The household that lived at the end of Crick Cabana Road, in Willow Creek, was no ordinary family… as their neighbors would have believed from the outside, looking in.

They owned a fairly successful agricultural farm a few hours drive to the West in the outskirts of a sandy desert city, Oasis Springs.

On top of your normal fruits and veggies, the innocent-looking farm made a great cover… to grow and sell a “special” kind of herb on the side.

They lived fairly modest lives to help solidify this facade of being down-to-earth, modest and humble farmers by owning a comfy two-bedroom home, and simply spending most of their free time outdoors.

Walter and Tracy were loving and caring parents, despite the secrets they kept hidden from their children, Jessica and Christopher.

Or, at least, the secrets they tried to keep hidden…

Jessica had her suspicions of what her parents were up to on their secret business trips that left thousands of miles on their family’s truck when their farm was barely a couple hundred miles away.

She knew their family wasn’t quite as perfect as they tried so hard to seem. But, either out of ignorance or denial, she never pressed the issue.

Her younger brother was probably the only one of them that was still truly innocent, and she would do her best to help hide their family’s secrets – whatever they were – if it meant keeping little Chris out of trouble.

So, for the sake of her family, she played along.

Unfortunately…

… it was only a matter of time until the family’s hidden secrets were unearthed.

During one particularly dry season that year, farmers all over their continent entered a time of crop failure, much to the outrage of the merchants (and particularly the dealers) they had supplied.

Walter explained to his children that this season would be a rough one, as the drought left them all with next to nothing for the entire season. (Though, he omitted the fact that this also meant there wouldn’t be any special herbs for their special consumers, either.)

With nothing to go on but hope, all the family could do was wait…

Hey guys! Thanks for reading the beginning of the story! 🙂

This part was really just to give a bit of background for the upcoming Big Sister Challenge, which will begin in the next chapter. Sorry if it seemed a bit rushed or if a lot was left unexplained, but I promise I have my reasons!! 😛

See you in the next update!