Temporary Housemate

Chapter Five

“Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror”.

-          Khalil Gibran.

When I awoke it was not a natural awakening.

It was still dark in the room – and I can assure you that it was not from the cardboard curtains. I had jolted awake, in that startled fashion that simply made your eyes pop open and forced you to take a desperate breath into your lungs. It was simply a question as to what had caused this reaction. If it had been a dream then I would have been able to remember it – I usually could.  So I was back to the room, I had left the ‘curtains’ off because the paint still needed to dry around the window, there was a small amount of light coming in off the street and it appeared as though dawn had just bridged the horizon of the city that never sleeps. I didn’t dare move, so allowed my eyes to walk across the room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, there were shadows criss-crossed throughout the room, making the corners look menacing and dangerous. However, I could not see behind me and that was far worse than being able to see those terrifying dark corners.

I pulled together the courage that would enable me to lift my head and glimpse the area that had evading my scanning thus far. Slowly twisting my head and raising off the bed I scoured the other half of the room, but the arm supporting my weight quickly collapsed from under me when looking towards the door to my closet I saw a darker shadow pass across the room from the window. Whipping back around as my arm gave way I looked at the window and saw nothing but the encompassing darkness of the night. Jittering slightly, I hopped out of the bed and tried to find what could have caused that shadow to appear. It had looked so like a person or animal, too big for a bat or a bird, but squinting into the depths of night I could make out no movement until I heard the slight clicking and Adam stepped out of the door in all his glory, his crisp white shirt, opened collar and pressed black trousers made him look ever the part of the business man. He was obviously heading off to work and I couldn’t help but to allow my fear to be replaced by anticipation. I was not disappointed, he glanced upward towards the window and a breath-taking, natural smile replaced his poker face and I couldn’t prevent the genuine smile that crept its way on to my own face. Turning he waved his hand once as goodbye and proceeded to head along his walk to work.

Suddenly remembering my predicament I took one more look around the area then touched the paint to check if it was dry. It wasn’t particularly wet just slightly damp, so I took the liberty of re-hanging the ‘curtains’ throwing the idea of the ‘shadow’ out of my head, dismissing it as a figment of my tired imagination.

Jumping back into that still warm bed, I snuggled into the duvet and decided it would be wise to try and get a little more sleep. I had a busy day ahead what with deliveries arriving throughout the day, an interview at half past three and then I needed to finish hanging the actual curtains in the room and basically add the final touches to the room. Laying there in the bed, I kept my eyes closed but as I suspected I just couldn’t fall asleep. I must have laid there for about an hour before deciding there was simply no use in trying. I would attempt to get a nap this afternoon; slipping from under the covers I trudged into the bathroom and groggily turned the shower on revelling in the cleanliness of the new head and the slightly cleaner bathroom as a whole.

The water was refreshing, but it didn’t really lift the veil of haziness that remained from the whole three hours of sleep I managed to obtain. I felt bad for Adam having made him stay up so late. Lord knows how he must be feeling; I needed to do something to say thank you, but what? I would keep thinking about that until I found the perfect way to express my gratitude. Wrapping a towel around my hair and one around my body, I walked over to my bags – groaning I thought great, I get to put all these away when I get the chance as well. Yay! Note the sarcasm. Rummaging until I found a normal outfit, I also found my skirt suit and hung it up to pull out some of the crinkles until I found my travel iron.