Rabbit On The Road

2

After about half an hour of walking around trying to identify which house belongs to my uncle to my discourage I have not been successful. I give up and sit down against a wall.

After a couple seconds I feel a tap on my shoulder. My eyes snap open and I see familiar honey brown ones. I recognise her as the girl who woke me up on the bus.

"I'm sorry if I'm disturbing whatever you are doing but you look lost." She says kindly, greeting me with a warm smile.

"I'm just trying to find my uncles house." I say greeting her with my own small smile.

"Can you describe him for me? Maybe I could help, I grew up here so I almost know everyone in town."

I hold up the picture of him and her smile drops.

"He's your uncle?" She's asks with sly eyes.

I nod and she looks like she's having a mental battle with herself.

"He lives at the end of the neighbour hood, on the left side, he has an apple tree in the middle of the garden, by the way, I'm Aoife, pleasure to meet you." She says nicely.

"I'm Ashley."

"See you around Ashley." She says and starts walking away. "And good luck finding your uncles house!"

I smile in gratitude. I would like to think I made a friend, but I've only talked to her a couple of times, so I'll say we are acquaintances.

Remembering what Aoife told me so I jump to my feet and start walking to the end of the quiet neighbourhood.

I turn left and immediately spot the medium sized apple tree in the yard. A big smile stretches onto my face and I jump with joy.

I walk up to the door and realise there's no doorbell. I knock loudly on the door and wait a couple seconds. I hear footsteps inside and the door being opened.

A man opens the door and immediately I know it's him. His shaved beard and flat hair has changed since the photo was taken. He now had spiked up messy hair and quite a long beard.

"Hello" I greet holding my hand out.

He looks at my hand and hesitantly shakes it.

"Who might you be" He says with a strong Irish accent.

I mess with my hands and answer quickly. "I'm your niece. Your my moms brother." I see him looking puzzled until he smiles weakly.

"Ah yes, I did get a call saying you were coming." I let out a big breath I didn't know I was holding and he took one of my bags. "Come in" He says.

He brings me to my room and places my bag onto the bed.

"Dinner will be ready in 10 minutes, I don't suppose you like mash and carrots do you?"

"Mash?" I say confused.

"Mashed potato" he says firmly as if I couldn't hear properly.

"Oh yes, that's fine, thank you." I say as kindly as I can. You cold almost feel the change of mood this guy had. In my room there was colourful clothing but with dark furniture. I don't mind, anything will do.

I got on the bus this morning and now it's dinner. I shake my head and get dressed into some warmer clothes, I won't bore you with what I wear.

Anyways I make my way into the kitchen and the delicious smell of mashed potatoes and carrots waft through my nose. I sigh and delight and see my uncle chuckling. I blush from the embarrassment and sit down, he sits across from me and we dig in.

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After we are done he sits up straight with a serious look on his face.

"Now I know you just got here but we still need to establish some rules."

I nod my head for him to continue.

"The first one is no going anywhere without my permission, you may take my truck out the back if you need to go shopping or anything, two, I don't allow any smoking, drinking or doing drugs in my house. And finally this isn't really a rule but you will be assigned chores to do around the house weekly."

He finishes and I nod me head.

He nods and collects my plate.

"May I go out shopping tomorrow for some warmer clothes and some food?" I ask as nicely as I can.

He gives me a quick smile and a nod and goes back to washing the dishes. I slowly walk back to my room and jump into the comfy sheets.

I let sleep consume me and soon drift away.