Windows

Lost & Found

The flat Mum found in central Goldenridge was located in a tall, gray building that was camoflauged against all the other tall gray buildings. She had been musing about moving to Florida, but decided she wasn't up for another big move. I wasn't sure to be relieved or disappointed.
Inside, it looked remarkably like the flat we lived in when Dad was alive and losing money rapidly. There was a dark green moss growing in the corners on the ceiling - one of the only sad colors in the room - and the only furniture that had been kindly left for us was an untarnished dining table and a purple two-seater sofa.

Mum dumped her suitcase on the floor. Her fingers griped for the handle to pick it up again, but then they ceased sadly. Her eyes were downcast and, like the building, a murky gray. The suitcase crumpled in a bit, because of the lack of things inside it. A majority of our possessions and clothing had been burnt in the fire, and we didn't have much money to buy new ones because Mum was useless with banking and just preferred to keep most of our money in the house. Thankfully I had scrounged around frantically for my clothes in the few seconds before Mum and I leaped out of the window to escape the curling flames that englufed the house. My suitcase made a more impressive thud as it hit the floor.

After a long silence, Mum said, "Still better than Nora's." And we both laughed. 

Mum walked over to the purple couch and sat down. It creaked.

She peered around the house desperately, eyes scanning the cream white kitchen tiles and the gray carpet, and then looked up to examine the moss in the corner of the ceiling. I did, too, and noticed a beetle scuttle out of the clump of moss, acknowledge our presence, and scuttle back in. Mum made a face.

"Well, we'll have to go shopping for some cleaning products, and a bed, something to sleep on," she mumbled.

I raised my eyebrows because that was clearly an understatement.

I went and sat beside her tentatively, and as soon as I sat down I picked up the same glum expression she had. The sofa was lumpy and uncomfortable, with coffee stains all over it. I looked down and saw there was a lever poking out from underneath the sofa cushion.

"Mum, it's a fold out bed," I pointed out. She looked at me and back to the sofa, and then we both got up and she pulled the lever. Something clicked under the cushions and then it was possible for us to lift up the top.

"I suppose this will suffice," Mum sighed. In our dreary circumstances, though, I was glad we had a bed.

Nothing else was said after this unexciting revelation. There was nothing to say.

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Back at school, exams had finished and I thought I had done fairly well in some of them - excluding science, of course.  However, the school guidance counsellor had requested me earlier. She thought that the fire and me not having a stable home had affected my results. This stung, because I know I had done better than most of the retards in my class. 

She had her notepad out, and was flicking through the lined pages and tapping her yellow pencil with a pink eraser on the end on her thigh when I walked in.

She looked up with a grim expression and then instantly beamed at me and gestured to the sofa across from her, before swivelling around in her office chair equipped with wheels to put the notepad and pencil on her desk.

"Haylee! How are you?"

"Fine." I didn't reciprocate her forced greeting.

Her grin faded momentarily, and she began talking to me about my results.