Erupt by Elizabeth Knox EPUB & PDF – eBook Details
- Author: Elizabeth Knox
- Language: English
- Formats: PDF / EPUB
- Status: Available For Free Download
- Series: None
- Price: Free
- File Size: 1 MB
JOLENE
“Watch out!”
I freeze as everything around me seems to go in slow motion. The mover
carrying three boxes piled in his arms trips coming into the house, and the top
box—clearly labeled fragile—tumbles off the stack, landing on the hardwood
floor with a crashing sound of breaking glass.
The mover, a tall, muscular young man, probably around twenty years
old, gives me a sheepish glance. “So sorry about that,” he says. “The
company will pay for any damages.”
It was an accident, I remind myself. He certainly didn’t mean to do it on
purpose.
“That’s okay,” I reassure him, slipping into what one of my clients had
recently called my “counselor voice”—gentle and caring but also carefully
controlled. Choosing every word, reminding myself to remain nonjudgmental
no matter what someone says.
The mover skirts around the fallen box, and I swoop in to rescue it, trying
to ignore the sound of tinkling glass shards shifting around inside.
It’s labeled as belonging in the living room, but I take it into my new
home office and set it on my desk. I’ll open that one first, I promise myself,
then head back out to oversee the rest of the move-in process.
As the movers bring in more boxes, I direct them to specific rooms,
determined to help with the sorting process as much as I reasonably can.
Before they leave, Andre, the lead mover, brings a claims form from his
company to me.
“You can either fill this out by hand and mail it in, or you can go to the
website listed up top and fill it out online.” He hands me the form. “Sorry
about Josh—he’s new.”
I thank him, and then he and his crew are gone, leaving me totally alone
in my brand-new house for the first time.
It’s the second time in six months that I’ve moved, but the first time the
move has been into a house I own. I wanted to wait to put down roots in
Birmingham until I was certain my counseling practice would thrive here.
Okay. To be honest, part of me resisted moving from a rented apartment
to an owned house.
After all, finding the perfect home had been a dream Allan and I had
shared.
I stand in my living room, surveying the boxes I still have to unpack.
Allan would have approved of this place. It was exactly what we had
discussed. Built in 1940, the Craftsman style bungalow has a glassed-in front
porch, hardwood floors, three bedrooms, and one bathroom—when we’d
made our wish list, the three rooms had included a shared bedroom and a
room for Danielle.
Now it’s all mine.
I move to the French doors opening out to the back deck. The deck was
added sometime after the original construction. The deck overlooks a long,
sloping yard that leads down to a walking trail. I stare out at the enormous
backyard, surrounded by a tall wooden fence.
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