A Journey to the Land of Fire and Ice

Chapter Eight

When I get back to my apartment, I begin to gather my belongings, placing them in cardboard boxes. My new apartment is higher up (farther from the poisonous gasses), bigger, and altogether better. The government favors those with children, they want a larger population. 

When I finish, I take Katrina to the new apartment. There are four rooms, a living/dining room, Mine and Katrina's bedrooms, and a bathroom. I begin to put up me stuff, I have like twenty maps in frames that I hang above the small couch, along with a thankyou note from one of the patients in the hospital. I drape my small, white afghan on the couch and look around happily. It looks like a home. Katrina's been making the beds with my old blankets and a couple of new ones for Katrina. I plug in my alarm clock and walk back to the table. Katrina's coloring a picture, I look over and see what it is, two girls are holding hands, one with blonde hair and one with brown. Katrina looks up at me and smiles, saying, "That's you," She points to the one with the brown hair, "and that's me." She points to the one with blonde hair. I smile and say, "It's beautiful. 

Katrina beams and hands me the picture, I look at it, smile, and then replace a map of Southern America with it in a dark brown picture frame. I ask Katrina to go to bed and begin to pick up her crayons and paper.

When I am done I duck into her room, she's sitting in her bed, tracing the letters on her cast. Earlier this week I got everyone who worked at the hospital to sign her cast, it meant so much to her.

I sit on her bed and pull out a small storybook from behind my back saying, "You up for a story?" She nods her head vigorously, and I begin to read her the story of Hansel and Grettle. She eventually falls asleep with her head in my lap.