Flat 1305

Chapter 1

The August breeze ran it's course, rolling a dried Elm leaf along the cobblestone street. The calmness that enveloped Alpine Heights was unnatural but in a good fashion. There was a melody of sparrows replacing the sound of car horns and peace was no longer a far-flung dream of the Sallows.

Finalizing the lease on 1305 with the landlord Maurice took up a week, then an additional two weeks for the payments necessary for their transition between the houses. Moving altogether is almost always an uncontrolled frenzy but things wouldn't have to be stressful anymore once they settled in.

It was all coming together.

"Trav, ask the movers to put those marked cartons in that room! Who's going to move those if they leave it be?" Eden exasperatedly said to her husband, pointing fingers at her soon-to-be bedroom.

Two sturdy men came in view, balancing the weight of the decade-old dining table in their hands. Travis, for the umpteenth time, was back at guiding them into the living room and making sure that the moving didn't cause the furniture to be chipped on the edges.

In this transition, Laura had taken up a spot near the balcony's glass entrance on the far right side of the living room thanks to her dust allergy. From that point of view, her eyes glanced at the main door and waited for the box that contained all her literary adventures, a treasure she marked boldly with a permanent marker earlier.

"Where is Bobby?" Eden called out from the dirty kitchen, utensils in hand.

"He's in one of the balconies, watching planes."

A flat on the 13th floor provides one with too many views to behold. For one, the airport was right there in plain sight, airplanes taking off from platforms into the sunlit horizon that stretched magnificently before the eyes. Secondly, the geography was made of huge patches of land, empty of any man made structures whereas the height made other buildings look like little concrete blocks scattered around patternlessly.

Then there was the view of looking directly below the railings. Everyone was still trying to adjust to the feeling in their stomachs when they looked down from the balconies and windows. Bobby and Laura turned this into a game, laughing at each other's newfound fear of heights.

If anything was certain, it was that there was no monotony in the views.

An instruction came, "Laura, will you go tell papa to tell the movers to bring the fridge in first? Cold water takes up time."

Laura took off outside with Anna in tow, mumbling something about unpacking the boxes of toys. The big apartment was now looking much worse with cartons strewn randomly across the space. The unassembled pieces of a bed were stood against the dazzlingly white walls of the new home, chairs were sitting in the centre of the living room, a microwave set up near the switchboard in the kitchen and electricians on a small ladder, attaching fans to the ceilings.

Eden was in the far corner side of the living room, reading labels on the cartons and shuffling them around to distinguish between them when the Office's door slammed shut loudly in full view and sent her off a feet in surprise.

In the few seconds that followed, her shock dissembled into pure confusion and then annoyance when her brain defaulted Bobby to be behind this.

As a motherly trait, she had a temper when it came to the kids and their games, mostly due to the dangerous nature that followed it. Her love language was stitched between the anger that she showcased often times, even though her children were too young to realize. She stormed out the living room and unbolted the door wide open.

Not a single soul was inside.

Now, she turned her attention to nitpick a logical validation for this slamming, especially because there are kids around. And the logic hit her with the strong gush of wind pouring in with sunlight from the balcony's open door.

"This will be a problem." She muttered under her breath and walked over to the glass door, rotating it into a locked state.

1305 featured a total of four terraces that let in blissful gushes of wind and ample sunlight, the perfect cure to any weather the city had to offer. There were balconies attached to every single room in this particular flat. One attached to the master bedroom, the other shared by the Office and the living room, another in the kitchen and the fourth one being shared by the Dream Room and the drawing room. With what has been witnessed, all these balconies are going to stir the doors quite a lot.

This will definitely be a pain, she thought of all the slamming that would follow unless they did something about it.

"Mrs. Sallow, the drawing room is locked and I cant leave without my tools."

Eden turned to see the electrician, his grimy shirt clinging onto him with sweat as he peered at her from under his bushy brows.

"Locked? Its locked?" She received a nod, "How can it be locked? The movers just put a sofa in there. Let me see."

And she made her way past the movers settling down the refrigerator in the kitchen, walking down a straight line from the room to the corridor that connected the entrance door to the rest of the apartment. She pulled on the door, twisting the copper-toned knob to no avail.

Eden's bony fingers slid into her back pocket and fished out a set of keys, jingling in her grip as she searched for the one that fits the door. One more twist, and the door was now wide open and to keep it that way, she pushed a side table against it.

"Travis is going to pay whatever charges we owe you, he's just near the elevators." She addressed the electrician and got back to work.

Soon, the minutes piled up into a full hour and the movers were now making their last trip upstairs to 1305, hands on a few boxes filled with glassware and other fragilities. They set it up on the countertop, Travis instructing them to shift some misplaced cartons into their proper rooms while Eden prepared a few glasses of mildly cold lemonade for the men as a thank you.

Once the movers left, Travis raised the important question, "What's the dinner for tonight? Pizza Hut or KFC?"

The children erupted into a chorus of KFC, repeating it too many times in enthusiasm and then showering Travis with thank yous once they were acknowledged. This was one of the two traditions that the family set for the moving day.

One, the kids would have the liberty to choose the dinner options and this sense of freedom overwhelmed them. Two, they were responsible for decorating their own rooms, DIY crafts and all. This too, was an overwhelming experience for the children.

The laughter that filled the apartment was infectious because soon, Eden and Travis were also chuckling under their breaths. Their tiredness evaporated for the few minutes as they thought about the times that they would see in this house together. From what it seemed, this would be the perfect start they could ask for.

Travis needed a peaceful state of mind to think over his business decisions. Eden wanted a corner to raise her kids right, in tranquility. The budget required them to pick on the cheaper options or else, go into debt. The children wanted to be free of any limits. This flat was the one-stop solution, like a chunk of destiny waiting for them.

The first sound for 1305 was laughter and it was a start.

Eden nestled herself closer to Travis, her hand clutched around the lemonade glass, "You know when I first came here, I had a strange feeling.... a vision almost. It was just happiness."

"Well, I'm feeling that now." He grinned right back at her and clutched her closer.

*****

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