He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

New Neighborly Nuisances

    John waited impatiently in his car, changing the radio station every so often to be met with more and more disappointing music. It wasn't necessarily his fault that the moving truck was late, maybe he had given some bad directions, maybe he didn't really bother to tell them which house number it was, but it wasn't his fault that they didn't have GPS. Hamish was probably inside, exploring the new house or already knocking on the doors of the neighbor's houses, trying to find any boys his age around the development. John just tapped his fingers against the steering wheel and craned his neck to see what they had packed in the car, suitcases, pillows, duffel bags filled with essentials, they could go a day, maybe a week with the few items they had. It wouldn't be glamorous, but it would be possible. Finally John's phone rang, and he dove at it, as if he had left it ringing for another second the person at the other end would suddenly end the call. Thankfully he saw the mover's caller ID flashing across the screen of his phone, and he took the call and pressed the phone against his ear.
"Yes, hello?" John said hurriedly, turning down the radio so that Led Zeppelin didn't prevent him from giving reliable directions.
"Hello Mr. Watson, this is Anderson and Co movers and we just wanted to apologize for our lateness." The man at the other end said, a scruffy voice that sounded like the driver he had given all of his furniture to. John sighed; any call beginning with that message couldn't be good.
"Yes, well, where is my stuff now?" John wondered, craning his neck to look out the window at his new house, trying to spot any motion from the windows to indicate that Hamish was inside.
"About a day's drive away sir, I'm sorry, we got lost on the interstate, took a wrong exit and now we're somewhere along...farmland." He muttered, obviously looking out his window to check for a road sign, to no extent.
"Farmland, how very specific, thank you." John grumbled, not knowing whether he should hang up moodily or wait for the man to say something more.
"Well Mr. Watson, our sincerest apologies and we will work to have your things delivered to you as soon as possible." The man assured.
"What am I supposed to do, sleep on the floor? I have a son!" John insisted.
"Do you have a sleeping bag?" the man wondered. John frowned, glaring out the windshield as if the man at the other end of the phone could actually see his dislike.
"Yes I have a sleeping bag." John snapped.
"Well there you go!" the man said with enthusiasm, as if he had just solved all of John's problems as opposed to being the cause of them.
"Just..." John sighed, not knowing what to say. "Just get here, alright? Moving's tough enough as it is, without your pathetic moving company screwing everything up."
"We're doing everything we can Mr. Watson." He assured. John groaned, but without a last word he hung up, throwing the phone onto the seat next to him. That would've gotten a satisfying reaction if the phone didn't bounce off and fall under the seat, so he had to fish it out from the car seat which only made him angrier. Finally John kicked open the door and got out of the car, stepping onto the pavement and stretching out his legs with a very loud groan. This day was going awful, as predicted. It seems like everything was going awful in his life, and it was about time he got some positive karma. He thought that maybe this move would help get things back to normal, or at least as normal as he could manage. I know, I know, it sounds like every other stereotypical moving story, a fresh start in the country from a tragic accident, and honestly that's exactly what it was. But it wasn't his accident, and it wasn't tragic. It wasn't his fault, and honestly, he almost wished it had been tragic, that would've been a lot more satisfying.
"Daddy when are you going to carry my suitcase in? I want my dinosaurs!" Hamish yelled from the front door. John sighed, forcing a smile onto his face and nodding.
"It's alright, I'm working on it. Have you picked your room yet?" John wondered. Hamish jumped up and down in excitement, bounding over to the car with a very large smile. At least someone was enjoying themselves.
"Oh ya, I want the one with the big bathroom with the really pretty white bathtub!" he said excitedly. John sighed, laughing a little bit and shaking his head.
"Sorry bud, but you can't have that room, that's the master and that's made for adults." John insisted, ruffling Hamish's hair and trying to get a smile back on his son's face.
"But that's not fair, I called it first!" he insisted with a cute little pout.
"It's called a master bedroom for a reason; you know why they call it that?" John asked. Hamish sighed heavily, but shook his head.
"No, I don't." he admitted, crossing his arms and looking his father into the eyes.
"It's because it's reserved for the master of the house, and reserved is a special word for calling it first. And last I checked, you're not the master." John pointed out.
"I'll fight you for it." Hamish suggested, his face lighting up in excitement.
"I'm not going to fight you, that wouldn't be fair." John sighed. "You'd beat me in ten seconds."
