The House

Part One

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, the birds were chirping. The smell of coffee was in the air, the sound of paper was rattling.  Lizzy walked down the hall into the kitchen to see her mom sitting at the kitchen table looking at the for rent ads.

"Good morning mom" Lizzy said bending over kissing her mom's head.  "Good morning sweetheart, coffee is almost ready if you wanna cup." She said still skimming the newspaper ads. 

Lizzy pulled out a coffee cup from the cupboard and set it on the counter.  "Any luck yet?" she said pouring the got black liquid into the cup.  "I found two so far that are in the price range for us. Three bedrooms, two baths nice areas" her mom said taking her reading glasses off and rubbing her red eyes.

They were needing to find a new place soon, the apartment they had rented was about to go under and the landlord wouldn't help them find a temporary place until they could get on their feet again.

The apartment was small Lizzy and her little sister shared a room together and their mom slept in the living room on the couch.  After her parents had split up her dad kicked them out and kept the house and the cars and everything. 

Such a wonderful father right? Well they were strong and have lived this long without him helping them.  They don't need him now, he's already in the process of getting married to his secretary. Who is 20 years younger then the asshole.

----------

Lizzy was the oldest of the two kids, she took on the responsibility of watching her sister while her mom had picked up two jobs to support all three of them. 

She loved her little sister Amanda and she respected her mom more then anything.  She saw how tired and over worked she was, but she never complained how tired she was or that she didn't have a bed to sleep on.

She wanted to be as strong as her mother, she was just a freshman in high school but her goal was to find a job and help take care of them both when she could.

Her mom had gotten dressed and was out the front door headed to her main job as a key holder for a clothing store.  She worked part time as a cashier at the local Wal-Mart. 

Lizzy saw the note pad that her mom had written the numbers and addresses for the available places she found in the newspaper.  So she decided to call the numbers and see what she could do to help.

The first one went to voicemail, the second number someone picked up on the third ring.  "Yes, hi we saw you had a ad in the newspaper about a 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment available" Lizzy said looking at the notepad.

"Oh yes, we do have a ad in the newspaper about the apartment for rent.   Would you like to come and look at it?" the lady asked.  "I would love to, but my mom is at work right now she won't be home until late tonight. Can we schedule a time for us to come by and check it out?" Lizzy said.

"Sure sweetie, when is your mom's next day off?" Lizzy looked at the calender on the fridge and saw her mom was off that Tuesday.  "She will be off on Tuesday if that would be good for you say around 12 or 1pm?" Lizzy wrote message on the notepad by the address SCHEDULED A TIME TO CHECK PLACE OUT ON TUESDAY 12-1pm

"That sounds perfect darling, hope to meet your mom soon. Have a blessed day" the last lady said and disconnected.  She laid the notepad back on the table and went to wake Amanda up.

The rest of the day the girls just relaxed and watched tv or read a book.  Time had flown by quickly, the phone rang in the kitchen. Lizzy reached the phone by the fourth ring.  "Hello, Williams residence..."

Lizzy heard someone breathing deeply on the other end.  "Hello, I hear you breathing who is this?" she said out of breathe.  The call disconnected, she hung the phone up and went back to the living room again.