The Mandela Catalogue

Family Visit

Mum- your always welcome over to ours if something happens to you apartment complex.
Me- we should come visit you, plus I'm pretty sure smiling man will deal with it since he always does.
Mum- I'll get the spare room ready :)
Me- oki :)

I was texting mum in the living room.
"pack up guys were leaving on a trip tomorrow." I say to everyone.
"OHHHH YEAAAHH!" Michael says.
"where to?" Jackie asks.
"my mums." I say.

Me- how long?
Mum- couple of days.
Me- well there's 8 of us, 3 are animals.
Mum- oh I'd love to see Bean and Bee. Who's the third one?
Me- Michael's dog, Max, he's a German shepherd, an old police dog.
Mum- aw.
Me-we'll leave early in the morning tomorrow.
Mum- OK, stay safe.
Me- you too.

I pack my stuff, Fox packing his stuff too.
We got to sleep, Fox is at the end of my bed.

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I wake up and check the time, 5am.
I yawn. I get up and lightly shake Fox awake.
"guh, wat time is it?" he says, all in a slur.
"5am." I say.
"this early!" he says.
"you can sleep on the way there." I say.
"mkay." he says, he drops down and falls back to sleep. I sigh.
I go into the living room and wake everyone up, we put a bunch of food in a tote bag for the journey and we were about to leave. I go into the bedroom and pick up Fox.
"woah what are you doing!" he says, waking up.
"carrying you, Michael can you take Bean, her box and her heat lamp." I say.
"yup." he says.
"well make a second trip for the bags and stuff" I say.
I walk out the door with Fox in my arms.
"you know I can walk!" he says.
"but you would fall asleep again." I say.
"touché" he says.
I smile at him and walk down the stairs carefully.
"I swear to god don't drop me." he says.
"I'm not gonna drop you." i say, laughing.
We get to the bottom of the stairs. I mimic dropping him but I don't actually drop him, to give him a scare.
"DAMIEN!!!" he yells.
I laugh.
I go over to the backseats and drop him onto the chair behind the passengers seat.
"put your seat belt on, I'll be back in a sec." I say.
We pack up the luggage and then we all get in, Bee was on Fox's Lap, I was holding Bean and Max was in the front by Jackie's legs. Twig was sat in the outside bit behind us (it's like one of those trucks that have a bit on the back that's outside and it carries big things or whatever.)       
          

(Like that lol, that's just an image I got from Google BTW)

_______________________

I wake up, Fox's head is on my shoulder.
I could feel my face go red.
I look at Bean, she's sleeping.
She's nearly grown all her feathers.
I look back to see Twig sitting in the back of the truck. He looks like he's sleeping.
I turn back around.
"hey, you guys OK?" I ask.
"yeah!" Michael says.
"how are we getting there? Do you know the address?" I ask.
"I know your mums address but I'm using GPS." he says.
"oki" I say.
"how are you and Fox doing." he asks.
I could see his eyes look onto the mirror, he smiles.
"he really likes you, you know?" he says.
"in what way?" I ask.
"friend way, maybe even more." he says.
I look over at Fox.
"I might tell him when we're there. But I don't think he likes me back." I say.
He probably is just a close friend.
"doesn't your mum live next to the beach?" he asks.
"yeah, why?" I ask.
"you can tell him there, make it all romantic and stuff." he smiles.
"noooo." I say laughing.
"come on!!!! It might make him like you more." he laughs.
His eyes widen and he suddenly breaks.
My face hits his seat Infront of me.
"sorry, you Ok?" he asks.
"yeah, I'm fine." I say.
I look over at Fox and he opens his eyes.
"what's happening?" he asks.
"stay silent." Michael whispers.
I look back to see that Twig is gone.
I look back around to see that he's in front of the car and there's another alternate.
"these ones are mine." he says.
"ugh." says the other alternate.
It slumps away, Twig stays until the other one is out of sight. He gets Michael to open his window.
"Never stop if another alternate is in the road, I do not take offence if you run it over." he says.
And he gets back into the back of the truck and sits back down.
We drive for a while in silence.

________________________

It was nearly dark out when we arrived.
I knocked on the door and mum opened it hugged me.
"you can't just hug me mum, what if I was an alternate." I say.
"you would make a very unintimidating alternate." she said.
"oh um, I forgot to tell you-" I go to say.
"hello" says a voice behind me.
I turn around and see Twig.
Mum looks shocked.
"he's with us don't worry." I say.
"OK?" she says, unsure.

We all bring our stuff in.
"you know where the spair room is don't you?" she asks me
"yeah" I say.
I bring everyone upstairs into the spair room.
There were two beds, a gap between them both with a set of drawers on one side of one bed and the other side of the other bed, there was a dresser in the corner of the room and a window that you see when you come in.
"there's only two beds." I say.
"that's alright, me and Jackie can share one and you and Fox can take the other one." Michael says.
Me and Fox look at eachother.
"I can sleep on the floor if you don't want to-" I say.
"nono I don't mind." he says.

I feed the bird before we go to sleep.
I lay down on the bed, it was quite small, not a double bed like in my room.
Fox lays next to me, our shoulders touch.
"it's a nice view of the Sea from here." Jackie says.
"yeah, they recently had to put up walls because of erosion. This house is very old and it definitely costs more than it cost back then." I say.
Jackie lays down next to Michael, who was already asleep.
"goodnight." they say.
"goodnight" I say back.