You Promised

2

This is the best photo I could find of the house

(Annabelle)

By the time we finished painting it was fairly late. I was proud of the work we had done. My room was painted a deep royal purple with a golden bed spread and matching curtains. Jays room was painted half blue and half silver with a black bed spread.

"Well that turned out pretty well, but now you need to go to bed."

He looked at me. "But why?"

"Because you start school tomorrow. Now go put on pajamas."

He laughed and went up to his room. I looked around the house. The realtor had told me the house used to belong to a family of five. He said it was a mess when they moved out, but hey, they had three kids. I walked up the stairs to Jay's room where he was just getting in bed.

"You all good?"

"Yeah."

I turned to leave.

"Wait! Will you sing for me."

I smiled, Jay loved it when I sang. When he was little it was the only way he would sleep. I sat down on the bed.
"You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy,
When skies are gray.
You'll never know dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away."

It was a song that I used to sing all the time. By the time I finished he was fast asleep. I crept back downstairs to finish some more of my unpacking. When I was done I had unpacked my entire book collection. I was about to open the door to my room to go to bed when there was a quiet thump from inside. I eased the door open and what I found was a girl on the floor beneath my now open window.

She had red hair and was wearing a green shirt that read 'I love Billy'. She looked around confused.

"This isn't Billy's room," she noticed me standing in the doorway, "and you're not an Accachalla. Unless they adopted another one."

"Okay you have two options. Either get out of my house or I call the cops." I kept my voice level and quiet so I didn't wake up Jay.

"Oh that's right, they were moving. I'm really sorry, I thought this was my boyfriend Billy's house. This room used to be his."

I sighed. She did actually seem sorry, and I was too tired to actually be mad. "It's fine. Just please leave so I can go to bed. You can use the front door this time."

She followed me downstairs. "How did you get in? The window was locked."

"That lock has been broken for years. I'm really sorry about this."

"It's fine. Thanks for the heads up on the lock." I opened the door and she was leaving when I had an idea. "Hey, do you know a lot about this town."

"Yeah I've lived here my whole life. Let me guess, you'd like someone to help you get comfortable around here?"

I sighed, "yes. I don't know much about this town, heck I could barely find it."

"I'd be glad to help," she held her hand out, "I'm Maddie."

I shook it, "I'm Annabelle."

She took out a piece of paper and wrote something down on it. "Here's my number. If you need something call me. Or if you just want to talk to someone."

I waved as she left. "Thank you."

"No problem."

I watched her leave before I went to the bulletin board in the kitchen to pin up her number. Just as I was pinning it up I noticed a number already there.
In case of emergency:
(586)342-1209

I decided to call Maddie about it in the morning. I went upstairs and got in bed. I made sure to set my alarm so I could wake Jay up in the morning. I hoped what I had told Jay about him not being able to find us was true. It had to be.