Hand in Heart

Empty Handed

The medallion sun cast a gentle ray of light onto the khaki, popcorn textured wall.
It was finally summer. Archie had been waiting to get out of his depressingly boring slump throughout winter and the time had finally come. School was finished and his family were moving to a hotter country after years of rainy, shitty Britain. As much as he hated it, Archie's family were moving to America.

It was late afternoon, Archie's life was packed up into boxes. His whole childhood had been stripped from this house. Him and his older sister Franchesca were sitting cross legged on a mattress in an empty, white-painted room. They were leaving as soon as the moving truck came. Leaving their whole lives behind.

"Fran, I genuinely don't know how I feel about all of this." Archie admitted, barely over a whisper.

"It's so surreal, but we'll get through it."
Fran sighed, collapsing back onto the springs dramatically.

A crimson light pierced the golden ray as loud beeping interrupted the semi-deep chat that may have been occurring.

"Fuck. The trucks here." Archie blurted.

"Guess it's time then, come on." Fran exclaimed, taking Archie's hand and dragging him down the stairs.

A few tedious hours passed of continuous box carrying and marching up and down the staircase. Archie's mum, Evelyn, was crying like a broken tap. As if it wasn't mostly her decision to leave, this made Archie tense slightly. She moved a lot as a child, every other month her parents would drag her and her three siblings to a new house as they were on benefits for practically all of their childhood. It wasn't fair how she was acting around the whole situation, she had been bitter about 'gutting the house' and had no sugar coating on the fact that Archie had lived in this house since the womb. He knew they had to leave, but that didn't mean he was happy about it.

A knock at the door from the taxi driver summoned them away from the house. Archie would have preferred for everything to have went slower, he was a very sentimental person and cherished every memory he could remember in this house. Maybe this is the fresh start he really needed.

The airport was substantially less busy than usual. Perhaps the time of day was quite unusual for catching a flight. It felt like a holiday really, but they would never be coming back.

Once on the plane, Archie swaddled himself in the thin, cheap blanket provided by the airline, slotted some headphones around his ears and browsed through the film options. He landed on 'Brokeback Mountain' which all he knew about was that it was gay, sad and contained Jake Gyllenhaal which was all the criteria needed in his opinion. Fran patted his shoulder and wished him luck which wasn't a good sign.

"This is gonna be really fucking sad isn't it."
Archie asked.

"Yuuuup." Fran admitted sheepishly.

The dreaded plot twist took place and Archie's eyes brimmed with tears.

"Fuck sake." He muttered

"Told you so!" Fran smirked proudly and patted him on the shoulder in comfort.

Marigold skies filled the plane window as a crackly announcement informed that they would be landing soon and that they had to fasten their seatbelts. This was the beginning. A little while after, the plane started to tip forwards and descend. Archie clutched his ears in pain, he always had shitty ears on planes which was very annoying. Popping sounds punched his ear drums until the plane violently smacked the ground a couple of times. They had arrived.

As the sun hit his face, warm air rushed over Archie; he inquisitively peered about him. All the lines on the roads had turned from white to yellow, so had the sky. It was dusk but the heat was still blazing. This weather was a massive upgrade from Britain.

A yellow taxi pulled up the the meeting spot. Damn, was everything yellow in this country?  The family piled into the cab and set off. Archie rested his head on the glass of the window and took it all in. The stars twinkled softy in the raven sky and the porcelain moon shone onto a navy lake across from the road. There were no chavs smoking weed or destroying something, there was no dingy, spray painted buildings or random heaps of crushed up bikes along the roads. It was so much cleaner than where he previously lived. Even the roads were smoother. Perhaps this would be better. Finally, they arrived at their new home. It was beige with an orange and sage roof. Small wooden steps led up to the door and the whole house was on a brick platform. It was gigantic and somehow the same price as their tiny, cramped council house back home. Well, the British economy is fucked so it made sense.

Archie dragged his suitcase into the house and set a goal of choosing his room before anyone else. He trudged upstairs and looked around. Every bedroom had its own bathroom which was a new thing. Normally only the adult bedroom had an ensuite. He eventually landed on a room that had a little platform on the window that he could sit in. Ever since he was little he wanted one of these. Archie flicked the light on and slowly spun around, inspecting the space, imagining where all his posters and furniture would be going. He wondered what highschool would be like when summer was over, in British times he should be finished and going to college but here he still had another 2 years to go. Great... For now, he fell onto a mattress that was already on the floor and tried to relax and wind down after that hell of a day. It took a while to get comfortable, it was so stuffy and humid that he didn't even need a blanket which was unheard of back home. Everything smelled different and even little things like the angle of the ceiling was different. Finally he let sleep flood his body.

He would go climbing tomorrow.