6 Cranbrooke Avenue

Chapter 6

The next day my father had to go straight to work early in the morning.  Apparently, his job did not give any time to get settled in.  On the coffee table in the living room, I found a small list of instructions:
1. Make breakfast (a simple one) and wash what you used.
2. Finish unpacking your boxes.

I started from the beginning and very soon I was finished.  On my way back to the living room, I heard the doorbell ring.  I looked at the clock in the room and wondered who would really be at the door at eight in the morning.  I walked over to a window to see who it was before going to open the door.

"Good morning." The boy from next door said and I responded in like manner.

His eyes were dark brown and so was his hair.  His growing beard gave his face a slightly mature look but his high-pitched voice screamed the fact that he was still youthful.  He was in a periodic table t-shirt and a plain black sweatpants with his hands behind his back and stood around five inches taller than I was which was useful at the time as he blocked me from the sun.  I wondered what he wanted.  He brought his hands in front of him and held out to me, two envelopes.

"These were accidentally left at my house this morning." He said.

"Oh, thanks." I said and took the envelopes.

"I'm Devon by the way." He seemed a bit shy, which made me wonder if it was really him who was at the window the day before.

"Well, hi Devon.  I'm Jordan."

He smiled showing a mouth full of braces which made him look nerdier than he already did with the glasses.  Behind him, I saw my father drive up and park along the sidewalk.  He hopped out of the car and walked up to the house.

"Good morning.  I came to drop off some envelopes that ended up at my house instead of yours." Devon said to him.

"Hello to you too neighbour and thank you." My father responded.

"I see you are awake." My father said to me, gave me a kiss on my forehead and walked into the house.

Devon awkwardly smiled, shrugged his shoulders a bit, ran his hand through his short curly hair.  It got stuck so he had to use his other hand to separate his hair a bit so his finger could get loose from the trap that his curls had formed.

"Well, I'll see you someday." He said.

"Yeah I guess.  Have a good day." I said and he returned the well wishes.

Before he took two footsteps into the yard, my father stopped him and asked him for directions to a nice restaurant or fast food joint.  He responded saying that he didn't know any.  Turns out he had moved in with his family just three days before us so he had not been outside of his house much.  I closed the door and turned to my father who was home quite early and I pointed that out.

"Today was like an introduction to work.  Like an orientation or induction." He said.  "Since I'm not at work right now, how about this, we keep driving until we find a good restaurant."

"I ate breakfast already though daddy." I said.

"Doesn't matter."

I bathed, got dressed and soon we were on the road driving out of the community.  On the street we lived on, only one house didn't have a car in front of it.  It didn't look like anyone lived in it either which was strange as it looked really eye-catching with its royal blue, white and dark brown outside.  I wondered why my father didn't choose that one so I asked.

"Which number was it?" He asked.

"Six." I responded.

He stuttered a bit then clearly said that the real estate agent said that the house that we got was better.

"As in the furniture and it was uh, cheaper." He continued.

He didn't sound very believable but I didn't question him any further.