Hide & Seek

All of the boxes that had my things in them were now sitting in the hall outside my new room. I didn't want to put anything in there until all the dust was cleaned up. I turned toward the stairs to ask mom where the Vac-bot was, but she was already carrying it up the stairs. I smiled.

"Looking for this?" She handed it over to me, the handle being passed from hand to hand. I nodded and sat it in the doorway, right before the eggplant-colored carpet started out from the wood flooring of the hallway. "When you're done let it go through the other rooms."

I nodded, and pushed the start button. Mom walked away as I watched the machine roll over the carpet. I could see the true color of the carpet. It only took a few minutes before expanding and turning into a duster on the dresser and tables. It went back over the carpet again, to get that dust up.

The Vac-bot went under the bed, over the bed, and soon it was hitting against the door of the closest. I almost through about turning it off and not letting it touch the clothes, but I pulled back the door and let the machine dust away at the floor and rows of clothes. I was surprised when everything looked almost spotless.

Was the closest air-tight or something?

The Vac-bot stopped in the middle of the closest, beeped, and shut off. I walked over and took the handle, rolling it out of the closest. But as I rolled it out, my foot stepped on one of the floorboards and it was pushed down slightly, making a very high-pitched creak. My brow furrowed, but I only shrugged it off and left the closest.

I looked around the room. It looked good as new, but the windows could use a bit of a wipe over with some cleaner. I'm sure mom has some all-in-one do-it-yourself cleaning spray somewhere in the boxes. It wouldn't take so much time if I dragged the Win-bot outside to do it.

I state the Vac-bot in the hall, switched the "ON" button up, and let the machine do its job. I had some unpacking to do.

The first box I opened was full of photographs with all my friends, a few of just things I took pictures of, and a few autographs that I had gotten from a few movie stars that had made mom's book into a movie. It wasn't really that good of a movie.

I hung the photos on the bare walls and put the autographs with them also.

Next was my box of little knick-knacks and things that were things I had. From little shot-glasses I got whenever mom and I went to the beach, to the ribbons I won for school, to little things like a calendar, or books, or little jewelry boxes grandma sent me every V-Day.

I sat those on the dressers or table. My old-fashion alarm-clock sitting on the bedside table.

The next couple of boxes were just things that I didn't really need to bring with me on the plane - laptop, make-up bag, iGame, things like that.

Then all my clothes were in bags along with my suitcase. I opened the bags and dumped it all out onto the bed. Most of it was just jeans, a few pairs of shorts, some jackets and then a bunch of shirts. My shoes were in a box - I must have forgotten it downstairs.

I turned away to look in the drawers of the dressers. They were full of clothes also. I didn't want to ruin them - seeing as they were very old and could fall apart any moment - but I also didn't want to have my clothes in boxes. I sighed at the internal battle with myself and pulled the shirts and pants out. I would just put them in boxes and sit them in the closest.

My bed was no empty of any clothes, and I had put the boxes under one of the racks of clothes in the closest. I looked around the room. My room.

I let out a sigh, but a smile was tugging at the corner of my lips. I walked out of the room just in time to hear a loud, annoying beep come from the Vac-bot. It was full, so I had to go dump it out and let it get the other rooms.

Walking down stairs, I walked to the kitchen to try and find a garbage can. Mom wasn't in there, but she had obviously been putting up dishes and glasses. I opened the compartment on the Vac-bot and emptied out the dirt and dust. The compartment closed back on its own.

I began to walk back to the stairs, but something caught my attention. I sat the machine by the stairs and walked into the large front room that mom hadn't shown me yet. Sitting near the corner was a large black piano. Mom was lightly pressing against the keys. It sounded like it hadn't been tuned in a hundred year.

"Don't tell me this was the reason you bought the house," I said as I walked closer. Mom looked up, giving me a sheepish look. She loved the piano. It was one of those lost arts that people stopped using after 2070. She only knew how to play because her mom had taught her, and grandma's mom had taught her. I wasn't one to play instruments, my fingers were too short.

