6 Cranbrooke Avenue

Part 1 - Chapter 1

I was jolted out of my sleep by my alarm clock and a feeling of laziness pushed its way in. Today was moving day and I felt glad that I had already packed as I was not even enthused enough to get out of bed. There was a knock at my room door, then my father poked his head in before pushing open the door and walking over to my bed. He yanked the sheets off me and I mumbled my lack of appreciation.

"Rise and shine, we need to be on our way before the traffic." He said with his face grinning.

I sat up in my pi pajamas struggling to get the motivation to get up and out of bed. My father rolled up the sheet he had in his hand and dropped it on top of one of my boxes then proceeded to take up that box.

"I'll bring these out. Get ready and be out in twenty minutes." He said.

I got ready and carried out the last of the four boxes that I had. We packed the car and we were soon on our way to our new house in Salsan City, just a little over a hundred kilometres from where we were moving from, Bloom Gardens. I slipped my hoodie over my head and tried to fall asleep. My father glanced and started complaining.

"Why are you always sleeping?"

"Oh come on daddy, it's just eight in the morning. And plus, I need to catch up on lost hours of sleep."

"Lost hours of sleep doing what?"

"Packing."

My father went quiet for a while.

"It's not my fault I was transferred to Salsan." He said calmly.

"But why did you of all your co-workers have to go?"

"That's what I'll find out when we get there."

I rested my head against the window and tried to sleep again but the sleepiness had vanished so I just quietly took in what was happening outside. On the left side, there was a family of joggers all in Royal blue tracksuits. The smallest one looked to be around five years of age but he (or she, I couldn't tell) was keeping up with the parents who were going pretty fast to me. Behind them a dog was strolling down the sidewalk, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, before turning down a path and disappearing into the trees further down. Footworth was down that side, but I never went there before. Didn't have a reason to, anyways.

Soon we were in Blackfields (30 kilometres from Bloom Gardens). My father asked if I needed to use the restroom as he was pulling into a plaza soon so we could have breakfast, stretch our legs and stock up on water and snacks for the rest of the journey.

"Where are we going to eat?" I asked.

"Hammond's." He said and I could see his smile through the rear view mirror.

Hammond's was a fast food joint like Burger King and KFC, but if I were to choose any fast food joint in the whole world, I would choose Hammond's. They had the best ham and cheese burger in the whole world. The best double cheese bacon and chicken burger could only be accessed from Hammond's. Eating there put my taste buds at ease but my arteries at risk. Not many people knew about Hammond's, so it was never full and one bite from their chicken cheese sandwich would immediately brighten up anyone's day.

Just the thought of going to Hammond's put a wide smile on my face. Just imagining taking a bite out of their tender, juicy, mouthwatering, cheesy, tasty, spicy jerk chicken and cheese burger made my belly grumble in anticipation for some good food. And washing it down with some mango peach juice after. Woo! Absolute heaven.