War Of Survival

Chapter Five, Trying To Build A Life Again

My dad attended multiple job interviews and finally got one, a job as a truck driver at FOODSTUFFS, he drives the delivery truck to places like FourSquare and once even Paknsave, basically he delivers all the food to grocery shops. My dad was really tired over the next two weeks, that's how long we stayed in Napier for, two weeks. The first night, we made our beds, they offered us mattresses but they were thin as paper, I wasn't complaining though, I was happy I at least got something, it's better than nothing, right?. I'm going to give you an idea of how their house was set up.

They lived in a two story house, the driveway was quite small and usually only fit about two or three cars, they had neatly trimmed grass and a small white fence lined around the yard, at the end of the driveway there was this big metal gate that lead to the backyard and the garage with a roof, usually you'd park your cars there but they decided to put a gate up, I think that's because they only have one car since the mother doesn't work and the dad can take the car to work. Their oldest daughter, Jessica doesn't live with them, I wasn't really sure where she lives but I only met her once. Then there's Vanessa, she works at the FourSquare that's down the road and I'm pretty sure she lives with them but was close to moving out. Christina is only a year older than me, I hung out with her a few times but not a lot since I'm shy and don't really make friends easily. Their only son, and youngest child, Jonothan, he is about five or six, my sister played with him a few times.

Getting back to describing their house, their front door was quite small and round shaped, once you entered the house, you were immediately greeted by the stairs that are to your right, we never went up there since that's just Jonothan and their parent's bedroom. Step a little further and then you get to the bathrooms, one with just a toilet and one with a bath and a shower, it was really weird since the bathroom's didn't have real doors, it was more like a closet's door with small holes in it, I don't really know how to describe it. Christina's room is at the end of the hall to the right of the house. Then you turn left and immediately greeted by the large space, the dining room with a small table on the right, where I remember we sat all together as a large family/friend group of people and ate dinner together. And a kitchen with a small island on the right, then there's this small hallway that goes far down, that's the pantry where they keep all the food. The floors were made of tiles in diamond shapes and small square tiles on the corners that were red, or I think they were apples, I never spent too much time looking at the floor to remember it in detail. There were these small stairs that lead down to an area in the house, there were lots of toys, so I guess that was Jonothan's play area but we set up our beds there and keep walking further and you get to another bedroom, where my parents slept. The walls were made of wood walls and hard tiles that were prickly to walk on without shoes. Another little bathroom at the end of the room and there was another hallway that led to the kitchen from the bedroom. Then there were these sliding doors that lead to their small backyard with a view of the neighbours pool and a small trampoline, We were lucky that the boys about our age if not older invited us over to swim one very hot evening.

My father had to get up around twoam every day for his new job, he was exhausted at his job, mainly because his mind was still a little funky from his incident. The mother showed us around town in our grey mercedes that we brought with us from the farm. We looked at so many houses and on so many hills and twisted roads, I don't even remember half the homes we looked at. There was this house I really liked and it will always be in my memory, somewhere in the rural suburbs not too far from town and not too close to neighbours, it was an old little house with a massive big yard and huge trees covering the front. The house itself was a little run down on the inside but I loved the privacy, you couldn't even see the house from the main road, it reminded me of my childhood living on the farm, obviously we didn't get accepted to rent that house but I will always remember how twelve year old me admired that property.

Those two weeks living in that situation in Napier seems like a short time to myself now but back then, it felt like forever. A lot happened in those two weeks and it's weird that I can't remember half the things we did but at the time it felt like I spent years there, a really long time. Then it was almost time for christmas, I was sad that year because it would be my first year without christmas. In my childhood we would always travel to Auckland to visit my cousins and spend christmas with them, my dad's sister. My childhood was filled with so many amazing memories and I say thank you to my parents for protecting us against the evil in the world, unfortunately their protection came to an end when my dad had that incident and I had to learn to take care of myself mentally while talking hope into my mother and acting as an adult. I didn't really raise myself and become a parent to my own parents but by saying that, I really mean that when my mum was feeling sad and her anxiety for the future got the better of her, I had to talk hope back into her, If I was old enough to understand evil and the situation my family was in at that time, I was old enough to listen to my mother's problems and help her overcome those negative feelings.

I miss my childhood, I really do. But there's nothing I can do about it, I can't just invent a time machine and go back. I remember I was wearing my adventure time pants, still a kid at heart and walking around in the mall, Christina, my mum and I took the bus one day to Hastings just to have a girl's day to hopefully forget about our troubles. I was supposed to start school in Napier but then you could say I was, saved by the bell. Christmas holidays came around and I luckily didn't have to start a new school just to leave in a few weeks. That's what my childhood consisted of, moving around every year and starting new schools. It was annoying.