The Listener

Fed up of looking around on the ground floor she made her way up the creaky wooden staircase which brought her to a door straight to her right and a hall to her left, with doors both on the left and right. She chose to open the left door first, which was quite small in her opinion. Her mother must have already been she thought as the men had put boxes with her mom’s name on and her mother’s old bed in there. She shut the door and went down the hall. She again chose the door to the left. It was also a small room she thought but it was tiled. She saw one of those shower bath combos, with the sink and toilet with a few shelves here and there. She took this to be the bathroom. She closed the door and moved a little further on. Again, she chose the door to the left and it was a very small room, with the boiler and four shelves. Airing cupboard. She shut the door and went to the right as she had reached the end of the hall. It was the only door on the right she had realised. It was the biggest one on the second floor so and she knew it was her room as it had her boxes in and her bed.

She shut the door, picked up her portable CD player and flopped down on the bed. She turned on her music and put it on at the maximum volume. Kelly Osbourne was screaming at her and she loved it. Her bedroom was plain and definitely needed perking up. All came tomorrow, as her and her mother would go down to the nearest DIY shop and get the place sorted.

She got up and started to plan her room in her imagination. She turned around to see her mother stood in the doorway, hands on hips, mouthing her to do something. She pulled off her earphones and gave her mother a puzzled look.

"Didn’t quite catch that last bit..." She answered as she thought quickly.

"You didn’t catch any of it. Leave Ms Osbourne up here and help me unpack please."

For the rest of that day, Max and her mom settled down into the house. They had arrived earlier than expected so they luckily got most of their things unpacked. Her mother had instructed her to put all her furniture in the middle so that when they went to get their paint, she would be able to get straight on and do it.

That night, when things weren’t looking too bad, her mother realised it was getting around the time to eat. She went to the top of the stairs and shouted, "Max, go get some food for us to eat. You know, the usual stuff – butter, milk, bread, something to put on the bread and something sweet to eat afterwards. I’ll go and get us some proper food later after we have had a better chance to settle in. Take the car if you want."

Max was again plugged into her music but not as loud this time so heard everything. "Sure. I’ll be back later. I wanna go search around for a while. I’d rather walk though."

"OK. But don’t go too far."

Max got up for her favourite chair in the living room, picked up her coat off the banister and put it on. She went back to the lounge and picked up her CD player and put it in her pocket. She went in to the kitchen and picked up $30 just in case things were a little pricey. She put the money in her pocket and put on her black DM boots, her favourite shoes.