Specimen 54559

Chapter 16

  I don't wish to go into much detail of his home but when we had stepped in we were greeted by the scent of cinnamon and vanilla and flowers of some kind. The inside was warm, the heat coming from a brick fireplace that was in the middle of the room we are in now. The floors were made of hardwood floors and the ceiling was high with a catwalk of some sort with railings and spindles preventing anyone from going underneath and falling that connected to two walls above us. Through the tour the show us their large kitchen and wooden dining set the next room over. They didn't have a Wall TV but had a black flat-screen TV instead above the fireplace and had tan couches surrounding yet another wooden table that was in front of the burning fire. They had said that it was fire retardant so it wouldn't catch fire here. Large windows were at the back of the living room, that's what they had called it, and a door that led to the outdoors. Going upstairs they show us the rooms where they slept. A spare room and bathroom were across from each other as soon as you come to the top of the stairs. We had to go across the catwalk to reach the other three rooms, on the left was Sam's room and to the right was Liv's and straight ahead was a room that Lyon and Sara shared.

  The children were eager to show us their rooms. Sam was the first to show us his. His room was of a decent size. The walls were painted a baby blue and he had a small bed on the far wall to the left. His floor was also made of carpet instead of the hardwood but it was cluttered with toys even though there seemed to be a plastic box that had some toys inside that I suppose is where they belong. A white fan hung from the ceiling that spun lazily and he showed us his closet, which was behind a white door, and pointed at all his favorite shoes and shirts and how he had new pants. He then ushered us all out to show us how much he had grown, pointing at the door frame out in the hall. There were different colored lines and dates beside them that steadily climbed higher. The same was on Liv's door frame when we all went to look at her room. Her walls were painted a light green and she, too, had carpet. Her bed was taller than Sam's and all of her toys must be inside her own plastic box in her room. She also had a white fan coming from the ceiling but hers wasn't on because she had her lone window open that blew her pure white drapes out softly. She didn't bother to show us her closet like her younger sibling but merely smiled and left her room with us close behind.

  Lyon's and Sara's room was by far the biggest. A large bed that could fit almost three or four people sat directly in the middle of the wall in front of us with a small table on each side with lamps on both and small digital clocks. The walls were a dark tan and the floors were also carpet. To the right were two large windows with similar drapes as Liv's that moved slightly with the breeze coming through the slightly opened windows. To the left was a small dark brown door and large panels to the right of them outlined in the same wood as the other door but had a lighter plastic material in between. The small door led to a closet that you could walk in and the other was the bathroom apparently. Two out of the six panels slid open to show a tiled bathroom with two sinks to the right, a door leading to the toilet, and a shower to the left of the door and across the sinks. A huge mirror was on the wall where the panels were behind it and was behind the sinks.

  After the tour we all had stayed well past dark, talking with Sara and Lyon, the children had gone to bed a while ago. We all took turns talking about where we had lived before and how life here was so different from the West. It turns out that Sara herself had been born in the West and lived in the Border States for some time before making her way into the East where she had met Lyon while he was on patrol one night. They had become good friends and had ended up having stronger feelings for each other and had gotten married after a little over a year after meeting and gotten married and started their life here together.

  "It turned out that my best friend had become the man I would marry. Funny, huh?" Sara said as she gazed lovingly at her husband as he returned it with an equal amount of love in his. I unconsciously glance over to Jason beside me, where he always is, and find him already looking down at me. I quickly glance away and turn back to Lyon and his wife. I can feel the back of my neck and ears start to get warm. Thank the Lord my hair covers them. A sudden thought occurs to me out of nowhere.