Neighbourhood » Malum

07

Michael's mother disappeared when it came for him to actually move out, it was much later in the year than he expected but everything seemed to be alright at the moment.

His friend Barry brought little Benjamin with him when he visited and even at barely six months old, he really suited the title Jackass.

His mum had another screaming match the other night when Michael brought up the place he would be calling home soon, but before she'd left off to god knows where she'd been nice enough to leave Michael some money.

For furniture x, the note on top had said but Michael would probably save it for something else. His mother must have been in a better mood this morning but he didn't want to know how she would act when she arrived home to an empty house later today.

His landlady was extremely polite, Mrs. Froyd was a very small lady with bright tulips in her front yard and white hair that curled up at odd angles. She lived down the street from Michael's new house and was ecstatic to find Michael at the door with first and last months rent in his hand. She took a liking to him that he didn't expect, a lot of seniors turned up their nose at his bright hair and tattoos.

"I wish my roses were that bright," she'd said one time when she invited him over for lunch.

He breathed out a content sigh when he had stacked the last of his things into the small U-Haul container, it felt off moving out. Like he was fresh out of high school again and ready to have a go at life, which now that he was older seemed like more of a joke.

His emotions were a mess of both happy and sad twisted together as he pulled out of the driveway of his childhood home. The place he was leaving didn't hold many memorable moments for the lad, more like a small blanket of comfort when he remembered waking up there.

His new house though, was a fresh start. He doubted that his high school years would chase after him, that people he'd graduated with would show up out of the blue and greet him by a long forgotten nickname that people only conjured up when recognizing him, no one ever called him Michael when they spotted him. Too many cheap inside jokes and ridiculous stunts that earned him many titles, several that he was more than happy to forget.

In the next town over, he was who ever he chose to be now. Not some high school mistake he'd made, he'd be just Michael. Just happy, finally. The thought of happiness felt long overdue and finally within his grasp, he just hope that his mum would be able to find some happiness that didn't evidently live at the bottom of a bottle.

With a rather loud but relieved sounding sigh, Michael watched his childhood home disappear in his rear view mirror.

Maybe Michael didn't know what to expect when moving in, he visited the house a total of three times, and he'd gone over to Mrs. Froyd's house at least five times. He hadn't bothered to make conversation with any of the people living on the street though, he was always quick enough to slip in his car before one of the neighbours could open their mouth. He was happy enough to just avoid the visibly annoying crowd that seemed to watch his every move, he knew that his evading wouldn't last much longer.

The fact that each neighbour he saw looked like a figure straight out of the fake towns they used for nuke testing didn't make Michael want to talk to them anymore. It seemed more than anything, a stereotypical neighbourhood that screamed the American Dream in sucky little pamphlets with odd looking couples that each had painfully bright smiles on their faces.

And maybe Michael kind of regretted his location choice but he wasn't about to avoid moving in because of a bunch of suburban soccer moms with their bratty children. It just meant that Halloween was going to be a riot.