The day's adventure out in my new neighborhood quickly revealed a chilling reality. My family and I are not alone in Rock Creek.


I mean, we are not the only 'immigrants' around here. The whole area shows signs of others. Dangerous others.


~Raffin

I mostly stayed close to the edge of the woods on my 'nature walk', skirting the manicured lawns.


Twice I might have been seen by people in their yards, but moving at my natural speed I was nothing more than a black blur. Some tall unsavory shadow by a tree, there one second, and gone the next. 


And then, I got braver and decided to go a little deeper into the woods. See what was hanging around, lurking in the area. And by what - I mean who.


~Raffin

I decided to get away from the house for a while. Check out the neighborhood, and my new surroundings. 


Mom wouldn't be pleased, and she'd say 'no' to the idea, but what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her. So, I donned my cloak and slipped out and down the stairs.


A few steps to the woods and I was free amongst the leafy shadows. 


Well, almost free. It's no secret that there are some fairly dangerous things in the woods, and I'm not talking about things like coyotes or bears.


~Raffin

I finally got up the nerve to show Mom what remains of my new bedspread. She was not happy.


~ Raffin

Blog post number six? Yeah, this is six. 


So, Mom tried to wrangle me into going door to door with her. I said no. What can I say, I'm not a people person.


But I decided to stand out on the lawn and watch her walk from house to house anyway. 


Standing there, getting bored and hot in the sun, I watched her walk up to house number three. The one kitty-corner down the road from us.


A girl my age opened the door. Her long reddish-blonde hair fell around her face as she smiled at Mom. 


She was tall for a girl. Just a couple of inches shorter than me, with nice legs.


Hmm. Maybe living here and trying to make friends wouldn't be so bad...


~Raffin

Mom is being overly neighborly today.


She got the idea to go visit everyone on the block to introduce herself, even though I told her that in such a small town they'd come to us.


I know exactly what she's up to. She's going around house to house to see how many kids there are my age on our street.


It's sweet. It really is, her wanting me to make friends and all, but I am perfectly fine in the shadows.


~Raffin

Today is fantastic.


Mom has decided that since I've been so weak the past couple of days, it's not a good idea to start school just yet.


I get another week before I have to be 'Mr. Social'.


And in the meantime I can work on that backlog of class work we got from the school, that I've been putting off.


Not that I don't know all of it already.


~Raffin