Fragmented

Chapter Three

The following weeks passed by in a slow haze. The sun stood high on the clearest blue sky Agnes had ever seen and every night her shoulders bore witness of its searing heat. 

The days went with work. They had cleaned every room in the house as spotless as possible, which of course, would never be anything close to spotless.

Agnes was repeatedly disturbed by large stains on the old wooden floorboards and constantly frightened to her core by the sight of yet another spider. She swore they were stalking her every move.

Of course, the spiders had lived there first, but seeing as her family had now bought the house, she would not feel any guilt for getting rid of them. If they did not pay rent, they really were not welcome. 

Her room had been re-papered as it would take a massive amount of paint to cover up those hideous flowers.

It was now white. Her parents had tried to convince her that light purple or violet would be "lovely", but she had absolutely no intention of letting them decide yet another thing in her life. And under no circumstances was she ever painting her room violet.

The new kitchen was almost set up and a new toilet had been installed. Every room in the house had been painted. The kitchen a light cream, the living room had been covered in a darker shade of cream and the hall was white with a hint of blue in the right lighting.

Agnes was actually quite satisfied with their work as she placed the last vase on the coffee table in the living room. It cleaned up a lot nicer than she ever expected. She could not quite come to terms with the fact that their living room had no TV though. The kitchen had a satellite radio, but all the channels were German. Her parents were eager to turn it on, as they considered it a great way to pick up the language faster. Agnes did not share their enthusiasm.

Just because she no longer felt like the most miserable person on the planet, she did not approve of the situation. Her family had to understand that she was not going to be happy here, and the sooner they realised, the sooner they could go back home. They might even be able to sell this place after all the work they put into it.  

"Agnes! Could you come give me a hand with this?" Her father called from the hall as he was struggling to half carry half push an enormous bookcase up the stairs.

"Whoa, you made this?" Agnes looked in disbelief at the huge compilation of shelves. The thing had to reach from floor to ceiling.

"Sure, found some old boards in the shack and thought they'd be useful with all the books you read." He said with a red colour gradually rising in his cheeks as the bookcase began to slip backwards down the stairs.

After a mixture of pushing and pulling the large monstrosity and several deep breaths, they finally got it into her room. Although it took a few scratches on the doorframe, it settled in nicely, covering half of her end wall.

She was excited to finally be able to unpack her stuff, and the size of the thing meant she would be able to not only fit books, but also pictures and boxes with pencils and brushes. Her candle got its own part of the split shelves.

She was thankful to her father for acknowledging her, and she felt a small part of her anger soften back into love towards him. This proved he was not entirely oblivious to her struggles with moving.

For her entire life, Agnes had been daddy's girl.

He would be the one she would run to whenever she needed a plaster. He would help her with her homework when she was younger and he was always the one she would talk to for advice.