Justin and the Key ~ Chapter 1

     As the plane landed in Missoula, Justin thought he saw a glimpse of another plane just taking off.  But just as he saw it, his plane turned into the taxi lane and made its way to the smallest airport he had ever seen.  He came into the airport and a man, oddly enough, handed him his luggage. 


     When he had first heard that he was moving from Orlando, Florida to Paradise, Montana he wasn't entirely sure what to think but now he hoped he would stay there for at least a while. Justin’s parents had both been killed in a car crash when he was seven, and now he was ten. His mother's parents were in Orlando so he stayed with them for 3 years until they decided to move to Hawaii to spend the rest of their golden years.  They thought it best for him to stay with their son, Bert.

     Seeing his uncle other than at his parents' funeral was odd, but he thought he would like his Uncle Bert.  As the sun set, he looked out the window with amazement at all the views and animals.  Seeing an atlas of Montana's roads, he picked it up with interest and started trying to look for where they were in Montana.  When they pulled into the driveway, he saw a squirrel dash up one of the many evergreens that surrounded the large log house.  


     Justin’s Aunt Ruthy ran out to meet them carrying a newborn baby in one hand and hugging Justin with the other. His uncle's house was roughly 1,900 square feet in construction language, but in English it was a comfortable house.  It had a nice sized master bedroom with a master bath, a pretty big living room, a spacious dining room and kitchen.  There were two bedrooms, one for Justin, and a bathroom.  


     When they came in, there was food ready on the table.  He carried his backpack into his new room and then went out to eat.  Justin looked up from his food and, trying to strike up a conversation, said, "So, when do you usually go to Wal-Mart?" looking for a time of day.


     "It's about an hour away, down in Missoula, so probably about every two weeks" said Uncle Bert. 


     Justin was shocked.  It had never occurred to him that in a town of eight-hundred there wasn't a Wal-Mart, but that would explain the thirty boxes of cereal in the closet and three bags of cheese in the freezer.  Without thinking he asked in a rudely loud voice "When was the last time you went to Wal-Mart?" 


     "Today, when I picked you up from the airport" replied Uncle Bert in a nonchalant voice. Justin thought it would be strange to not go to Wal-Mart for another two weeks but he never really needed to go to Wal-Mart anyway.  So he finished his food in silence, as did everyone else at the table accept Bobby-Joe who had just learned to say “dadadadadada!” and was doing so profusely.

     After Uncle Bert read aloud the first couple chapters of “Mark Twain’s short stories”, Justin went back to his new room and started to unpack his stuff.  In his backpack were a couple pairs of socks, underwear, and pants, ten or eleven shirts, a tooth brush, tooth-paste and a couple of odds and ends that he brought along to entertain himself on the ten hour plane ride.  At first he liked flying, looking at the fields and cities below, but then it got less exciting and more monotonous as the day kept progressing until the plane landed.

     He went to the bathroom to take a shower and brush his teeth. As usual, in a different house he couldn’t figure out how to work the shower and had to ask Uncle Bert to show him how.

After his shower he brushed his teeth and headed back to his room to go to bed. What he hadn’t noticed before was there was a desk in his room, and on the desk there was a pocket knife and a note that read:

                                   Justin,

This pocket knife is for you, and the desk

is for you to do your home schooling on.

P.S. You are going to have to do home schooling 
instead of going to school

since the nearest school is in Missoula.

Uncle Bert

     After reading the note, Justin carefully put all of his clothes into the drawers beside his bed, except for the ones he changed out of that day which he put into the laundry bin on the inside of his door.  As he was doing this, he thought about how he had just left both his friends and the city he knew to go somewhere completely alien to him.  It gave him a sad feeling but he was so excited for what was ahead that it kind of overwhelmed the sadness.