If You Were Me by Sheila O'Flanagan

Author:Sheila O'Flanagan [O'Flanagan, Sheila]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2014-07-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Canción de la Luna (Moonsong) – flamenco version

Blackwater Terrace these days is nothing like it was when I was growing up. Back then most of the houses had front gardens and the owners parked their cars on the street outside. Now, almost everyone has paved over the garden so that they can fit two cars in it. And many of them also have a third on the road. Mum and Dad had their garden paved too, although they left a small maple tree in the corner. Their decision was based on maintenance rather than on parking availability, because Dad hated mowing the lawn, and as Mum always considered it one of his chores, our garden was never exactly a landscaper’s dream. They share a car, a Ford Focus, which is currently neatly parked behind the double gate. I pull up, get out and lock the Mini. Then I carry my shopping bag of supplies up to the house. As I put my key in the door, I can hear the ringing of the landline echoing through the house. I push the door open and hurry into the kitchen, but I’m too late to answer the phone. I’m not overly worried about it. It was probably a cold caller trying to get my parents to switch their phone, electricity, TV or gas provider. These days, the people you want to call you use your mobile number. I don’t even have a landline. Just like everything from my childhood days, things change.

The house has changed inside too. When Dad took the early retirement package, he used the lump sum to renovate it completely. Whereas before it was divided into three rooms – a kitchen, living room and dining room – now the entire downstairs is open-plan. It makes everywhere seem much bigger, although it’s still not that large.

I put milk, eggs and a butter spread into the fridge, along with a bottle of wine. Then I put bread in the bread bin and biscuits in the biscuit barrel, and walk upstairs.

It doesn’t feel like the house I grew up in here either. As part of the renovations, my parents had an en suite bathroom added to their room and installed a huge jacuzzi bath in the main bathroom. Mum jokes about them sitting in it together with glasses of bubbly and I try hard not to allow that particular picture to lodge in my mind for too long.

I push open the door to my old bedroom. Because I’m the youngest, I was stuck with the box room. The name, in this case, is apt. The room is shaped like a shoebox, long and narrow. There’s just space for a single bed, a single wardrobe and a chest of drawers. (I didn’t have a chest of drawers back in the day. I had a fold-up desk.) The walls have been painted in soft cream. The duvet cover and pillowcases are cream and pink. It’s pretty and girlie in a way that it never was when I had it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.