Life On the Edge

Out of the stupidity I felt for not bothering to learn Japanese on the plane ride there, I just bought an apartment. The folks who owned it spoke English (thank God) and I would be having a roommate. I just hoped to God he or she spoke English, too, or I was going back home to Ireland.

I walked up the stairs and into flat number 13 and let out a heavy sigh. Why oh why did it have to be 13? I gave yet another loud sigh and jammed the key into the lock, going inside and dropping my bags on the floor.

The room didn’t have much, two beds, a small window, bare white walls that were really torn up, but other than that it was just a normal small flat you’d see in Ireland. I threw my duffel bag up onto the bed and started unpacking some clothes, putting them into the small closet tucked into the corner of the room. It didn’t take very long because I didn’t have much, but ‘tis life when you’re poor and on your own.

I fell back onto the bed and coughed a bit as dust flew up off the sheets. “Holy Mother o’ Jaysus!” I jumped back up and shook out the bedspread. I checked under the mattress quick and let out a sigh of relief…at least there weren’t any bugs!

I decided to be nice and shake out my future roommates’ bed as well, but other than that there was nothing to do in unlucky apartment 13. I pulled an old quilt that had once belonged to my parents of one of my bags and laid back down in the musty smelling bed, hoping to sleep off some of the exhaustion that had been piling up over the years.

This wasn’t much of a start, now was it? It’s bound to get better, right?