A Life for a Life

"I cant believe you're leaving me," a girl with tears running down her cheeks whispered into the summer air.
It was the last day of school, but you wouldn't have known it by how sad the two girls looked as they walked together down their street.
Lilly couldn't believe she was leaving either. She looked up at her Jordan, who had been her best friend since they were babies.
The two girls had lived their entire lives in the same houses right across the street from each other on the same pretty suburban neighborhood.
Around them younger kids sped by on their bikes, calling in excitement to their friends cheering that school was over.
Kids their age sped by in their packed cars celebrating the fact that the next year was their last year in high school and they would finally be free.
But Lilly and Jordan did not feel like celebrating. They walked up the sidewalk and stopped in front of Lilly's house.
For a moment, they both just starred at the pretty house painted a light cream. Everything about the house brought back memories of their friendship and those lovely childhood years.
Lilly's eyes filled with tears as she looked at the flower bed of yellow and pink Gerber Daises. Lilly remembered laying among the flowers with Jordan many times.
She remembered when they very little when they used to fall asleep in the flowers under the shade of the big mesquite tree. She remembered them laying their as pre-teens thinking of their crushes and plucking the flowers petals while chanting; he loves me, he loves me not. Lilly also remembered how Jordan rode her bike frantically to Lilly's house in the middle of the night after her first break up when she was fifteen, and the two girls sat among the flowers crying till the sun came up. Lilly saw tears shinning in Jordan's eyes from beside her, and guessed she had the same memory.
"Jordan, I have to help my parents finish pack. I'm leaving tomorrow night so we'll have time to hang out like all afternoon," Lilly promised as she squeezed her hand.
"Fine." she said forcing back her tears. You better. If you just move without saying goodbye, I promise I will track you down and kill you."
Lilly smiled at her. "Love you too, Hun."
Lilly watched as Jordan walked down the street to her own house.
Lilly walked in through the front door. It hurt her to see the house empty except for stacks of boxes.
The walls which were once covered in family pictures and other decoration were now bare. Lilly knew that if the house could talk, it would surely cry.
Lilly found her mom sitting among towering stacks of boxes, filling a box with old family photo albums and loose pictures.
"Hey Lilly, can you help me by finishing packing some boxes up in the attic. Tape them and bring them down. The moving truck is coming early tomorrow morning. I figure we spend most of the morning packing the moving truck. When we are done you can hang out with Jordan and Sarah wants to say goodbye to her friends. So the more we do tonight, the less we do in the morning. We just get the moving truck packed then you girls can do as you please."
Lilly nodded her head numbly and followed her mothers instructions. She trudged up the stairs that led to the second story and pulled on the lever witch brought down the hatch for the attic. She pulled down the folded ladder attached to the hatch and climbed up it.
Once in the attic she reached for the giant light bulb in the center of the low attic ceiling and pulled the chain, filling the dark attic with some light.
She found the stack of boxes her mother had been referring to. Some were full and others were empty with some things laying on the attic floor next to them. She picked up a few of the boxes that were already packed, so that she could carry them downstairs and add them to the stacks of boxes through the kitchen and living room.
There was a box under the pile that had a thin layer of dust on its' cardboard flaps. The top was labeled in fading black marker, Old Family Stuff From Great Grandma Andrews. Lilly had never seen this box before but assumed it had been with the other boxes labeled specifically for them after Great Grandma Andrews had died. It was apparent that the old woman knew she was dying because when her children and grandchildren came to clean her house, a few weeks after she died peacefully in her sleep, they found all her possessions clearly labeled as to who they were for.
Lilly gingerly picked up the box but her hand was firm enough on the bottom so the bottom flaps came undone and papers, booked and pictures rained down to the dusty attic floor.
Lilly fell on her knees, quickly putting the stuff that had fallen back into the box. One thing she picked up was a worn very old looking book witch looked like it had suffered from some water damage at least once in its lifetime. Lilly suddenly felt intrigued to look through the book, as though there was something amazing awaiting her inside. She gently opened the cover, and could feel an electric current under her skin. The first page behind the cover looked like it was written on a very old piece of parchment which was browning on the delicate edges. Very softly, so soft Lilly could barely read it, the words Clara Andrews 1912 were written there.
Who was Clara Andrews? Lilly had never heard of her but assumed she must have been ancestor. She felt as though she had a connection with this girl who had written in a book, but she could hear her mother call for her impatiently from down the stairs. Quickly Lilly moved the book into a small, empty shoe box she had found. She brought the shoe box down and put it with her personal stuff down in her empty bedroom, a few boxes on the floor its only inhabitants. Lilly wasn't sure when she would get the chance or why it was so important but she knew she needed to read that book. She finished doing what her mom wanted her to do, but the sight of the old, tattered book stayed in her brain the rest of the day.