❝Just Like Heaven❞ [English]

❝Arrival to Paradise❞

Lost Girl
Everyone was saying how small Greenwich was, talking about its narrow streets of stone and green grass, the only flower shop there, or the centre where merchants sold their wares.

Everyone knew everyone... their routines... their pasts.

Our house was one of the farthest from there, at the entrance, there was a gate that was once red, like the brick that marked the limits, light gravel that warned my father's footsteps and a white door with yellow flowers that he watered every morning.

Most of the time I looked out of the windows into the woods and the far-off terrain from Greenwich, taking my bike to sneak down the old tracks and get to my favourite place.

But today, the torrential rain threatened so hard against the trees that it hit the foggy windows from time to time, any kind of sounds put my nerves on edge. The house was dark, the light had been gone for hours, so I carried a flashlight everywhere, being careful not to hit my knees on the furniture.

I sneaked into the main room on tiptoe as if someone were there, I sat at the window that overlooked the front garden and watched, streams of water made a river that was going down, ending surely in the market.

I rested my chin on my legs entangling my hands on my knees, sighing, wishing something would happen, something exciting, crazy, and almost unhinged to turn my life upside down. Although I knew deep down that it was far from that to happen.

[...]

Crazy Boy
The boy's legs were spread out, taking up the entire back seat, he felt foolish for not having done it hours ago, long before they left the Crowley neighbourhood.

His whole head ached, it was as if a hammer crushed his skull, striking blows from time to time that made him clench his teeth, it drove him crazy.

The voices of his parents did not help, they seemed excited despite the terrible storm and the roads full of mud and puddles.

All he had seen so far were hills of grass and trees, vegetation, and grey sky. Without a trace of civilization. Although he preferred it that way, he didn't want to vacation in a town, he didn't even remember the name, he couldn't think now, and he didn't really care. He wanted to turn around and go back to his -now old- room.

By the time the car stopped they were in front of a rustic house with a black gate, the garden was big enough for the oak planted there, a man was waiting at the door next to a grey car and an umbrella, he was wearing rain boots and a marine blue raincoat, with a huge smile on his face. So many happy gestures were already tiring him.

They hurried down to the porch, he didn't mind getting a little wet, he walked slowly out of the car ignoring his mother's calls.

"Robert, honey, you'll get sick!" she screamed, propping herself up on one foot, shaking her shoe. Bad idea to bring shoes like that to the field.

The man closed the umbrella and took out a key ring, he spoke non-stop, like his parents, excited with each word. His accent was quite remarkable.

"We have cleaned a couple of times before you arrived, we lit the fireplace and some candles, the light is failing"

The three of them walked down the hall to the kitchen with amazement at every detail, Robert, instead looked through the living room towards the black grate fireplace, the walls were white, with a variety of wildflowers on the furniture of the house, and small brown frames depicting landscapes of mountains or rivers.

He dragged his feet without much encouragement to the staircase, at the landing, there was a window without curtains that almost touched the long ceiling, the raindrops slid off the glass and revealed the gloomy landscape of the backyard, it was cannot be appreciated because of the storm. He went to the second floor and observed carefully, there were four doors, he decided on the one at the back.

The ceiling was flat in one part, sloping down next to the light-sheet bed, there was a desk and a bookcase with nothing there. He supposed that would be his room. The moving truck hadn't arrived yet, it was hard to imagine where he would put his belongings, for now.

He turned on his heel and looked at his reflection in the mirror behind, it was full-bodied, the light of the lightning and the candle there showed his pale appearance, he was shivering a little from the cold of the room and the water that soaked his clothes.

He touched the strands of wet hair that were stuck to his forehead and took them away. He grunted at the laughter of the adults down there, hating that they made decisions for him. But that's how it was since he was born.