My Dear Deadly Husband

Chapter 4

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"Here we are, home sweet home," Rose's dad said. 

What her mom and Rose were staring at was the two-storey flat of a L-shaped building in the furthest corner of the town. The roads were a little cracked and weeds and other plants were growing out from them. The railing along the edge of the second floor appeared red from all the rust corroding off of it. The roof shook violently with the slightest breath of wind. 

"This is fine," she said aloud, mostly to herself. 

They continued to stand there, staring at the new building in front of them. Her parents, especially her mom, looked a little surprised but she didn't blame them. The change happened so quickly. 

Rose sighed and quickly decided to take initiative by abruptly pulling the handle from her suitcase and huffed. She immediately started heading into the direction of their new home on the second floor next to the stairs.

She quietly pushed the creaky door that had a makeshift peephole and observed the inside with a tense face.

It was definitely a fairly ordinary motel. The stuffy room and heavy  scent of lingering sweat just screamed 'summer family road trip'. There were two beds lined with plain navy cotton linen and the walls were covered with those vintage seamless patterns one would see on a 90's television show.

Directly in front of beds was a small oak table with a small T.V on top. The T.V. remote had piled on a thick layer of dust and oil, and the numbers on all the buttons were almost completely faded. 

On the other side of the room was the bathroom that seemed to have never seen grout cleaner before. The tiles had faded to a pale yellow and the sink and toilet seat were chipped. The bathroom mirror has permanent dry water marks all over it and rust was creeping from in the corners. And was that a hairball in the drain?

"It's not so bad," her dad said while placing their leftover belongings on the bed. 

"Yeah, it's not. We can just think of this as a road trip like old times."

Rose smirked at her dad and he gave a sheepish smile in return. They both quietly started to unpack their things when they suddenly heard her mom scream. They quickly whipped their heads in her direction and looked at each other wide-eyed before running over to the bathroom where her shriek had echoed. 

"Mom!" she yelled.

"What's wrong?" her dad yelled exasperatedly. 

She flew in after him to see the trouble, expecting to see some mugger coming through the window or a druggie lying in the bathtub. Instead, they found her on top of the toilet seat nearly in tears, screaming and pointing towards the corner of the bathroom.

"What, what?" her dad repeatedly. 

"The cockroach! The cockroach! Don't you see it?" she yelped frustratingly.

Rose' mind suddenly went blank and she sighed. The rush of adrenaline had wavered off into the air like an unsatisfactory anti-climatic ending to a story. Both Rose and her dad glanced at each other tiredly.

"Goodness gracious, woman," he sighed, "It's just a cockroach."

Her mom suddenly looked at him offended. "Just a cockroach?"

'Uh oh, here we go again,' she thought.

"Do you know how dirty those things are?" she started, "They could carry a disease right to your doorstep. Deadly ones! And they're the living example of monstrous creatures who can walk without their heads, laying their filthy eggs in your food and trash," she muttered.