Status: complete :)
Sounds of Rain
oneoffive
Funny River, Alaska, - with only about 500-600 residents - was one of the most isolated places I’d ever been. And I’d been to a lot of places. In the last year alone, my mum and I had lived in 7 different places in the US. And then, for some reason that I don’t understand, she decided to move all the way up to Alaska. Even in mid-July it wasn’t exactly warm – it was even raining! – and we’d moved from Arizona – possibly one of the hottest places in America. But it’s what my mum wanted, and I was going to support her. God knows it’s the only thing I could do anymore. After my dad left 2 years ago, she just…hasn’t been the same. She won’t stay in the same place for more than 2 months and even then, she rarely leaves the house. Part of me thinks she’s looking for him, but then I change my mind. She wouldn’t look for him, even she wasn’t that crazy. Maybe she was just trying to escape…
The house we got was a little wooden cabin, the same as all the locals. “Ireland, honey?” my mum called from inside the house just as I was finishing bringing in our stuff from the car. Yeah, that was my name. So maybe my mum’s always been kind of loopy, but I loved her anyway – she made life interesting. Just going outside for a few minutes resulted in me being soaked through from the rain. I’d never been somewhere that rains so hard for so long. Mum usually picks hot place to live, but for whatever reason, she’d picked one of the wettest places.
“Yeah, mum?” I asked as I walked through the front door holding the box with kitchen ware in it.
“I can’t find any spoons,” she called back and I smiled softly and walked into the kitchen.
“I have them here,” I replied gently, placing the cardboard box on the table.
“Oh, good,” she smiled before ripping the sellotape off and diving into the box, pulling out a teaspoon and then making a cup of tea. I smiled and shook my head before leaving her in the kitchen and going to explore the rest of the house. I went upstairs and scoped out the two bedrooms and the bathroom. By the looks of it, mum had already decided on who was having which room, as she’d dumped several of her boxes in one of the rooms. But I didn’t mind, I wasn’t going to argue and upset her.
I went into the second room. It was fairly large, nothing to complain about as it was certainly better than the room I’d had when we lived in South Carolina – that room had been more of a closet than a bedroom. But we’d only been there for 3 weeks, so I hadn’t had to put up with it for too long. I moved my bed – which had been delivered to the house the day before we got there – into the corner of the room against the far wall, underneath the window. I found the pillows, sheets and pillowcases in a box and set about making my bed. It was already 10p.m and I couldn’t remember ever being so tired in my life. I didn’t bother doing anything else, not even to find the pyjama pants I usually wore to bed. I just pulled my jeans off and flopped down onto my bed in my t-shirt and boxers. My head had hardly even hit the pillow before I was fast asleep, listening to my mum move around in the kitchen below me, and the rain battering the window.
-&-
When my eyes opened almost 10 hours later, I felt so much better. I was ready to start properly unpacking and making a home here, even if it wasn’t going to be for long. Looking through my curtainless windows, I saw that the rain had stopped sometime during the night, but it didn’t look like it would last long. The sky above was still grey and threatened rain again soon. Sighing, I turned back to my room and looked at everything around me that needed doing. But I was used to unpacking, I’d done it so many times in my short life. I’d probably packed and unpacked more times in my 19 years than most people do in a life time. It wasn’t fair, really, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I loved my mum and I just wanted her to be happy, and if moving made her happy then so be it.
For the rest of the day, my mum and I unpacked everything, making the house feel as though it was our home. But it was funny. I’d lived in 7, now 8, houses in the last year and I didn’t miss any of them, none of them had felt like home. Of course, I didn’t tell mum this. I would hate her to think that I wasn’t happy, because I was. I just wasn’t…comfortable in any of these houses. And I don’t think she’d understand that.
The following day, my mum sent me to do the grocery shopping while she finished unpacking the fragile ornaments and decorations for the living room. There were 5 small owls that she’d inherited from her mother – my grandmother – after she’d passed away 6 years ago, and they were the most prized possession that my mum owned. And then there were all the photos of me as I was growing up. After the owls, came those photographs.
Driving through Funny River was kind of depressing. There weren’t that many people around and all the houses were spread far apart. After living in Arizona, where there were streets full of houses and people who were always chatting to one another, this place was just…sad. I eventually found the large grocery store about an hour away from our house and stocked up on everything on the list mum had given me, adding a few things that I thought we needed.
The shop took me about 3 hours in total, as I wandered around the shop, getting accustomed to the layout so it wouldn’t daunt me when I came back in the future. By the time I left the store, it was raining again and I sighed heavily as I ran with my trolley back to the car I shared with my mum, and shoved all the bags inside it before jumping inside, too. I sighed and shook my head slightly to get rid of the excess water in my hair, which was now stuck to my forehead. After warming up for a few minutes, I started the car and headed back to the house. On the drive back I found a little high street of sorts – it had a pub, a post office and a grocery shop – so I figured it would be easier going there to pick up a few things that we’d need more frequently, like eggs, bread and milk.
Mum helped me bring all the food into the kitchen, and then we had the task of assigning the cupboards and drawers to different foods. The cupboard next to the door to the living would hold the biscuits and other sugary treats, so that we didn’t have to go far to search for them if we wanted a snack while watching a movie or something. Eventually, all the cupboards held something, and the kitchen was finally finished. I glanced into the living room and saw the 5 owls sitting on the mantel, surrounding a picture of me when I’d graduated. A small smile tugged at my lips.
