style have made her the target of Palm Springs ridicule. Years ago, children spread the word that she was an evil witch who would eat them one night when no one expected it. I fought with them for these cruelties, literally. I gave my mother a lot of headaches when I appeared with scratches and tattered clothes, after having faced children twice my height.

I have never been a cowardly girl, I carry in my guts to defend who deserves it.

But I recognize that my dear friend Daysi possesses peculiar characteristics that have earned her her fame. She has trees inside her house, but not any kind of trees, these are the strangest trees I have ever witnessed. Its crooked roots intertwine under the ceiling and run through every room. Rattles with mythological figures hang from them and some have brightly colored leaves, purple, pink, blue ...

And the scent they give off is hard to put into words, but it has given me a sense of home for as long as I can remember, one that I don't want to let go of.

The walls tell stories, like hieroglyphs in a cave, but more intense and sophisticated. These are full of symbolic and abstract paintings with elegant combinations of forms that most could not understand; but for some reason I've done it since the first time I saw them. I understood the message hidden behind the brushstrokes. A beautiful secret kingdom in the most intricate place on earth, with inexhaustible sources of energy, with virgin and unexplored fields. But I was also able to see bloody battles that swept the dominions, animals slaughtered in dark rivers, fear and death covering the peace and abundance that once existed...

I remember that when I was a little girl, I would go around Daysi's house looking for a painting that would complete the end of that story; I refused to believe that it ended in such a chaotic way. I became obsessed to such an extent that my mother was slow to convince me that it was something fictitious and I shouldn't be trying to find hope for what didn't really exist. However Daysi never said anything about it or convinced me to give up the idea. Every ttime I brought up the subject, her response was the same:

"Everything happens the way it has to happen. Otherwise, it would be tempting the universe"

At my young age I did not understand her words. Then I grew up and realized that it is one of the wisest things I will ever hear. So I didn't resist when my mother told me we were moving to Westlake Village.

If it's going to happen ... let it happen.

"Take it Khris." Daysi hands me a small plate with cake.

"Delicious, as expected." I say after the first bite.

"Khristen, there is something I must tell you." Her gaze darkens.

"Something wrong?"

"It's about your departure to Kane's Fortress Mansion."

"I was hoping to save the goodbyes for Sunday." I put the piece of pie left on the table. I'm not hungry anymore.

"Sunday I will say goodbye to you as your neighbor, with a kiss and a hug. But today I will dismiss you as Mrs. Daysi who has seen you grow up, with a warning."

At the moment her tone scares me.

"If you mean the care that I must maintain to live with two young people who believe that they deserve everything in the world, don't worry," I clarify. "I have very much in mind that ...

"Stop talking nonsense, Khris this is important." She grabs my strong arm with wild eyes. "Beware of the Destroyadors, stay away from them. Don't trust them!"

Destroyadors? What the hell is that word? She is raving things that don't make any sense. And she is still holding on to me very tightly.

"Daysi ... you're hurting me."

"The Darks will also threaten against you, but you can defeat them, you're strong."

I do not know if it is my imagination but the whole environment seems to have darkened along with her wild eyes. Her grip does not diminish and due to her altered state, she appears to be possessed.

"Promise me!!!"

"I promise you ..."

I say without understanding what he's talking about, just for her to let me go. I get her to do it without preventing the area from being red by her nails. However, at my assertion she seems to have calmed down and is back to being the pleasant neighbor Daysi of blueberry pies and jello.

"Okay." She gets up from the table and takes my plate with the leftover sweet. " I'll make you some cookies for tomorrow. I know you are allergic to almonds so I will add chocolate chips to it.

She starts talking as if nothing happened. As if a few seconds ago he had not dug her nails into my arm raving nonsense and demanding promises that I still do not understand.

Crazy. Completely and absolutely demented.

Maybe the children were right and Daysi is a bit crazy, and the affection I have for her has not let me see it.

The rest of the night, I spent meditating on the strange words that came out of her mouth. I had tried to ask her before, but like everything mysterious about her, she evaded the subject without further explanation. My farewell the Sunday was as expected, painful and full of sensitivity. Lilly latched onto my neck, refusing to let go, and I tried to force myself not to join her crying.

"Swear me you'll take lots of pictures of them." She sobs over me.

"Front page," I roll my eyes, smiling. "You might even start your own business selling exclusive photos of the Kane.

"Yes, most likely." She tries to smile, failing in the spot, as more tears come out.

"Lilly..." I hug her again. "We'll video call each other every day. It will be as if I never left."

"Stop it," Lilly scolds herself, wiping her face, "I'm not five years old.

"Of course not, you're strong." I lie. Lilly is like Daysi's jello.

"May L Luck always be with you. Oh, and remember not to eat anything with almonds in it.

"I won't. Daysi" I turn to her who is giving the delicious cookies to my mother.

"Darling," she kisses my forehead, "keep the strength that has always characterized you.

"I will." I give her a brief hug and grab my bags.

"Take care of yourselves." My mother waves goodbye before we get into the limo that will take us to Westlake Village.

Mr. Alioth Kane has insisted on sending her so that we travel safely and smoothly. As it goes along, both my neighborhood and my town are disappearing. I am truly leaving Palm Springs, with no returns.