As we pulled into our driveway, Monty looked out the window and whined. I opened the van door and the only thing in the wind was the soft rustle of leaves and crickets.

That’s it.

“Hear that quiet?” Millie said, stretching her arms from the drive. “That’s country quiet.”

“This isn’t the country,” Lucy, my other mom, corrected, digging our new house key out of her purse.

“Oh, it’s country all right.” Millie grinned, striding to the front door. “Just you wait.”

A few more things about Greenville I noticed once I actually saw it in the daylight:

1. Greenville is the kind of place where everyone keeps a wreath on their door. Even if it isn’t a winter holiday. Most of these wreaths are decorated with plastic flowers.
2. Greenville is the kind of place where everyone has two cars because everything is so far apart you have to drive everywhere (unless you roller-skate, which I think is preferable).
3. Most of Greenville doesn’t have sidewalks, maybe because everyone drives (see #2).
4. All the trees in Greenville are puffy and green, like someone drew them with a crayon.
5. Greenville is a place that feels both very very big and very very small. Like maybe because there’s no tall buildings, there’s so much more room for the ground and the sky to stretch out, which feels big. But also there’s so little to look at besides the green ground and the blue sky, it feels. . .small.

Mostly I couldn’t decide if any of the things I noticed about Greenville were good or bad. Maybe because I couldn’t decide what they meant. And where in them would fit the puzzle that was me. Or vice versa.

I tried not to think about it those first few days. I unpacked (sort of), lost Bjorn (three times), found Bjorn (three times), and made papier-mâché disco globes (because I had all the materials).

And then, on the day of the beginning of my story, which, yes, we’re now getting to, it was sunny, I had to start thinking about it.

Greenville and me.

It was August, so, it was hot. Not like your-sequins-are-going-to-melt-off-you hot (which is too hot). But hot.

I loaded my newly (sort of) dry disco globes into the back of Millie’s car because she was going to drop me off in the town center while she went off to do house stuff like go buy forks because we still couldn’t find any forks, which was weird because we could find spoons and we definitely packed forks! (What, were the forks and spoons fighting or something? Did the spoons win?) During the drive, Millie eyeballed my disco balls. “Those aren’t going to get glitter all over my car, are they?”

“Probably, yes.”