I went up to my room to check that everything that needed unpacking was unpacked, and then sat heavily on my bed. What was there to do now? From driving around, I didn’t see anything for kids, or teenagers. All I saw was fields, cows, an occasional house, and the river. And now that I was fully unpacked, I realised something. Funny River was just…boring.
The house we got was a little wooden cabin, the same as all the locals. “Ireland, honey?” my mum called from inside the house just as I was finishing bringing in our stuff from the car. Yeah, that was my name. So maybe my mum’s always been kind of loopy, but I loved her anyway – she made life interesting. Just going outside for a few minutes resulted in me being soaked through from the rain. I’d never been somewhere that rains so hard for so long. Mum usually picks hot place to live, but for whatever reason, she’d picked one of the wettest places.
“Yeah, mum?” I asked as I walked through the front door holding the box with kitchen ware in it.
“I can’t find any spoons,” she called back and I smiled softly and walked into the kitchen.
“I have them here,” I replied gently, placing the cardboard box on the table.
“Oh, good,” she smiled before ripping the sellotape off and diving into the box, pulling out a teaspoon and then making a cup of tea. I smiled and shook my head before leaving her in the kitchen and going to explore the rest of the house. I went upstairs and scoped out the two bedrooms and the bathroom. By the looks of it, mum had already decided on who was having which room, as she’d dumped several of her boxes in one of the rooms. But I didn’t mind, I wasn’t going to argue and upset her.
I went into the second room. It was fairly large, nothing to complain about as it was certainly better than the room I’d had when we lived in South Carolina – that room had been more of a closet than a bedroom. But we’d only been there for 3 weeks, so I hadn’t had to put up with it for too long. I moved my bed – which had been delivered to the house the day before we got there – into the corner of the room against the far wall, underneath the window. I found the pillows, sheets and pillowcases in a box and set about making my bed. It was already 10p.m and I couldn’t remember ever being so tired in my life. I didn’t bother doing anything else, not even to find the pyjama pants I usually wore to bed. I just pulled my jeans off and flopped down onto my bed in my t-shirt and boxers. My head had hardly even hit the pillow before I was fast asleep, listening to my mum move around in the kitchen below me, and the rain battering the window.
-&-
When my eyes opened almost 10 hours later, I felt so much better. I was ready to start properly unpacking and making a home here, even if it wasn’t going to be for long. Looking through my curtainless windows, I saw that the rain had stopped sometime during the night, but it didn’t look like it would last long. The sky above was still grey and threatened rain again soon. Sighing, I turned back to my room and looked at everything around me that needed doing. But I was used to unpacking, I’d done it so many times in my short life. I’d probably packed and unpacked more times in my 19 years than most people do in a life time. It wasn’t fair, really, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I loved my mum and I just wanted her to be happy, and if moving made her happy then so be it.
For the rest of the day, my mum and I unpacked everything, making the house feel as though it was our home. But it was funny. I’d lived in 7, now 8, houses in the last year and I didn’t miss any of them, none of them had felt like home. Of course, I didn’t tell mum this. I would hate her to think that I wasn’t happy, because I was. I just wasn’t…comfortable in any of these houses. And I don’t think she’d understand that.
The following day, my mum sent me to do the grocery shopping while she finished unpacking the fragile ornaments and decorations for the living room. There were 5 small owls that she’d inherited from her mother – my grandmother – after she’d passed away 6 years ago, and they were the most prized possession that my mum owned. And then there were all the photos of me as I was growing up. After the owls, came those photographs.
Driving through Funny River was kind of depressing. There weren’t that many people around and all the houses were spread far apart. After living in Arizona, where there were streets full of houses and people who were always chatting to one another, this place was just…sad. I eventually found the large grocery store about an hour away from our house and stocked up on everything on the list mum had given me, adding a few things that I thought we needed.
The shop took me about 3 hours in total, as I wandered around the shop, getting accustomed to the layout so it wouldn’t daunt me when I came back in the future. By the time I left the store, it was raining again and I sighed heavily as I ran with my trolley back to the car I shared with my mum, and shoved all the bags inside it before jumping inside, too. I sighed and shook my head slightly to get rid of the excess water in my hair, which was now stuck to my forehead. After warming up for a few minutes, I started the car and headed back to the house. On the drive back I found a little high street of sorts – it had a pub, a post office and a grocery shop – so I figured it would be easier going there to pick up a few things that we’d need more frequently, like eggs, bread and milk.
Mum helped me bring all the food into the kitchen, and then we had the task of assigning the cupboards and drawers to different foods. The cupboard next to the door to the living would hold the biscuits and other sugary treats, so that we didn’t have to go far to search for them if we wanted a snack while watching a movie or something. Eventually, all the cupboards held something, and the kitchen was finally finished. I glanced into the living room and saw the 5 owls sitting on the mantel, surrounding a picture of me when I’d graduated. A small smile tugged at my lips.
I went up to my room to check that everything that needed unpacking was unpacked, and then sat heavily on my bed. What was there to do now? From driving around, I didn’t see anything for kids, or teenagers. All I saw was fields, cows, an occasional house, and the river. And now that I was fully unpacked, I realised something. Funny River was just…boring.
♠ ♠ ♠
just a little intro to Ireland and his life.comments? :)