I kept the keys when we moved. I told my Mum I'd lost them, left them at school probably, but I kept them, hid them in the safe I got one Christmas, next to the secrets and photos, some money I'd saved and my Papa's medal.
My old house looks quiet this afternoon; everyone's at work or school. There's Neighbourhood Watch signs on the lamp-posts now, so I walk up to the door as casual as I can. The keys work fine, they haven't even changed the locks. I shout a hello but there's no answer.
I go straight up the stairs to my old room. It's wrong though, backwards; it doesn't look right. The bed's in the middle, there's curtains where the blinds should be, there's no posters on the papered walls and it's tidy.
And then I hear footsteps on the stairs, an old creek I could never forget, and there's nothing I can do, nowhere to hide. The steps reach the door and it opens slowly, and when she sees me, the woman jumps back with her hand on her heart, she's shocked. But she must know me, because then her face warms into a big smile and she says, 'Oh, it's just you! What a fright you gave me!'
And then she catches her breath and she asks, 'Have you had your dinner?'
My old house looks quiet this afternoon; everyone's at work or school. There's Neighbourhood Watch signs on the lamp-posts now, so I walk up to the door as casual as I can. The keys work fine, they haven't even changed the locks. I shout a hello but there's no answer.
I go straight up the stairs to my old room. It's wrong though, backwards; it doesn't look right. The bed's in the middle, there's curtains where the blinds should be, there's no posters on the papered walls and it's tidy.
And then I hear footsteps on the stairs, an old creek I could never forget, and there's nothing I can do, nowhere to hide. The steps reach the door and it opens slowly, and when she sees me, the woman jumps back with her hand on her heart, she's shocked. But she must know me, because then her face warms into a big smile and she says, 'Oh, it's just you! What a fright you gave me!'
And then she catches her breath and she asks, 'Have you had your dinner?'