The autumn breeze blew in through the small village, if you could call it that. The village itself resided in the middle of nowhere, nothing but trees and hills surrounding every occupant's house. Of course, there were a few dirt roads that linked the people to each other and to the many exits the forest provided.
On days like this, when the breeze blew west, the people were quiet. They would mind their own chores of the day and they would gossip about their neighbors and they would tell each other how happy and exuberant they were. The children would be playing on those many hills that were a ways away from their houses and the fathers would be working hard for their families to bring food to the table.
But today was different.
Many rumors had been spread throughout the village about people moving in to the house. Mr. Steeps house to be exact.
No one had moved into the old man's house in fear of his ghost that would haunt the place. The women would say that they had seen him a few times just walking to his dirty old shed, with a scowl marked permanently on his face. The children, however, steered clear of the place. They would try and make fun of each other for not going into the shed for a dare but would promptly go home and not worry about the shed anymore as soon as their mothers called for them.
But it seems today was someone's unlucky day.
Everyone took off of work, and seeing as it was a job of only five men, no one really questioned a day off. After all, they would still be working hard today, what with helping the new neighbors move in and all.
When the small car drove up, the volunteers helping still couldn't believe their eyes as they saw a woman with three children come out. They were quickly broken out of their reverie as the middle aged woman spoke.
"Oh, hello there. I didn't think anyone would welcome us on our first day." She said kindly to the volunteers.
The people blinked at her and stared for a second before one of the older women spoke.
"Well, we wanted to personally welcome our new neighbor. And we also wanted to see if you would allow us to help you move in." The old woman smiled up at the middle aged stranger, her wrinkles showing up the more she smiled.
"You don't have to help us, honestly. My daughters and I can do it ourselves." She said.
"Nonsense, we haven't had a new person move in. It's kind of exciting. We will all help you move in, so that by dinner time we can all sit and enjoy you very first meal here." The old woman said, she motioned for the men and women behind her to start helping right away and the middle aged woman couldn't help but smile at her and let her do what she wanted.
"My name is Justine Price, by the way." The new neighbor said.
"Evelina Gertrude." The old woman said as she started helping moving the boxes from the second truck that had just pulled up.
As everyone started getting to work, another strange man walked up to the gate to the house and scowled at the place.
"Out of all places, they chose this dump." He snarled out. He wiped at a nonexistent dust particle on his shoulder of his flashy suit and took off his sunglasses to get a better view of the place.
He kicked open the gate and strode towards the hardworking member of the community, looking for one person in particular. As soon as he found her, he plastered on his fake smile and turned his signature charm on.
"Justine, I'm glad I finally caught you. You see, there was a slight problem with this place and you and your family wouldn't have been able to move in here had I not torn down the wall that covered half of this place."
The middle aged woman, Justine, turned towards the voice. She had known this voice all too well. It belonged to the man who would soon be her son-in-law, or she hoped he wouldn't. He had taken over her dead husband's business after he had named himself his predecessor and had almost run his company into the ground. She couldn't say anything, though. The company had not taken it kindly when presented that a woman would take over for her husband and had been all too happy to have a young male in charge instead of a woman.
Justine forced a grin. "Michael, you made it. Thanks for that." She gestured towards where the wall once stood.
The elderly woman, Evelina, spoke then. "You, young man, why don't you grab hold of this here table and help an old woman out and take it inside?" She joked.
Michael stared at her incredulously. He couldn't believe that such a peasant had the nerve to ask him of all people to do something that required physical labor.
The old woman continued to stare at him expectantly until Justine spoke up. "Oh, don't mind Michael. Here, I'll help." Justine was glad to be done with the conversation with Michael and headed over to the group of people loading the furniture off the truck. As she walked over, she saw her eldest daughter carrying a box of what she assumed were her study books.
Her eyes widened as she saw her daughter struggle for a second but regain her composure a second later. Justine worried for her daughter a lot. She hoped this move to this place would help her in the long run and she wouldn't be as sick as she is now.
Her daughter met her gaze and smiled her smile she always used towards her mother. When her mother was seemed to think she would be okay, she turned back to the group of volunteers and helped them move the rest of the furniture and boxes into the house.
Maybe, just maybe this move would be exactly what the Price family needed.
