Lovely Rita

Friday night came around and still there was no word about any jobs. I knew Linda was busy house hunting in the papers though, because everytime I walked past the coffee table the property section was laying there with red circles dotted unevenly around the page. It often drew my curiosity, but I decided against ever picking it up and nosing through.

I'd decided not to accompany Paul to the studio the past two days. I wanted to get Linda off my back so that she felt more comfortable about me and less determined to find me a job. Not that I didn't want one; I was in love with the idea of working in a studio, I would just miss this...

I was sat indluging in some light reading; an old romance novel I'd found in a book store that morning. I'd done quite a lot today already. I tidied my own room, polish and all, and then moved on to the kitchen; washing up, wiping the surfaces and putting all the dry plates and glasses away. I'd spent so much time cleaning that the apartment looked like a show home. I decided to lift my legs onto the sofa and throw my book onto the coffee table. I was knackered.

I rubbed my eyes and looked over to the television, blinking once as the image began to get smaller, blinking again as it shrank even more, until finally I fell deeply asleep.

*****

I woke up to a little Heather putting wooden animals along my body. Blinking into the light, I smiled at her.

"Good night Julie!" She said. I found her utterly adorable.

"Hello Heather. Where's your Mummy and Daddy Paul?" I asked groggily, feeling rigid having slept on the sofa for a few hours.

"Mummy's packing for me and her and Daddy Paul is still having band time." She said. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Packing?" I said, starting to grow concerned. I would have sat up, but I didn't for want of not ruining the little girl's line of animals.

"Yeah! Me and Mummy are going up to Scotland to find a house." That really didn't give me much hope. I started to get very concerned.

"You're moving?" I asked quietly.

"We all are one day. Daddy Paul's apartment is too small Mummy says. She wants to get sheeps and chickens and a big field for Martha!" Heather said merrily, revelling in the fact that she'd have lots of animals to play with. I smiled at her.

"So are you going soon then?" I asked, wondering how much more I could get out of Heather about this before she got distracted.

"Me and Mummy are going tomorrow morning, and we're staying until Sunday night. She says there's a lot of nice houses to look at up there." Heather said, smiling at her animal structure. I smiled back at her, glad inside that Linda trusted me a bit more clearly - if I was to be left with Paul obviously. It was my own trust issues I was worrying about now...