Kyle Barker leaned out of his penthouse complex window to gaze out over the rooftops of New York, just in time to see the sun sinking down through the smog. The air was charged with life as the millions of New Yorkers buzzed about their business. He took a deep breath of that same air and pulled back in through the window. In the background Kyle heard his mother Candice cooking dinner. His sister Annie was complaining for the third time this week about another macaroni dinner.

            “Why can’t we just order take out like normal people? We have been eating like poor people since we moved here!” she said.

            “We have only been here a month Annie and I really don’t want to hear it right now ok? I know you’re used to the chef cooking but he has been out sick for a while. Just give us some time to sort things out before you start whining about dinner ok?” Candice Barker said while stirring a simmering pot of macaroni.

            Kyle was watching his mother with an eye of an observer. Candice was a slender, gentle woman who loved everyone for who they were and what they were. Her skin was a soft tan and she had jet black hair that she wore to about shoulder length. She had the most brilliant blue eyes that seemed to peer straight into your soul and see you for who you really were, and the softest pink lips.

            However, Kyle had big broad shoulders and shorter black hair which he drew to a large spike in the front. He was always wearing clothes his mother had designed for him. She typically designed clothes with a black and white theme, with a hint of red.  Kyle could care less what he wore but his mother and sister were always keeping him up to date on fashion.

            Annie, Kyle realized, was the younger mirror image of her mother. She had longer black hair and the same dazzling eyes that all of the family shared. Her life revolved around fashion, and it showed. Dolce and Gabbana, Prada, Armani etc, were her typical favorites. She was rambling on now about how many good sales she found the other day. Kyle couldn’t stop laughing at how much money she always spent on her shopping trips.

            “Kyle, can you set the table for me? Dinner is almost ready.” Candice asked softly.

            So Kyle stopped staring off into space and set to work on the table. Within in minutes they were sitting down to eat. They sat in a comfortable silence as they ate their slightly overcooked macaroni. Kyle was day dreaming of distant places and trying to plan for his trip to Mexico at the end of fall. When dinner was over Candice asked Kyle to help her with the dishes. They scrubbed at them for a while and started to talk.

            “I’m going to need some help at the store tomorrow if you can. It’s the last day before school and I just know there is going to be a rush. People always put school clothes shopping on hold till the last minute.”

            Candice designed clothes and worked at the store that sold them. “VGV Fashion” was becoming bigger and bigger and it was the reason for their sudden move to New York, where the store was based.

            “Oh yeah…. School….” Kyle mumbled to himself. He was secretly dreading the fact that he was going to attend school in New York, even if it was a private school. His mother had set them up at Vincent James Royal Academy, a private school that was for all the rich snobs.    

            Kyle disliked the presence of most of the people his family spent their free time with.  They were all a bunch of jerks who thought that money bought them the world. No matter how rich Kyle was, he knew that money was just a game. There were far more things in life than money that mattered.

            His father however seemed to think that money was the only thing that mattered. That more than his own family at times. His father was always off at his labs overseeing that his billion dollar experiments went according to plan. Rarely did he ever come home for dinner on time, and when he did he took the family out to eat.

            Kyle went back to daydreaming while he put the dishes away. He said a brief goodnight to his mom and rubbed Annie’s hair on the way to his bedroom. She shouted at him, but was too busy texting her friends to chase after.  His computer was calling to him when he went into his room, and he began the nightly ritual of checking email and social networking sites. Then he went to bed and tried not to think of school the next day.

            Soon he was drifting off to sleep and whether he wanted them to or not, dreams came of school, class schedules, and crowded hallways full of stuck up kids. But then his dream took a turn for the worse, and it grew dark. Suddenly Kyle was emerging from a subway tunnel and out onto the streets. There were hundreds of people out and he was finding it very hard to get to wherever it was he was going. Then, out of nowhere, a woman with a red dress came up to him and whispered in his ear, “Don’t take the main roads.” and then she was gone.

            In the morning, Kyle was puzzled as to why someone would say that, even in dream. Yet he realized it was not true and not to be taken seriously. However the dream seemed to be real, so real in fact he remembered the feeling of the sun on his skin, and the slight tickle of the woman’s hair on his face. He couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a warning of some sort.