"You're right, I would, so I'm the master!" Hamish insisted, opening the door of the back seat and grabbing his bag full of his toys and things and rushing back into the house.
"Stay out of the master bedroom!" John yelled, but the door had already closed and John was left in the driveway, frowning and wondering how on earth he was going to force Hamish out of that room. So John grabbed the suitcases out of the trunk and the rest of the things and threw them into the severely overgrown grass, covering the entire yard with weeds and vines and making the house look very trashy. The house was nice, of course, a modern cookie cutter sort of thing, looking almost identical to all the other houses on the block, with brown stone exterior and neat charcoal colored shingles clinging to the roof. There was a little front porch with a white plastic fence around it, no furniture or anything, but that would soon change. Hopefully John could have this house looking homey in about a month or so, but until then he had to focus on making himself look decent, and with decency comes fresh clothes, plenty of sleep, and a happy son. So he dragged the suitcases up the front sidewalk, past the flower beds which had degraded to a bunch of old looking mulch strewn upon dead stumps of bushes that had been cut down. Honestly this house was kind of depressing. His views changed when he stepped inside, thankfully there was no way the interior of the house could become overgrown, instead it shone with clean white walls, hardwood floors, and granite countertops. John wasn't surprised of course, he had visited the house before he moved, seen pictures of it online and all of that, but he was kind of taken aback by the fact that he was actually going to live there. This wasn't some stupid dream, where he left his old destroyed life behind and started fresh, this was reality. He was moving into this wonderful house with his son, hopefully finding a new job, a new girlfriend, and a new source of happiness. Who cared what happened all those weeks ago, it didn't matter now. He could leave that all back at his old house, because he hadn't packed his regrets into his suitcase.
"Daddy I picked a new room, it's the smaller one but it has a cool sloped ceiling and I can put glow in the dark stars on it, like I saw in that magazine, wouldn't that be cool?" Hamish said excitedly.
"Ya, that would be cool. He's your suitcase; you think you can take it up the steps?" John wondered.
"No, you're the one with the muscles." Hamish muttered with a laugh. John just nodded, happy to know that at least one person still respected him.
"Alright, I'll take these upstairs; you need to lead me in a tour of the new house though." John decided, grabbing hold of the suitcase and dragging them upstairs. Of course he already knew the layout of the house and everything that was inside of it, but he still pretended to be interested in the fancy Jacuzzi style bathtub, the electric fireplace in the living room and the two ovens that were in the kitchen. It was a very nice house, and honestly John had no idea how he could've afforded such a house, he had no idea how he was going to pay the mortgages and eat all at the same time. John didn't have anywhere to unpack his things, so in the end he just dragged all of the things they had in the car into their rightful places, the sleeping bags into the separate rooms, the bags to their respected owners and that sort of thing. They couldn't make anything for dinner since there were no plates, no pots, no pans, not even any food, so John resorted to calling the nearest pizza place and ordering delivery. So they sat on the porch steps, a pizza box between them, grabbing slices of pepperoni pizza and admiring their disgusting overgrown yard.
"Does Mommy know where we live now, so she can come visit?" Hamish wondered, letting the excess grease drip off of his pizza before starting to eat it. John paused, staring blankly at his pizza with a very bad taste in his mouth.
"No, she doesn't know where we are, but that's the point." John decided, continuing on as if the question hadn't bothered him.
"Why'd she leave?" Hamish wondered in a small voice, looking up at John expectantly even though he knew John would never tell him the truth. How was John supposed to say that they got a divorce because Mary wasn't happy with their family, that she had an affair and left her son and husband for some guy she had met in a coffee shop? How would Hamish possibly understand? John sighed, shaking his head to tell Hamish that he didn't want to talk about it and continued on with his dinner.
"I'm sorry Hamish, I really am, but this is our do over. This time it won't end badly, I'll find the perfect wife and give you the perfect mommy." John assured, patting Hamish's shoulder reassuringly.
"But I don't want another Mommy, no one can replace her." Hamish insisted with a frown. However she found that we could be replaced quite easily.
"Don't think about Mommy alright, let's change the topic." John decided.
"Alright, then when am I going to school?" Hamish wondered.
"Well, I can't send you to school before the moving truck gets here, that would seem cruel, so I'm going to give it another three days. Besides, I still have to sign papers and clear it with the school board and all of that, it's a very tedious process but we'll get you learning in no time." John assured.
