Never Truly Lost

Chapter 4

The sunlight shone directly through the split between my curtains in my bedroom. I reached up and drew the curtains open to find a dove sitting on the sill. I watched it for a few moments until it cooed softly and then flew away. I felt calm. I don't usually have such a good night's rest but last night was a rare occurrence. Not a single dream never mind a night mare. I sat up, stretching as I pulled my curtains open to look at the view outside.

My house sat on a hill. There were other houses in the area but I was sure that mine was the furthest from the town since the eastern end did not look onto any other houses. The more built up area of Littlebrooke lay on that hill. The houses were newer and slightly bigger than those in town and had bigger gardens and spaces between the adjacent houses. My house was at the end of a side street, the front looking onto the street, all the way down to where it joined Loop Road that connected all of the side streets. This built up suburb was referred to as The Rise. It consisted of a single road that led from the main town and created a loop in on itself. At regular intervals, a total of four streets led outwards from the loop and each was a straight road consisting of five houses each. The streets were named after birds: Bluebird, Swallow, Hummingbird and my street, Heron Street. In the center of Loop Road, behind the houses laid a beautiful park which I had only visited a few times.

I loved my house. Lots of open space, wooden floors and windows in every room providing a lot of natural light. I feel safe here. It's something that belongs to me, a plce where I can go to just be me whether it's the scared me, the sad me or the happy me. I had taken the time when I first moved in to decorate each room and to familiarise myself with the house so that I knew every corner of the place. On the first floor the front door entered into a foyer which had a staircase heading up to the floor above. A door to the left led into the guest bedroom and bathroom while the door to the right led into the sitting room. I love the sitting room because it has a nook on the far wall with a bench seat which I use for reading or naps in the sunlight. The other end of the room has the TV and couch set up next to the fireplace. The fireplace was complete with an old wood frame and was perfect for cold nights or to light during winter times. The wall opposite the fireplace held my bookshelves with my collection of books since I would always come to the room to relax and read. To me, this sitting room is the center of my house.

The last room on the bottom floor is the kitchen which lies beyond the staircase. The kitchen is open plan with a simple coffee table and chairs set under the large window on the south side of the room. Upstairs is a lot simpler. There is an office set up in the spare bedroom which I use to keep my lesson plans or marking my work. I don't enjoy being in an office as much as I do an open room with a view of the garden so I don't use the office much. My bedroom is the other room on the second floor and it is also simple. I don't like being crowded in so I've kept it uncluttered. There's a balcony outside which despite being wonderful with a chair and table set and sun umbrella, is not used often.

This house is mine and it's all I've ever known.

#

We walked between different shops on Main Road and bought Christmas decorations. It wasn't even the end of November yet but as was expected during the winter seasons, Christmas had been much anticipated since the end of Halloween. 

I hadn't yet decided how I was going to decorate my tree. Then again, I didn't need to decide since I did the same thing every year. I had gotten a simple, realistic looking green fir tree and some basic decorations to go on it During my first Christmas. Carrie has some childhood decorations that she had kept from when she was younger. She also had some ornaments which had sentimental value; they were from both of her fathers, her mom and her friends, etc. I wanted to personalise my own tree. I knew that when I saw it I would know it so I had been walking and looking at all of my options just hoping to see a sign.

We had decided to take a break and were heading to Mr Timmons's for a cup of tea when I saw it.

We were walking down Fourth Street and the display in the window of the Birding Adventures store caught my eye. There were a few vintage camera's set up in front of stuffed birds as though someone were taking pictures of them. But what caught my eye was the chain of feathers strung up to hang from the ceiling. There was such a variety of feathers, long and short, colourful and plain, fluffy and straight. 

I went inside to take a closer look. The walls of the shop were covered in pictures of birds in flight and paintings of birds. There were tables against the back wall with feathers displayed and their corresponding avian names. There were more displays of stuffed birds set up in the shop and several shelves with avian encyclopaedias and birding books. I had found what I was looking for.

I left the shop with two frames- one had a majestic Falcon sitting in his nest with several feathers woven into the twigs while the other was a painting of several different falcon species' feathers with their name tags written in calligraphy. 

I also had a box of carefully packed feathers which I was planning to turn into ornaments, both for on my tree and to display around the house. Carrie thought that my plan was strange but later on, as I strung the feathers across my tree she saw what I had planned. There was something about the long feathers of the peregrine falcon with their stripe-like pattern that drew me in. And the shorter black feathers of the downy woodpecker with their white dots on the edges that just caught my eye and made me want to study them all day long. The feathers also happened to look great against the green needles of the tree and really complimented the red and gold decorations. Maybe I need to go into design or something because my tree was pretty professional if I do say so myself.

When Carrie and I had finished decorating we sat in front of my fireplace with mugs of hot chocolate and just chatted until the sun went down. We spoke about Carrie's job at the high school and mine in the Primary school. We spoke about what we wanted to do for the Christmas holidays. We spoke about our dreams for the future and for once I allowed myself to indulge in those dreams.

***

Hi there!

So, I've posted two chapters, mostly because, though to me this chapter is very telling and filled with context - it can seem like a filler chapter.

Let me know what you're thinking in the comments!

-SB