Chapter 1 - Amy's first impression

I never really understood my brother Richard. He was a little over a year older than me and maybe we should have been close, but he was a bookworm and hated the things that I thought every kid in Texas should love. While he went off fishing or something, I preferred to go cheer on the jock boys as they played on the playing fields at the high school. That or shopping.

But to shop meant driving to Brown Lake, the county town, seven miles away. Mostly I was trapped in tiny Hogan, with nothing but the sports pitches, a play ground and a boggy lake. Not much fun at the time, but looking back, it was nice. We made our own fun, at least until everyone began to get addicted to Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario.

Rich was always a loner growing up. He spent Saturdays fishing with dad, Sundays cooped up with a book or ten! That's why it was a surprise on that Wednesday afternoon in July when he asked mama if he could bring a friend over for lunch. I guess mama was surprised too.

I didn't think too much of Philip Pascal when I first saw him. He wore a cheap, faded shirt and old jeans that were to short for his legs. His dark hair was too long and made him look like a girl.
It turned out that he had just moved to town. He now lived with his mama, stepdad and kid brother in a little scruffy, ram shackled house on 3rd street. His parents ran the town gas station, the first and last sight in Hogan, out at the end of the Farm road leading out to the freeway. A battered wooden shack, with a faded sign and an ancient gas pump. People only shopped there cos there was nowhere else to shop in Hogan.

I wondered why he had never been around before, but since mama had told me it was rude to ask people personal questions like that I didn't ask him then. I just waited until later when mama wasn't around to hear.

We sat on the porch. Richard had gone inside to get some drinks. It turned out that he was raised by his grandma. He looked sad when he said she had died. I had told him my dad was dead. He had said sorry, but I could tell that he already knew it anyway. Richard had told him.

I asked him the question.

"My Mama was really young when she had me," he said. "She couldn't cope I guess. So Nana raised me."

I asked him about his dad. He shrugged.

"I dunno," he said. "I never knew him."

I looked at him.

"You don't know who your father is?" I asked.

He nodded. I studied his face.

"You're probably half Mexican," I said. "You look it. Can you speak Spanish?"

"A little, I guess," he replied. "From school."

"You should ask your Mama." I told him. "Maybe your dad works on one of the ranches round here or maybe he got deported back to Mexico."

"Maybe." He shrugged again.

"Don't you wanna know about it?"

"I think Mama might get mad, if I ask her." He had said, scratching at the mosquito bite on his wrist. "She don't exactly like it when....well she might get mad."

He sighed. I didn't really get it because I had the best mother.

"So how come you only came here now, if your Grandma died last year?" I asked.

He looked down. I could tell he was uncomfortable.

"That's non of your business Amy," Richard said as he pushed the screen door. "Don't be rude."

He was trying to sound like our father again. I hated it when he did that.

"You're not Dad, Richard," I said angrily rising to my feet.

I looked down at Philip Pascal.

"All the normal kids hang out on the sports field," I said. "If you put on a decent shirt and some better sneakers then you could join us, you know. You don't have to hang out with him. He's a total geek."

As I went inside, I slammed the door hard leaving my weird brother and the scruffy new kid on the porch.

And that was my first impression of Philip Pascal. Little did I know then just how much he would come to mean to me, and just how much I would grow to hate him. And that he would one day give me the greatest gift I would ever receive.