When Time Stands Still

Chapter 1

We turn off the motorway and pass a few small villages. I've no idea where the new house is and neither does Mum really. She bought it because it's new and doesn't need anything done to it...and because it was cheap.

Sat Nav tells her to take the next left but that can't be right. There's nothing down there, just miles and miles of fields. "This way?" I question.

"Apparently so. It's a little out of the way, peaceful."

Great.

I kick my legs up on the dashboard and fight the urge to whine again. There's no point. They didn't listen to me when Dad moved out, when they started divorce proceedings or when they put our perfect house up for sale. I got no say in the biggest change our family has ever been through.

My friends are over sixty miles away. All I have now is mum. And all she has is me. We keep on the road and it's not long before I see it. Ahead is a building site. In the far distance, there is a handful of large houses but before that there's just dirt.

One of them is ours.

My stomach clenches.

I want to go back home.

"Are you sure we have the right place?" I ask as we pass massive slabs of concrete on either side of the desolate road.

I lick my dry lips, instantly having a bad feeling. It's so far away from anything and too peaceful. Light grey clouds clump together over the site.

Watching Mum out of the corner of my eye, I see that she's not at all concerned about this. The place looks like somewhere you'd lock the car doors on the way through.

"This is it. Ours is the one on the end."

I follow the road until I reach the end and see our brand new house. "But shouldn't new developments look...new?" The yellow brick houses are bright but the surroundings are dark and depressing and give me the creeps. It looks abandoned. There are no tools, machinery or building materials. It is definitely abandoned.

No one told her this?

Why?

"Why's it been left?" I ask, hoping she has a really good explanation.

Her forehead creases. "It must be the economy. Perhaps they can't afford to finish it yet. Still, at least we'll get to see how it develops in the future."

The economy is to blame for my parents' divorce and the reason we had to move here. Dad took a pay cut; they argued and then they divorced. The house sale barely left enough for them to put a deposit on another place and with Mum not earning a lot she couldn't get a big enough mortgage so we've had to go where we could get a house.

"I'm starting to think there's a reason this house was so cheap."

It's easy to blame the economy but it can't be responsible for every bad thing that happens.

"Enough, Sienna. People won't pay a premium for a house on a stalled development. We got a good deal, when it picks up again we'll be glad we bought when we did."

She turns into the only road that actually has houses on it.

The other ones lead to dead ends.

Fitting.

We pass nine other complete houses on the way to ours but only two looks lived in. I swallow a rush of anxiety and force a smile for Mum's sake. She's been through enough. We can make this work.

Mum pulls into our drive and we get out. The estate is packed full of our things and the divided furniture will be here tomorrow.

I still want to go home.