A/N: Welcome to 1936! This is the next installment in the Tale of Years series, a set of Twilight prequels in Edward's point of view. It can be read alone, but I highly recommend reading the whole series in order just to follow along with the development of the characters and their relationships. Sorry this first chapter is a bit short; in fact, I don't anticipate 1936 being too long, as the encounter with the wolves is really the only "event" in the canon time-line. I'll add some original stuff but you know I'm excited to get to 1950, with Jasper and Alice!

Disclaimer: The Twilight Universe belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No profit is made here and no offense intended.

We've got a problem.

I stiffened in response to Emmett's thought as he settled down beside me in Algebra. The last time I had heard those words, they had been followed by my brother's mental account of the "accident" he had just had. Two hours after that, we were scrambling to pack and get out of town, before questions could be asked.

"Show me," I muttered under my breath. But as I glanced up to check his eyes, I was relieved to find them the same muddy yellow as they had been this morning. At least it wasn't that kind of problem.

I watched as Emmett replayed the scene. His American History class had gone outside last period to take advantage of the nice, albeit cloudy, weather. The teacher, in an attempt to engage the students, had decided to reenact the battle of Gettysburg, using the hill behind the football field. It seemed that a trio of Emmett's classmates had gotten a little too enthusiastic, and had ganged up on him, determined to pull him down the hill. But Emmett was already distracted, nervously watching the sky to make sure the sunlight wasn't about to peep through. Instead of toppling, like anybody else would've, Emmett had turned on the boys reflexively, knocking all three of them down the hill with a single sweep of his huge arm. I watched Emmett's memory of their shocked faces as they looked back up at him. It seemed he had managed to cut back on the force in time to prevent serious injury, at least.

"That doesn't seem so bad," I said. "Anyone who's looked at you can tell that you're stronger than the average tenth grader. But I'll check it out."

It didn't seem that anyone else had witnessed Emmett's slip, and it would be a simple matter to visit the boys' homes later tonight. I would listen for any signs of suspicion, and we would react accordingly. It was a shame I couldn't just check their minds here at school, but a quick sweep of the school told me that all three were thinking about their current classes, which was a good sign in and of itself. No matter; anything to get me away from our house at nighttime was fine by me. Newlywed vampires weren't exactly good company for a telepathy. Particularly these newlywed vampires.

Thanks, man.

"Don't mention it. But the next time somebody hits you, do me a favor and fall down, will you?"

I'll try.

"Mr. Masen," the teacher said sharply, "Do you have something you'd like to share with the class?" It took me a moment to realize she was speaking to me; we had changed names twice already, in light of Emmett's accidents, and it was difficult changing gears. Ironically enough, now that I was finally Edward Masen again, the name sounded foreign to my ears.

I sat up straight, shooting Emmett a glare as I folded my hands politely on the desk. "No, ma'am. It won't happen again."

She sniffed and moved back into her lecture, keeping one eye on her two newest "chatterboxes" as she introduced the quadratic formula.

I tuned her out, mentally roaming through the rest of the school, looking for something interesting to listen to. Nothing, as usual. I sighed and turned my attention toward the front of the classroom, trying to find patterns in the peeling paint around the chalkboard. At least my brother was providing a bit of entertainment; he was imagining wrestling a gorilla in an imaginary jungle.

It was a good thing I had Emmett and his escapades to keep me entertained, because if I didn't, I'd be literally dying of boredom right now. I hated high school.

.

.

.

I shifted in the dirt, trying to fully hide myself behind the hydrangea bush in Lenny Burton's backyard. I had chosen to come listen at Lenny's house first, since he was the most intelligent of the three. If anyone was going to be suspicious, it was him. He was just now going upstairs to do his homework, and sure enough, the thought of schoolwork prompted him to think of the incident earlier today.

I can't believe he just knocked us over like rag dolls. I wonder what kind of weight lifting he does. Those biceps are bigger than my head!... guess it was kind of stupid to come uphill at him like that. But maybe I should start doing pushups every morning…

That seemed to be it; no harm done. I moved on to Kenneth's house, with about the same results. The sun was just setting as I ran up to Sam Winter's house, and I ducked inside their shed, waiting for Sam to wrap up his basketball game with his brothers and go think something useful. Just this last stop, and then I could head… well, maybe I would go hunting. Again.

I was running out of excuses for avoiding the house at night. It wasn't that the others didn't understand my predicament, but there really wasn't much they could do about it. Back in Tennessee, we had built a little cottage for Emmett and Rosalie. Still within my range, but far enough away that I could block them out most of the time. They had destroyed the cottage in less than a month, but then, we had to leave not long after that, anyway. A well-meaning coworker of Carlisle's had stopped in to bring some cookies to the "ailing" family, and I hadn't been home to warn Emmett in time. After falsifying a good amount of evidence, we packed up and left immediately, heading towards Canada, only to have Emmett slip up again en route.

