PERFECT FOR YOU: Secrets Unveiled(on hold)

CHAPTER 9: New house

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Eli

Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five.  .  .

I counted the prisms of the chandelier as I laid on my new queen sized bed, my hands caressing its new and dark green silky duvet. I was enjoying a brief rest from taking off the covers, changing the curtains, and wiping off dusts. My new room was of a generous size. It had three large windows that gave me a beautiful view of the backyard's garden and the woods. The walls were a vibrant burnt sienna that accentuated the new floor length, cream-colored curtains. 

"Eli! Come help me with this," Emi called to me.

I stood up from my bed and walked to the halls. I skipped down the old but sturdy staircases and found Emi struggling to move an old side table in the drawing room. We got to our new house at around 4:30 after class just in time for the moving truck to arrive. I walked around the boxes scattered on the floor and helped Emi place the furniture properly. It must have been made of a special kind of wood because it was certainly heavy.

She smiled. "Thanks."

I scanned my eyes around our new house. It was an old Victorian mansion with one master bedroom and three guest rooms. Although compared to other houses in the town, ours was the smallest. But for only two people, it was big enough. The inside was beautiful. The wooden parts of the walls still looked freshly varnished and its upholstery fabrics with paisley patterns were in mint condition. Even the chimney was cleaner than I had anticipated. The vintage carpet Emi bought looked perfect on the wooden floor.

A small elegant chandelier hung just above the couch that was placed right in front of the fireplace. It seemed that the previous owner left most of her furnitures behind. From couches to tables and everything.

I looked through the boxes and picked up the one with a mark that said 'Books'. I carried it as I walked out of the drawing room. I took a glance at Emi who was busy carefully taking off the white cloths covering the rest of the furnitures. I entered the study located on the next hall. The study was quiet small with a smaller fireplace and one large window. I noticed that even the bookshelves were full. From a complete set of encyclopedias, Atlases, Dictionaries to different sorts of novels, everything was there.

I settled the box on the floor and started to take out the books and put them on the center table for now. I walked to the shelves and gently ran my fingers on the books' spines. My hand halted when my eyes landed on one particular book and took it out. The Odyssey by Homer. I felt a sense of nostalgia as my eyes examined the awfully familiar volume. It was one of my favorites.

The struggles of Odysseus in order to return home to his people, to his family, and to his rightful place. I have always admired how his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus never lost faith that he would one day return. And how they did everything they could to protect the throne until he came back even after ten years. My hands flipped the pages it knew so well and opened it to the part where Odysseus was expressing his disposition to go home no matter the dangers he may come to encounter.

"Nevertheless I long—I pine, all my days—
to travel home and see the dawn of my return," I read. "And if a god will wreck me yet again on the wine-dark sea, I can bear that too, with a spirit tempered to endure. Much have I suffered, labored long and hard by now in the waves and wars. Add this to the total—bring the trial on!"

My eyes lingered at the book but my mind was at a distance. I wondered how it must have felt like for Odysseus to come home and find out that he was never once forgotten, that his family stayed with him even when he was away for such a long time. I wondered how he felt when he found out that he never lost a home.