It's been about 8 minutes since we left the diner. "You get a chance to ask anybody about working at the diner? It's a really welcoming place" dad asked as we turned right, into what was known as Grey street. "Nope, never got the chance to, it was morning so they were all a little busy but I'll swing by tomorrow morning hopefully before breakfast time", dad just gave me a nod and then continued to pursue uncle Jerry's police car in front of us as he drove down the street. We saw him slow down and park in front of a house on the sidewalk and we assumed this was the house. We pulled into the driveway of a two story house, it was a rust like colour and had two windows at the bottom and one on top on the left or, my left. 

We stood in the driveway next to the car, "Would it be okay if I gave you the keys Ben and y'all can take a self tour? I'm kinda late for work". Uncle Jerry seemed to be hesitant when it came to leaving us, he must really want us to like it here and I had a feeling he has been lonely since his wife passed away. I think having dad here will be good for him, socially. According to dad, uncle Jerry buried himself in all kinds of work related activities after aunt Sarah passed on. 

"Jerry you've done more than enough for us, you go keep this town safe, but maybe you could come over for dinner later?", I think dad really missed uncle Jerry too. After walking us to the door, along the path and up the cute little step before the patio, uncle Jerry said his goodbyes and promised to swing by later for dinner. Me and dad both looked at the cherry wood door then at each other. I gave him a quick nod, this will be an official start for us because up until now I have only felt like a tourist in this town, someone stopping by before me and dad continued on one of our roadtrips.

But this house, it was a big billboard sign stating in bold capital letters that we are here to stay. Dad put the key in and turned until we heard a click. He pushed down the handle and swung the door open. We stepped inside and the smell of dust immediately filled our nostrils and I made my presence loudly known with a sneeze. "Bless you", dad replied not looking at me but at what was now the inside of our new home with every wall dressed in beige.

 In front of me and dad stood a wooden staircase, about 10 to 12 steps. On our right was the kitchen, according to the obvious sink at the window and on our left was what I'm assuming is the lounge area. Down the hall on the left of the stairs was another closed door which led to some room that was directly next to the lounge and further down the hall was a back door that led to the back of the house. I decided to explore those last.

"You wanna take a look upstairs?", I looked to see dad already on the first step so I let him take the lead and we went up. When we reached the top there was an open door about three steps away from the last step, me and dad peaked inside. "This is way bigger than our old bathroom, I mean look at the size of that shower!", dad seemed like a kid unwrapping a Christmas gift. He was right though, for a house this cheap I did not expect a shower that took half the space of the bathroom or one that had glass transparent doors. According to the walls, whoever owned this house previously must've really liked beige.

Next to the bathroom was an empty bedroom with a window opposite the door looking out to the side of the house and of course beige walls. The ceiling in the room started high and declined as it got closer to the window, which was why I wanted to ask dad if it could be mine. "I see you looking at that ceiling zoom-zoom, you can have this one", dad already knew me so well. We moved on to the last room upstairs which meant we were now going to the left side of the house. 

We walked along the railing and went to check out the room in the corner. This room was beige as well, unsurprisingly, but the ceiling did not decline. The bedroom was a simple one with with four walls and a window that looked out to the street in front of the house. "Okay I guess that's it for this section. You wanna see what the backyard looks like?", dad was already at the stairs when he asked. I gave him a nod and we continued the tour to the backdoor. He opened it and we were met with a cute little step. 

It was really just grass and I small garden tree in the corner. Dad seemed to love it. "Imagine all the picnics we could have here". Dad's words made my heart warm, it's been a while since we had one of those. Mom leaving made us distant from each other and we stopped doing the things we used to, so hearing him look forward to them makes me confident that moving here was the right decision. 

"Yeah, we'll have loads of picnics like we used to. But we should really start packing dad". 

We never got to the door that remained closed next to the lounge. We just went to the car and started bringing in all the boxes and suitcases. We didn't have much but dad said anything we wanted we could get here and uncle Jerry would help. So with one final box, we locked the car and re-entered the house. "Okay darling you're much more efficient with this type of thing. What's the plan?", dad looked to me. "Oh, I guess we could each do our own rooms last and start with the kitchen, move to the lounge and then head up?", dad gave me a thumbs up and took the kitchen labeled box. 

This is it, our new home, our new chapter. 

...