Something so Familiar

~3~

It was a small room. White walls, white tiled floor and rusty metal bars guarding a grubby window facing the gate we had earlier walked through. I wondered if we would ever leave as it seemed like a prison. There were two single beds, one pushed against the left wall, one against the right with a small chest off draws in the middle of the two beds. There was what seemed to be a bathroom behind a curtain in the indented part of the wall as if the room was almost an L shape. Behind the old curtain was a cheap looking shower and a grimy, old toilet and a sink that reflected the same unclean state as the toilet and shower. Above the sink was a mirror, you could not see into it due to the thick, murky layer of dust covering it. I got my sleeve and wiped away as much dust as possible so that I was able to see myself. However I no longer really saw myself. Instead a girl with a long messy brunette ponytail and drooping brown eyes, red cheeks from crying and the same lost look all the children in the system had gained over the years, stared back at me. I went back into the room to see Harry lying on a bed staring at the ceiling. I sat on the end of the bed looking at the room before me. The room felt empty. There were things in it of course; in fact as it was such a small room it was almost full with just the beds and the chest but something about it felt lonely and isolated.

We lay on our beds in silence for what felt like hours, thinking and the feeling like I knew this place couldn't escape my head. I couldn't have been here before as this is the first time I had met Mr Bachieliordet or any of the other kids here. It didn't make sense. I was wondering if I should ask Harry but I didn't want to disrupt him from settling in. Suddenly the large ringing of the bell echoed through the creaking house and straight away I heard heavy feet clattering down the wooden staircases. Mr Bachieliordet had told us earlier that day that the bell was to sound meal times. Harry looked over to me and shrugged as if to say that we should follow the others downstairs.