We had stopped for gas in Michigan, with Emmett, Rosalie, and Carlisle in the Mercedes. Emmett, who was in the passenger seat because of his long legs, dutifully held his breath while Carlisle cracked the window just enough to slip some money out to the attendant. But the attendant didn't have the correct change, and walked around the car to get to the cash register. Instead of walking back around to Carlisle's side, he approached Emmett's side of the car, knocking on the glass and motioning for Emmett to roll down the window. Emmett shook his head, which the attendant mistook for an indication that the window was broken. Before I could shout my warning from inside my own car, he pulled open Emmett's door, and that was that. We were just lucky that nobody else was getting gas at the moment.

After taking care of business, we continued our drive up and around the Great Lakes, coming to settle near Thunder Bay. We were relieved to find a fixer-upper well outside of town, complete with a guest house a half-mile back in the woods.

The rest of Emmett's newborn months had come and gone without incident. I had enrolled at the university, and Rosalie had stayed home from school with Emmett. Carlisle began gradually desensitizing his newest son over several months, declaring him officially fit for human company in late April. It was rather early, I thought, but Carlisle's theory had stood the test of time; despite his lapses, Emmett's newborn phase had been unusually brief, because of the blood loss before Carlisle had changed him. He and Rosalie began high school, coming in as sophomore transfers not long after that. I felt that I should have gone with them, but agreed it would look rather odd if I dropped out of university in order to repeat the 11th grade. I did take several days off, standing in the shadows by the high school and listening intently for any sign that Emmett was in danger of losing control. But he surpassed my expectations, sufficiently distracted from the humans by Rosalie and by the fact that he had never been to high school before; he actually enjoyed being there. I returned to my own school after a week, satisfied that my brother was officially done his newborn period.

So it really wasn't anyone's fault when the next one happened. Emmett and Rosalie had been walking to school on their last day, enjoying the mild weather. They were cutting through a side street, waving to a housewife who was working on her rosebushes. She lifted her hand to wave back, accidentally dragging her hand across one of the thorns. By the time Rosalie got her hands around Emmett's waist, the woman was already dead. They didn't think that anyone had seen them, and so they quickly took the woman's body into the woods to bury it.

But a quick visit to the woman's home told me that Emmett and Rosalie had been seen running away from her house, carrying "something big"; the neighbor hadn't seen either of their faces, but we knew better than to stick around. There were only so many men in the region that matched Emmett's height and build. We left in a whirlwind, leaving evidence to make it look like we had moved out two days earlier. Emmett and Rosalie had never made it to school that day, thankfully, and it was a Monday; it was as believable as we could manage.

Which had brought us here, to Powell, Wyoming, three months ago. This time we had been unable to find a house with a cottage on the property; hence, my difficulty. But Esme had been accumulating materials, and we were planning to start construction this weekend. I supposed I could start on the foundation tonight. Esme had wisely decided to go with steel beams this time, and-

"I'm telling you, Pop, his arm was like ice."

I snapped out of my reverie, cursing my inattention. How much had I missed?

"Well, Sammy, what do you want me to do about it?"

"You're a doctor. Don't you think he has some kind of disease or something?"

"What, because his arm is cold?"

"Well, that wasn't all. He was so strong. And his arm was so pale white, and hard like… like a brick wall. Maybe he's not human. Maybe he's some kind of robot."

"A cold robot?"

"Well, I don't know. You're the doctor."

"So is his father. I'm sure Dr. Masen is able to handle any, uh, illnesses that come up in his family."

"He could have killed me, Pop! Aren't you just a little curious? You know you love a medical mystery."

"All right, I'll look into it, Sammy. Don't you have some homework to do?"

"Aw, okay."

I leaned forward, frowning as Dr. Winter mulled over what his son had told him. He worked with Carlisle at the local hospital, and it was obvious that he had always felt there was something "off" about my father.

Pale and white? An active, healthy kid should be tan by this time of year. Pale and white… sounds like Carlisle himself. Maybe it's some kind of hereditary disease, or photosensitivity. Come to think of it, the other boy looked kind of sickly when he came into the hospital that one time. But didn't he say they were all adopted? And that wouldn't explain what Sam said about the other boy's arm being rock hard, or cold for that matter. Hmm, I wonder…

My heart sank as I heard his plan: he was going to think of some excuse to shake Carlisle's hand tomorrow at work, to see if his skin was cold and hard. Dr. Winter's mind was quite scientific, and he was already scrolling through possibilities in his mind to explain the facts he had collected. His eyes drifted across the room; he was standing in what looked like his home office. He glanced through the medical texts on his bookshelves, his mind sifting through diagnoses. His eyes dropped down to the next shelf, and I was even more dismayed to see that he was an avid science fiction reader. His thoughts didn't seem to betray any recognition as his gaze swept over his copy of Dracula, but I had already heard enough. This man was dangerous. Intelligent, curious, and imaginative: all strikes against us, in this situation.

For one fraction of a second, I considered taking care of this the easy way. From Sam's memory, I saw that he was the only one who had touched Emmett's skin. The other boys had been standing behind him, and they had fallen like dominoes when Emmett had struck out at Sam. If I eliminated father and son, our problems would be over. The mother wasn't even home, and I could be in and out in less than a minute.

