The Alternate Extras of Halesowen

Michael's Move

It had been an interesting few weeks, knowing that he was moving further north. There was no chance of travel to the college from where he'd be, but at the same time he hadn't felt like slacking off completely. He had been with his parents when they had looked round the house, and it had looked great. Michael had been ready to explore the new town he'd be living in.

Just one problem.

Complications had arose for the house. As they had been travelling, a fire had broke out on the street, so they couldn't move in at present. They had been told of this, but had been closer to the new home than their old, so were currently stuck in a bed and breakfast with the vans full of everything they owned parked outside. No other arrangements could be made, and while he had ventured to the road where they would be living, it was closed at both ends. A fire engine had been attacking the last of the fire, and it looked as though their house hadn't been touched.

He had taken a walk back to the bed and breakfast via a road where most of the shops were, and looked in a few. They were supplied with a variety of places that ran good deals, and they even had a comic book store – even if it was small. He'd be happy when everything was normal again, but at the minute it couldn't distract him.

Back at the bed and breakfast, he pulled out his phone and started messaging friends. Talking would help, he hoped. He sent out roughly the same thing to everyone, but as time trickled on he hadn't heard anything back. Instead he was searching the web and listening to music.

Even that wasn't helping. Time was running slowly. It was the tension, he realised, of waiting for news. It was the tension of hoping that nothing else bad would happen.

A knock on his door made him look up. Pausing his music and sliding his phone back into a pocket, Michael slowly lifted himself off the bed and opened the door. His dad waited outside, with the expression of someone killing time. Michael knew he must have the same look.

"It's time to go down for some food, I guess," his dad said.

The place usually didn't serve dinner to guests, but it had already been explained to them the predicament that the family was in. As such, the owner had given a time for them to head down for food. They'd also arranged the two rooms for them free of charge.

The chicken pie would have been good, had the landlord of the house not visited them during the meal to explain a few things.

"The fire has now been fully controlled," she said, "but testing of the structural integrity of the building is now taking place. Unfortunately, that means you won't be able to move in tomorrow either. If everything is fine, we should have you moving in the day after. If everything isn't... I don't know. I'm not sure how long we realistically can keep you here. I'll be trying things, just to have a back-up, but..."

She didn't finish that sentence, making Michael feel possibly worse. With his food finished, he headed to his room, thinking things over. Lying on the bed, he stared up at the ceiling, wondering about what state the house would be in when they were finally able to move in.

Absently he pulled out his phone again, and surprise at messages knocked him out of his stupor.

"Sorry to hear about that," one of those messages read. "Hope it all gets sorted soon."

"That's real bad news," another read. "If you need to come down here and get away for a while, I'm down in the town tomorrow."

He felt lighter at that, knowing he could escape his troubles for a while. There was no escaping during the night, though. Having been sending messages for a while, he had arranged for the others from college to meet him in Halesowen, had looked at times for the train – which thankfully would be an hour's journey – and how far of a walk it was to the nearest station, and had settled down happy. But the thought of what was going to happen over the next few days kept intruding, and his sleep was full of dreams about stolen items, being on the streets, and trapped within a house that had fallen in on itself.

When he awoke next morning, he wasn't feeling the best, but the breakfast he had made him feel a bit better. Then it took roughly half an hour to get to the station. Tickets bought, it was two minutes before the train arrived. It felt longer to him, as he couldn't help but think on what was to happen. He was unsmiling throughout the journey, and eventually arrived at the town via bus near enough 11:00.

Once they were all together, they took a walk to a restaurant, talking all the while. Michael found himself enjoying the day, and the food, a lot more away from where the problems were. Out of the restaurant the group headed to a local park area. They sat on the grass and looked out at the lake, continuing their talk. After a while, they headed for the path, and started walking through the woods. The path followed the river, and the river had a few waterfalls among its route. It was a lovely sight to look at.

At one of these waterfalls, the group stopped at a notification sound from Michael's phone. When he looked at the message, he felt a mixture of relief and disappointment.

"What news?" Vector asked. The others looked expectant.

"Everything about the house is in order," Michael stated. "We can move in."
"That's great," the others started saying, but Vector could see what the others couldn't.

"And the bad news?" he asked.

"One of the vans has been broken into. Half of the stuff was taken from it, including a few of my collector items."

He had slowly collected a sizeable collection of some rare merchandise, and to hear that it had been stolen from the van hurt a lot. He knew it was pointless to complain about security, but did so anyway, as well as looking for people to blame. He should have been focusing on the good, but the haze from the bad news had overshadowed the good.

Vector and the others joined in the discussion of security, and Michael found it helped a lot to hear them also pointing out flaws in that security. He'd be asking when he got back exactly what happened, but as he had said, talking helped – and he was feeling less put out by the bad news and starting to look forward to finally moving in. Already plans were being made for them to visit him when the family had settled.

The group had now moved out of the park and back onto the roads, where they waited with him for the bus he had to catch. They were still talking when he saw it arrive, and they quickly ended the conversation and rushed some goodbyes.

Back on the train, Michael was happier during the return trip, knowing that the next day he would be making that house his home.