"Oh it's alright daddy, take your time." Hamish assured, eating his pizza innocently. John just laughed, shaking his head with a smile. Hamish was a lot like him when he was younger, intelligent but with a passionate hate for education. John only hope Hamish made better decisions than he had when he was growing up.
"What will you do while I'm at school?" Hamish wondered, looking up at John with an adorable little curiosity in his eye.
"Well I'll find a job I guess." John decided, looking down the sidewalk as if one would suddenly present itself.
"Well you'll be fine, you have a medical thingy don't you?" Hamish pointed out.
"You're right; I do have a medical thingy. I just hope they need a medical man to work at their hospital." John shrugged.
"You're going to work at a hospital?" Hamish asked in amazement.
"I should hope so, they pay the best." John shrugged. "And there's not much else you can do with a medical thingy accept work at a hospital."
"Then you can go work in a hospital. You can save people's lives." Hamish decided with a smile.
"You're right, I can save people's lives, but not like they do in your comic books." John agreed.
"No daddy, you don't wear leggings and a cape." Hamish agreed.
"I think I'd be fired if I showed up to work like that." John decided with a laugh, and Hamish giggled as well.
"I think there would be a lot more deaths in the hospital." Hamish agreed, continuing on with his pizza with a little smile on his face.
"Yes there would be." John muttered. They were about done with the pizza when a red minivan pulled up along the curb, parking in front of their house. John was a little bit worried that it might be either government officials or members of the Mafia, but his suspicions subsided when the doors opened and two women stepped out of the van, one holding a glass container that contained something that looked suspiciously like a casserole. One of the women was older, with hair dyed light brown to hide her age. She was wearing a neat purple dress and was carrying the casserole, looking very kind but her eyes kept wandering judgmentally over the un-kept lawn, as if it displeased her. The second woman looked much younger, around John's age with long brown hair and a yellow sundress on, looking very nice as well. In fact, she looked like the type of woman who wouldn't walk out on their family, so John sat up a little bit straighter. 

"Hello!" the older one said with a smile, walking up the sidewalk and examining their small little family and empty pizza box.
"Hello." John agreed, looking at the both of them and trying to look like your typical suburban neighbor.
"I'm Martha Hudson; I live just across the street from here and saw that we had new neighbors, so we decided to come over with a little casserole to help you two settle in a little bit." Mrs. Hudson said with a friendly smile, holding out the casserole pan.
"Oh, thank you very much!" John said, taking the pan and looking into it. It looked like something with tuna and breadcrumbs, but he tried to keep a smile on his face even though his stomach gave a disgusted lurch.
"I'm Molly Hooper, I live next to Mrs. Hudson, I wanted to come over as well but I didn't exactly make a casserole." Molly muttered rather guiltily.
"Oh don't worry about it, one is plenty for only two people." John assured. The two of them stood rather awkwardly on the sidewalk, waiting for John to say something. John stared at them with confusion until he realized what he was missing, an introduction.
"Oh, sorry, I'm John Watson; this is my son, Hamish." John muttered, getting to his feet and wiping the pizza grease off of his hands with a napkin. They all shook hands and said to Hamish, who gave a smile back.
"Nice to meet you John, we saw your car pull in not too long ago, although we didn't notice a moving truck?" Molly admitted, titling her head in confusion. She was pretty, but John could already tell she wasn't really his type, for some reason there wasn't anything that really clicked between them.
"Oh, ya, it's late, got off at the wrong exit and kept going, should be here in a day, hopefully." John admitted, shrugging like it didn't really matter.
"Yes well, nothing like a little bit of adventure for the first night." Mrs. Hudson shrugged.
"Ya, no it's fine, we're having plenty of fun already, this neighborhood seems really nice." John agreed, looking around as if trying to prove to them that he actually liked it. In reality it was kind of boring, all the houses pretty much looked the same, but at least the people were nice.
"Oh it's lovely, it really is, and we're thrilled to see that a nice family moved in. Is your wife around?" Mrs. Hudson asked, and John kind of tensed, looking down at the ground rather awkwardly.
"Mommy left." Hamish pointed out, answering the question so that John didn't have to.
"Ya, there was a bit of a disagreement." John admitted, shrugging as if it were no big deal. Their faces fell, and Mrs. Hudson looked close to tears.
"Oh, I'm so sorry for even asking, oh it's none of my business." She assured, patting John on the shoulder to sort of calm him down.
"It's fine, we're adjusting, this move was the last step to normality." John admitted, gesturing to the house as if they hadn't noticed it.