I sighed in exasperation, knowing that it wasn't going to happen. That wasn't how we handled things like this. I could never betray Carlisle in that way. Dr. Winter and his son didn't deserve to die. And besides, my days of murdering humans were over. I didn't exactly share Carlisle's deep respect for the sanctity of human life, and I certainly didn't share his hope for redemption. But I had no desire to become a murderer again. I was just grateful that we had never been placed in a position where we had to kill someone, in order to protect our secret. Hopefully, that day would never come. No, Dr. Winter and his family were safe, from me at least. It was my family that would have to be inconvenienced. It was par for the course, lately.

I ran home, to find everyone out in the yard waiting for me. Carlisle's hopeful expression faded when he saw my face. Well?

"It's not good," I reported.

Emmett kicked over a nearby tree in frustration, mumbling an apology to everyone. I quickly shared my findings, and everyone agreed that we needed to move on.

"I'll call out tomorrow," Carlisle sighed. "I don't think we need to leave tonight, but definitely before the end of the week." Our frequent moves, and the deaths that had necessitated them, were the hardest on him. Emmett was always appropriately sorry for his accidents, but he didn't let them stick to his conscience for long; he just wasn't the type of person who dwelled on that sort of thing. This made him pleasant to be around, and it also made it easier for him to forgive himself. Carlisle was another story, however. He had taken each death very hard, analyzing each incident in excruciating detail until he found some way to blame himself. The housewife weighed especially on his conscience; it was the first time any of us had killed a woman, and Esme had known her well enough to know that she had had two small children at home. At least nobody died this time. Am I doing the right thing, letting him go out this early? But if I keep him at home next time, it will only impede his progress, and I don't want him to lose confidence…

Esme watched her husband's face, recognizing the familiar sadness. There he goes again. I hate it when he does this to himself. "What about school?" she asked aloud.

"Same as before," my father answered wearily. "We'll call everyone out sick the rest of the week, and then we'll call about the move after we've already left."

"Well, where are we going next?" Rosalie asked, her calm tone hiding her anger. I know he can't help it. But this is getting ridiculous. Maybe he should just stay home next time.

Carlisle thought for a moment. "Edward, didn't you say you wanted to try the Pacific Northwest sometime?"

I brightened. Rosalie and I had first had the idea several months ago, thinking Emmett would like to try grizzly. Carlisle had promised that we would get there eventually, but both times he had gotten jobs in other locations before he had heard back from the hospitals he had tried father away. "Yes, I'd like that. How about Oregon?"

"I was thinking a bit north of that," Carlisle replied. "I once traveled through Washington State, back in the 1890's, and the coastal areas looked very promising. The Olympic Mountain Range is home to a temperate rain forest—plenty of good hunting, and plenty of clouds and rainfall."

"Is it heavily populated?" Rosalie asked, shooting a glance at Emmett.

"Not at all," he replied. "There were only two towns that I passed, Hoquiam and Aberdeen, and even those had just been newly incorporated. There is a small Indian Reservation, but it's an hour or so northwest of the towns. There are some smaller communities scattered around, but nothing too crowded."

"How close is it to the ocean?" Emmett asked. Hunting underwater... wonder what whale blood tastes like. Or shark…

I just smiled fondly at my brother, shaking my head. Only Emmett.

"Only a few miles," Carlisle answered. "Hoquiam is the westernmost town, and it's right on Gray's Harbor."

"Is there even a hospital for you to work in?" Esme asked, frowning. "It doesn't sound like there's much there." He needs to work.

"Yes, actually. They were just building one in Aberdeen, when I was there. Quite small, but I'm sure they would be eager to welcome a young doctor, fresh out of medical school. If nobody has any objections, I'd like to go ahead and move there; we can work out schools and such after we've arrived." It could take weeks to hear back, even if I mailed my résumé out tomorrow. I'd like to get on the road before we run into any more trouble.

"Sounds good to me," I said. Everyone else nodded their agreement, as well.

"Which name this time?" Rosalie asked. I wish he would let me use Hale.

"I think it'll be safe to be Cullens again," Carlisle said with a smile. "We'll be quite far away, and in a very remote area." It may be silly, but I hate using false names.

"So do I," I said. "I thought I would enjoy being Edward Masen again, but it doesn't seem right somehow, not being a Cullen."

Carlisle smiled proudly. "It's settled, then. I'll make the necessary phone calls, and we can begin packing today." We all headed into the house, Emmett muttering another apology to everyone as he ducked inside the front door.

"It's all right," I told him. "I have a good feeling about this move. And you're going to love the hunting out there."

He grinned curiously, his guilt already forgotten. "What do you mean by that?"

I shook my head. "You'll see."

I headed upstairs to my room, and pulled my suitcases out from under my bed. I hadn't even bothered to put them up in the attic this time.

A/N: Please review and let me know what you think so far! I'm also open to ideas, as always.