Cry, Redemption!

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Major Adjustments

July 7th-August 12

Her aunt's house is like something out of a magazine. It's huge, white, and imposing. She is rather weirded out by the fact that the place looks so new. It seems too new even. "Have you all lived here long?" she asks as she continues to take everything in.

"Yes dear, we've lived here for over twenty years," her aunt says as she turns to her with a smile. Questions about her house seem to make her happy, noted. Laikynn smiles back but doesn't say anything else. She's too busy looking at the massive windows that seem to tower over them like sentries.

She's just come from what she would deem a warm and happy home. And this seems like anything but. She sighs and finally pulls her eyes away from the house to look back at her aunt. She hopes that she will be proven wrong. She hopes that the inside and her relatives prove her wrong.

"I'll send our maid out to get your bags in a few minutes. Follow me inside and I'll show you to your room," her aunt says as she walks up to the heavy oak door. She isn't quite sure how she feels leaving her bags for a maid to get but her aunt has left her no room to argue. She's already entering the house and if she doesn't hurry the door is sure to slam in her face.

"Your room is the second one on the left," her aunt says as they walk up the impossibly high staircase. "I had our housekeeper and her brothers paint it for you last weekend. It's pink I hope that's okay."

Laikynn doesn't really like the color pink but she also isn't going to let her aunt know that. She's grateful to have her own room in this new place. She wasn't sure what to expect when she first heard that she'd have to come live with them. "Thank you," she says as she follows her aunt into the room.

She's surprised by the fact that the walls are actually a pale pink. She expected hot pink and she's glad she was wrong. "This is nice," she remarks and as she smiles at her aunt. She wants to be as polite as she possibly can be. It's what her mother would want.

"I'm glad you like it dear. I've got to get to the church now, but please feel free to look around," her aunt says as she kissed her on her cheek. She leaves the room with a happy flounce only seconds after and Laikynn is left staring after her in shock. She did not expect to be kissed on the cheek. But she supposes it could have been weirder.

She doesn't have to wait long for her bags to meet her at her room. The maid makes small talk with her for a few minutes before she makes a quick exit. "She must be really busy cleaning something as huge as this place," Laikynn mumbles as she finally allows herself to put her laptop case down.

She drags her wheeled bag over to the small white dresser that's on the opposite side of the room. With a shrug, she decides to go ahead and unpack.

"There's no reason to hope things will go back to normal," she says with a weary sigh. "Things will never be normal again." Defeat is all she feels as she continues unpacking.

It doesn't take hardly any time at all to unpack her bag into the dresser. She finishes in less than three minutes actually, it's the small mercies that are keeping her going.

She just barely holds back tears when she peers into the bottom of the bag. The quilt that her mother made her rests snugly inside. She pulls it out and throws in on top of the too pink comforter that her aunt's placed on her new bed.

"That's better," she says. The sight of the blanket taking over the space she's unfamiliar with gives her a kind of joy she didn't know she wanted. She's surprised by the joy she feels and the subsequent smile that follows.