MELINOE

New beginnings

Dad wasn't really good at directions, and over that it was drizzling. Almost incessantly for the past two nights. He chose to regulate the volume of Noah's favorite track we've been listening to for the past 7 months! Noah drove slow but really smooth. Mom was busy capturing the green and blue picturesque as we drove past the palm-defined greenery and Descanso Beach. I, partially dozing over Noah's monotonous melody wasn't as excited about our shifting to Avalon. Though Noah had a bigger circle of friends out there, yet he was more excited about our new place than who was actually expected to be, that's me perhaps!

Finally we reached. We, to be more particular, Mr. & Mrs. Wyndham who are supposed to be my Mom & Dad, chose this place as Dad already owned a huge farm here that was gifted by Mr. Tim, dad's dearest childhood pal, before he permanently shifted to Budapest.

All the three bumped out of the car and started exploring the farm and taking happy selfies as Dad explained the genus and origin of the flora out there. On the other side, not so happy me, was keener about selecting my room and so, got inside our new Home Sweet Home. It was huge, more like a Castle! Ground floor was a mess with all the scattered furniture, and other things that had started arriving here sequentially since last weekend. I dropped my backpack and ran up the swirling stairs to look for the rooms. There wasn't much of sunlight inside. It was rather dark. I opened the first room to the right, it wasn't locked. I went inside, windows open. The emptiness enticed me. I started singing to myself as my voice echoed in the space. Clearly, that had to be my room.

I opened the cupboard and too many old cartons and books fell down all over. In the effort to clean them up, I started to sneeze badly out of dust allergy. I came out of the room, and the door squeakily closed behind me. It was dark all around again. I looked up the stairs to the terrace, there was another small room beside with a weird round window that lacked any glass. I started climbing up focusing on the window. F***! I saw a face as I directed my phone's flashlight at the window. A man' s face. Very clearly looking straight down at me.

I ran down screaming "mOmmmmm" !

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