Curiously, I jerked my head around.
Mum had parked at the side of the road, and as I unbuckled my seatbelt, pushed open the door - which was now possible again - and swung myself out of the car, I realized why.
The driveway we were standing in front of was overgrown, and the wooden garden fence, from which the white paint was peeling, lay across the withered front garden of a large house. It was exactly the same color as the fence, except the paint hadn't peeled off quite as badly.
I looked around.
The neighboring properties looked neater, which was probably due to the fact that no one had apparently lived in this building for a long time. It had to be the house my mother had talked about.
And I didn't know if I really liked it. It looked like something out of a nineties’ horror movie.
“Come on, I'll show you around first. We can get the suitcases later,” Mum yelled to me from the boot.
A path led me directly to the wooden veranda that extended around the whole house. Someone had built a sitting area here and only a few pillows were missing to give it its coziness.
Mum came up the stairs and put a key in the door lock. She turned it and pulled the door open. A loud squeak sounded, making me wince.
“Looks like this place needs some work,” I gasped.
Mum looked around before entering the house. I followed her silently.
“The last time I was here, the garden fence was still standing. A storm must have taken it down.”
I wouldn't be surprised if the next storm took this whole ramshackle place with it.
Only now did I realize the meaning of Mum's words.
She had been here once before, a year ago. The thought that she had slept here gave me the creeps.
To my surprise, inside, it looked normal. The hallway was small but clean and tidy. A stone sculpture of buddha stood on a corner cupboard next to the wardrobe. When I looked closer, I realized it was not a Buddha but an elegant woman.
Going further into the house, we came to an attached living area with furniture covered by white sheets. There were no pictures on the wall, but it seemed as if some had once hung there because lighter, small, square spots stood out from the wall. A few flower pots with no contents and natural decor decorated this area of the house.
I followed Mum across the pale floorboards, and we came into a kitchen that looked very modern.
“Have you had the kitchen redone?” I asked, and Mum nodded. She inserted a plug into a socket, whereupon the fridge began to make squawking noises which, to my reassurance, faded into a loud buzzing.
“Don't worry. It's only like that at first. After a while, the noise will stop.”
The ground floor was an open area, and connected to the kitchen was a dining room with a dining table for six.
It was cozy here, but nothing like our old modern flat. I missed it already.
“Come on, I'll show you your new room.”
Mum smiled at me encouragingly.
Something told me I'd end up like Harry Potter in an old lumber room under the stairs, the plaster crumbling off the walls every time someone moved heavily above me.
Oh man, what had I given up my nice big room with its huge bookshelves for?
I followed my mother, hoping she would be merciful in the distribution of rooms.
An angled wooden staircase with surprisingly non-creaking steps led us up to the first floor.
It was not as bright here as downstairs, as there was only one large window at the end of the corridor, which looked out into the garden. Four doors—two on one side and two on the other —probably led to the former flat-sharing rooms. In the middle of the hallway was a railing around the stairs.
“Where do you sleep?” I asked Mum.
She gestured to one of the white doors.
“And you will sleep here,” she said to me as she led me to the front door on the opposite side.
As I entered the room, I immediately noticed that it was very bright. A large floor-to-ceiling window spread the evening sun's rays throughout the room, which didn't look unattractive at all with its cream-colored walls and wooden floorboards. A carpet of the same color with cushions lay in front of the window, and a white wooden bed stood in the middle of the room. There was also a desk and a large wardrobe.
It was a spacious room, but something was missing.
Anyway, I would only be here on weekends, as far as I had understood.
“I'll quickly get the suitcases and the shopping in. Have a look around in the meantime,” Mum said, turning around and leaving the room.
“I can do that too, Mum,” I said loudly and followed her out of the room as quickly as I had come in.
There were a lot of suitcases, and I definitely wasn't going to let her carry them up the stairs by herself. Especially not with all that was in one of my suitcases.
“You should take it easy. Remember what Dr. Copeland said,” I added, to which she rolled her eyes in mock annoyance.
But I was serious. If I wanted to get out of here quickly, I had to make sure that Mum got well again. And that was only possible if she didn’t overdo it.
