Children Of The Wild

A new home

"Morning Sam, fancy a pain au chocolat?" I heard James voice say to my half asleep mind,    "Sorry what?"                                                                                                                                                                          "A pain au chocolat, come on they're really good and still hot!" I was now fully awake, having shaken off my tiredness.                                                                                                                                                "Sure, thanks" I answered with my hand all ready in the bag, grabbing out a pastry. As I munched away, I tried to recognize the name of villages we passed through to get an idea of where we were. Unfortunately, as I had not been to the family house since I was eight, my chances of remembering the itinerary leading up to it were slim. So, to make my life easier I simply leaned over Felix who was still profoundly asleep, judging by his snoring, and glanced at the GPS. We were to arrive in 10 minutes ! Even though I all ready missed our old home, this could be fun, right ? A fresh start. That's what Mum and Dad had told us. From what I remembered of the few times we had visited this place, the house was massive. Massive as in you could play hide and seek and probably never be found massive.

Sure enough, my memory hadn't failed me this time. The car had passed through the last sleepy village, continued on the country road for another kilometer or so, and had now taken a sharp turn onto a small dirt path hidden among the forest trees. It lead to a very imposing iron gate clamped between two tall pillars, which were mounted by an eagle and a lion. The pillars were attached to a stone wall that slithered in between the trees until it was no more but a blurry grey line. Being the only one awake and with a door seat, I was given the very important duty of opening this gate. Dad handed me a fancy looking key and I hopped out of the car, goosebumps creeping up my skin. The key turned in the lock and then I pushed the gate open, the hinges complaining as the panels swung open. Dad drove the car up to the house with me trailing behind, leaving the entrance to our new home wide open for the delivery van to come.

If the house was massive, I don't know what to say about the acres of land that encircled it. They went on for so long that they not only contained a natural lake but also a whole forest ! When Felix had finally woken up, he told me that apparently we now also owned a bit of mountain. Because that's normal. Usually people prefer cars but then my family is a bit crazy, so if my great uncle liked mountains then all I could say was "Sure buddy, whatever rocks your boat". Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to go exploring yet because Dad had to do some "security checks". Rather disappointing, if you ask me because now we were confined to the house.

Before coming we had all chosen our rooms so that there would be no arguing when we arrived. Mom and Dad took an en-suite one on the first floor that had a nice view while James and Felix took the rooms that faced each other on the second floor. I had decided to refurbish the attic. It had a high roofed that sloped down onto a big rectangular window which took up the top half of the wall. This was the first thing you saw as you came up the tightly coiled staircase and it was beautiful. It looked onto the lush emerald forest to the left and to the right you could see the lake shimmering under the sun in the distance. Opposite this was a huge bookcase which covered the wall fully, a bunch of old books occupied the first shelves. On either side of it were these two round windows that looked just like the ones in boats. I was loving the room until I felt a pang of guilt. Was I betraying my friends because I was all ready feeling at home in a house I had only been in for 20 minutes? My mood darkened at the thought of it. Mom shouting for me from below didn't help either.

After the van had dropped off all our stuff, we spent the next days cleaning up and decorating our new house. Floors were hoovered, shelves were dusted and banisters were varnished. My iron cast bed was painted a royal blue and finished off my room. I put it in the left hand corner so that if leaned over I could catch a glimpse of the lake. A chest of draws was assembled at the foot of my bed and a big desk was placed on the other side of the room. By Wednesday, everybody was pleased with their rooms and this place gradually started to feel more and more like a home.