One Day You'll Find Me

Chapter Nine

The redecorating had overtaken us so much, the decision to look at the mares that weekend was lost in the midst of everything else. The house was practically done now. It only took us a month, and the difference was staggering. I felt like we'd bought a new house; it was awesome. When we'd done my room, I just couldn't decide on the colour of paint. So I didn't. Every wall is a different colour. Mango, avocado green, the straw colour from Mum's room, and a cherry red. Waking up in it every morning and seeing the fresh, vibrant colours had already put a smile on my face. Ros thought I was nuts. But she didn't mind, really. Tom just laughed when he saw it.

But we hadn't done the lounge room.

This room became the dumping ground for all the stuff that needed to be vacated from other rooms, and even when they were done, we just hadn't got around to putting it back. And so it was a mess.

I flew into the room, carrying a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits. Putting them down on the coffee table, I flew out again. Tried to anyway. Spinning around, my foot got caught underneath a power cord, and sent me tumbling forwards while I tried to regain my balance. In doing so, I wasn't watching where I was going, and bashed my head into the low lamp, knocking it over. Crying out, I pressed the palm of my hand against my sore head, and bent over slightly while still trying to leave the room. Spying the door out of the corner of my eye, I headed towards it. And ran into the coffee table, sending me tumbling over sidewards. The force knocked my tea over and caused the biscuits to fall on the patch of floor I landed on. The tea had pooled on the table and started dripping onto the floor, and now seeped through the back of my tee-shirt. I rested my head on the floor in defeat. Just then, the doorbell rang. Sighing, I pulled myself to a standing position, and cautiously walked out of the room to answer it. I released the breath I didn't realise I was holding when I reached the door safely. Opening it, I cocked my head in curiosity when I saw who was waiting there. Tom. He smiled when he saw me. And his smile turned into a big grin that hid laughter when he gave me the once over. Frowning, I glanced down. And a grin spread over my face too. My tea had soaked around to the front of my tee-shirt, adding wet zebra-stripe effects to it; I had two crushed biscuits hanging off me, and my hair was an absolute mess. I looked back up at him and laughed. Chuckling, he reached over and brushed one of the biscuits off me. I picked off the other one and crushed it between my fingers, then wiped them on his tee shirt. His sweet horrified expression made me laugh. Spinning on my heels, I ran cackling through the house to the kitchen with him on my tail. I flipped around to face him, and I frowned when I couldn't immediately see him. I slowly turned around, scanning the room and possible hiding places. When my back was to the door, his arms wrapped around my middle, picking me up and spinning around. I yelped in surprise, then descended into giggles as he adjusted his hold of me so that I was lying in his arms and carried me back down the hall to the lounge room. He hadn't called in for a while, so the mess was new to him. Setting me down on the couch, he surveyed the room in amazement.

"What on earth happened in here? I haven't heard of any bombs being dropped recently, but they don't have people called the secret service or whatever for no reason."

I surveyed the mess from my vantage point. The lamp lay on the floor along with the cup, its contents, the plate, and crushed scattered biscuits. Added to this, the pile of books we were using as a side table lay in a heap, all but one cushion rested on the floor, a blanket lay sagging between the two armchairs, paint tins randomly sat in places, and the vacuum cleaner lay dumped in centre of it all. I smiled sheepishly.

"Um..."

"Rosina told me to drop in on you today, and when I walked up to the house, I heard shrieks, grunts and crashes inside. I could see in the windows," he pointed to them, "and I saw you dancing around. I'd see you, then you'd fall over with a yell and a painful-sounding crash landing. Then you'd appear again. And fall over again. I must say, the whole scene was rather amusing. I rang the doorbell, and you appeared looking as you did. Now I can see why..." he trailed off, seemingly impressed by the scale of the mess. He sniffed the air.