"You know I could I have just simply bought one for a new house." She turned back to the grand piano. I only smiled and shook my head at her antics. Just like mom, only buying a house because it had a piano - no matter how many rooms it had.

"Well, I got everything unpacked," I told mom as I sat on the polished bench beside her. She nodded, still letting her fingers ghost over the black and white keys. We sat there in silence, the only noise coming from the piano.

I moved to get up, but when my foot stepped on something, I looked down. It was a CD case. I bent down to retrieve it, surprised that I hadn't cracked the case. It was just a simple thin, plastic case with a silver CD on the inside.

Lullaby, it read in perfect calligraphy writing.

"What's that?" Mom asked as she looked over my shoulder at it. I shrugged and stood up, walking over to the disc player that was resting on a shelf. Popping the CD case open and placing the round piece in, I hit the play button. Instantly, music filled the room.

It was slow at first, but all lullabies are slow. They were meant to relax. I closed my eyes as I listened to it. It must have been composed by the piano that was just a few feet away from me...

A few minutes passed before the music finally came to a stop. The player beeped and the slot opened, revealing the CD to me. That truly was a lullaby.

"Oh, Copper!" I turned around to face my mom, thinking something had happened. She was merely giving me a large grin. "I feel so bad about not letting you have a party in Denver for your birthday."

I shrugged. "It's fine. You were busy trying to get everything set up. It was only my seventeenth birthday, nothing special compared to the sweet sixteen you gave me." I smiled at that thought. Living in LA when your sixteen has its many advantages. One of those was having a movie star throw you a birthday party - it was put on MTV. I have the recording somewhere in a box...

"Still, I feel bad. So..." There was always a so. She had gotten me something, I know she had. "Your present is in the garage."

The garage? There was nothing in the garage but...

Cars.

My eyes widened and I took off through the house. I had always wanted a car since I had gotten my license. That was one of my few wants as a rich kid. I wanted to drive around in a car. I could go where ever I wanted.

I opened the door to the garage, the lights flicking on immediately after.

Sitting on one side of the large garage was my mom's 2109 Mustang. She was one of the few people these days able to buy those kinds of cars without having any money problems after. On the other side was my present.

It was a canary yellow Porsche, obviously from the early 2000's since it looked nothing like the models of today. I was in love.

"So, what do you think?"

I tackled my mom into a hug. She laughed and hugged me back, happy to see me happy.

"Can I take it out for a drive?" I was bouncing in place, adjusting the scarf around my neck that had twisted in a weird way when I hugged her. She nodded and held out a pair of keys for me.

So far, I liked Forks, Washington.

After my quick drive around Forks, I parked the Porsche back into the garage and turned it off. I sat there, very content. I didn't want to get out, but it was dinnertime and mom was actually cooking for once. Usually she just went out and got something. I missed mom's cooking.

I stepped out of the car, walked through the garage, and opened the door that was connected to the kitchen. Mom was humming along to the CD from earlier. She obviously liked it. She must have, also, heard me come in because she turned to me and grinned.

"How was the ride?"

"Amazing." I simply said and sat in one of the stools at the counter. Mom's smile widened and she went back to humming and chopping up food. It smelt very good.

We sat together at the counter, happily eating the home-cooked meal and talked about a few things. School starting in two weeks, the house, her book.

"So, I got this idea from early about..." I let mom go on and on about her book. Usually, I was the one to read over it before it went off to the publishers just to make sure someone of my age would actually like it. I loved all her books, even though she was my mother. "...and then the girl finds this loose floorboard in one of the closets and finds all these types of things from a hundred years ago. Photographs, jewelry, that kind of thing and..."

I actually paid attention to this one. It reminded me of the loose floorboard in the closet up in my room. I had to go check it out after I ate...

But for right now, I was going to savor the rare taste of mom's cooking.