Writing Club Prompt “Theme Song”

@tlwhitaker 2019

“You are going to have to move.” He blurted out.

The woman looked a bit confused. “Whatever for?” she replied.

She was sitting in her chair, the one no one, but her, liked. That was fine, it was for her anyway. The floral fabric, loudly proclaimed that this was her throne, that no one else was to perch upon the decidedly feminine easy chair. Besides it added a splash of fun and color to an otherwise orderly boring living room. She saw no reason to move.

“We have lost our lease. And the landlord is going to sell this place.”

“MOVE! But we have been here forever. We raised our children here, I have work, you have work.” She didn’t want to leave the familiar. Each room of the house held the memories of most of her adult life. They had moved here just after marriage intending on buying a place and never got to it. The kids came fast, then it was little league and cheer leading. That quickly morphed into proms, first loves; soon followed by jobs and very own apartments. Finally it was just them two. Him and her.

She didn’t feel the neighborhood was the same anymore, slightly more ominous feeling, like there were bad guys waiting to move in. Still she had no desire to move. It was her home. Besides she had way too much stuff to sort through and packing would be, well frankly a nightmare.

“We will just buy it” She stated.

“No its overpriced. Everything in this city is overpriced. If we stay we will have to lease again.”

And so begin the search for a house, condo, apartment, anything that was live-able and not ridiculous in the leasing. They two searched and looked at so many places. The internet soon learned that they were looking to lease a place so all the ads were for apartments and apps to help with that. It was exhausting. If a place was affordable it was a dump or too far from all the things she loved. If it was close enough to downtown it was too expensive or so small one could have a conversation with someone in the kitchen while sitting on the bed at the far end of the place.

It was becoming the most frustrating thing she had ever attempted. Thoughts of homelessness, of living in a tent came into her head and the two of them fought a lot. Something they rarely did. Then He came home with an announcement.

“My brother has suggested a place.”

Your brother? What he’s into real estate now.” she knew she sounded peevish but could not help it.

“No its a place he was thinking of buying into. We are going to go take a look at it.”

So she put on a better outfit and got into the car. Her demands for more information were meet with silence. She would have to just wait and see he had told her. It didn’t sound good. It soon didn’t look good either. They were driving out of the city and in the countryside. She demanded again to know where he was going and again met with silence. She proclaimed her dissatisfaction at leaving the city. Who the heck wanted to live in the country. Not her. She loved to go shopping, if she needed something why it was right there. She could be there in five minutes or have it delivered. The country had bugs and smelly animals and really what was he thinking. He never responded and just kept driving.

Soon they were far enough away she could not see the city anymore. Her tears didn’t work. So she sat back and looked at the scenery. It was pretty. There were hills and a river. The river was dotted with boats and the banks were littered with weekend fishermen. She only saw a few cows, some sheep and the baby goats were cute. Finally they pull into a housing development, with ag ate. A gate! Her ein the middle of nowhere. A gated community in the sticks. Who ever would have thought it. Not her. But at least things were looking up a bit.

They got through the gate and went to the sales office where new homes , made to order, were being sold. Hand in hand they toured the models. They were nice. Some nicer than others. She was excited until it occurred to her they would have to decide everything, from the floors to the roof to the bushes outside. Her anxiety about moving started back up. It would be so much work and her stuff and what floors. He decided a ride around the place and the town nearby.

The town was quite quaint almost Mayberry-ish. There was a river and a bridge that went up to let large ships by. Seems there was several restaurants, a lovely little promenade by the river, and even a grocery store, the name of which was nothing she had ever heard of. They drove back to the development. It was lovely. The houses were cute but rather close and a little cookie cutter. When they were young they had decided to not move to place with an HOA. They had wanted to have a little freedom to do as they place at their house. There was one here.

They both agreed though, that at this time in their lives maybe an HOA would be a good thing. They place they were moving from had neighbors who played in a Mariachi Band and practiced in the garage. They also were forever want the couple to cut down their trees. She had dubbed them the tree haters. Across the street, the lady drank alcohol all day from a coffee cup and let her nasty little dog run loose. Sometimes she was sober enough to call for the dog, usually in the wee hours of the night. “Mister! Mister! Mister.! Mister would ignore her. A HOA could be a good thing.

So they happened upon an open house and went into to look. It was ok, but what the really found was a very lovely agent. She took them through a couple of houses. Always a little something wrong. The back wasn’t private enough, they had tiled counters, it was a lot of blue and so on and so forth. Then they walked into their house. Their new house. It was lovely with the granite counters, cherry wood throughout the house, stone floor, Italian stone in the master bath, the windows everywhere. She fell in love.

They bought it, the house. The move was as horrible as she thought it would be. Every scrap of paper, every book, piece of furniture held a memory and she cried a lot. He just kept telling her it was a good thing she will love the country. It was a great place to live. The real stores were only 30 minutes away. Finally all things were sold, packed, or thrown away and into her new place she was. She spent most of her time trying to make her house a home. That didn’t happen until her floral throne, her color filled chair was strategically placed next to the overpriced granite end table and large light giving window.

She may have moved away from friends, and that cute little restaurant who makes a killer cappuccino and heavenly Madeleines. She may be alone here, she may have to travel forever to get to a decent store, but, like Eva Gabor in Green Acres she followed her husband and fell in love with her country home.

Photo: By CBS Television – eBay itemphoto frontphoto back, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20852896