The first Sara had to admit the street the house was nice. Trees on the sides, each house had a garden in the front.
"We're here." Greg stopped in front of a quite new vanilla colored house.
"Balcony?"
"Yes." Greg smiled. He didn't tell Sara everything about the house, he had left some surprises for her.
After they rang the door a man, more in Greg's age than in Saras, opened the door. He was tall, six foot five, his skin was light brown, reminded Sara of milk chocolate so did his eyes and his hair was middle brown and touched his shoulders.
"Hey, I'm Keith." He gave Sara his hand.
"Sara."
"Greg said you're not sure if you want to share with us, lets' see if we can help you to make a decision." He stepped aside and let them in. On the left side of the door was a wide staircase and on the right side a lot of hooks. A shelf for shoes and a little sideboard made the entrance area complete.
"I show you the rooms upstairs first." Keith walked up the stairs, Sara and Greg behind him. There was a lot of light and a big light bulb for the evenings.
"We've got four bedrooms here and two bathrooms. My room is on right Greg's would be next to it. The bathroom is between the rooms, same for the two bedrooms here." Keith opened a door and a big, open room appeared.
"You can have this room or the other one, that's up to you."
"A balcony." Sara noticed the balcony immediately. She had always wanted a balcony to sit there in the evening sun or in the morning sun and have some dinner or breakfast. This one faced the street, gave her evening light. The room was about five by five yards, had a parquet floor, white walls and the ceiling was high. The big window and the balcony door gave the room a lot of sunlight.
On the left was the door to the bathroom. The bathroom was three by five and beside a shower, a toilet and a sink there was a bathtub. Luxury.
"I love tubes." Sara sighed.
"Who doesn't?" Keith grinned. "Have a look to the other room, it's basically the same, same size, just the look out of the window is different."
Sara opened the door and found herself in a room like the first one. Again a balcony and when she stepped out she had a look on the garden.
"Wow." The trees around the estate were high enough to give her some privacy on the balcony. The garden itself was a lot of lawn, a little vegetable patch and some chairs and a table around a BBQ area.
"It looks like you've got garden parties."
"On the weekend, yes. But this is a quiet family area, nobody has parties longer than midnight. Not without permission of the neighbors. And because I'm working night times I barely use the BBQ area at night. More for a lunch in summer. Because the house is between the area and the evening sun, it's a good place for lunch. You catch the morning sun up here, but the garden is mostly in the shade."
"A coffee on the balcony in the morning sun." Sara could see herself ending her workdays that way. After that falling asleep by the songs of the birds, sitting in front of her window.
"How are the neighbors?"
"They're nice. On the left side is a family with two toddlers, on the right side an elderly couple without children. Well, their children live at their own places, the grandchild is sometimes here."
"I'm asking because mine fight the whole day or listen to loud music and I can't get any sleep what makes night shifts difficult."
"Most people work at day time, so it's quiet. You've got a few kids around, but they're not loud. I come home around two or three in the morning, I can't complain about loud neighbors and my sleep is very light. Once a week the garbage collection is the loudest thing that happens here. Maybe a football game in summer when some neighbors watch it together outside and have a BBQ or a few drinks. But during the week? Nothing disturbs you here."
"Sounds good and I have to say I love the balcony."
"So do I. My room is to the garden too. Wanna see more of the house?"
"I certainly do." Maybe moving in with other people wasn't such a bad idea. Of course a house of her own would be better but she'd never be able to pay for a house like this. Not even an apartment in this area.
Greg smiled. He knew it. Sara would love the house. Greg himself fell in love with it as soon as he had seen it.
"We've got a guest toilette down here." Keith pointed to a door next to the front door. "Here's the kitchen." A big kitchen, fully equipped, with huge windows to the front, a big wooden table with eight chairs all in bright wood. Nothing compared to Sara's little dark kitchenette. This was a place even she might enjoy cooking.
"Did Greg tell you what my job is?"
"No." He mentioned Keith was working at night times that was all Sara knew.
"I'm a musician. I've got five nights a week a gig a nightclub on the strip. This is my music room." He opened a door. A few guitars, a keyboard, piano, drums, bass guitar and a little studio appeared.
"Before you get a heart attack, this room is soundproofed, when I play my music here, you don't here that in any other room. Means, the guys and me are in this room and you've got a quiet house."
"Until you get out of the room, drunken, singing dirty songs in the hallway." Sara laughed.
"There's a rule, a house rule, I don't have many, but this is one of them: alcohol is in the house only permitted in the kitchen and the limit is a bottle of wine. My parents were alcoholic, so is my sister. A bottle of wine for cooking or served with the dinner. Any other alcohol, there's a fridge outside. I don't mind beers with the BBQ, I do drink beer, but I don't want that stuff in the house. If you want to drink a beer in your room, I don't care, but not down here."
"No problem for me." She could understand him. "What are the other rules?"
"There are five shelves in the fridge, the freezer and the cupboard. Everybody has their own shelf, one is for the community. Nobody touches the stuff of the others. You don't enter rooms without knocking, you do whatever you want to do in the room as long as none of the other members in the house get disturbed. Means, if you want to smoke, do it in the garden or on your balcony with a closed door, if you feel like loud music, you're free to use my music room when I'm not in or use earphones. You keep your room and your bathroom clean, the rest of the house…the last time I had somebody in the house we cleaned it ourselves, but after a few weeks people got sloppy, so we ordered a cleaner twice a week. We can clean it ourselves, I don't mind, but if you guys don't feel like sweeping, dusting and vacuuming, we'll go on with the cleaner. She's in two hours on Mondays and Fridays."
"Cleaner." Greg said.
"Cleaner is fine with me. As long as she won't wake us up twice a week vacuuming."
"The only carpet is in the living room, the rest is floor. She's not really making noise and the last weeks she was here in the afternoon."
"Oh, well, who cares then?" By that time Sara and Greg had their sleep.
"Just telling you. The living room." Keith opened a double door. A huge couch, that offers space for almost a dozen people, two armchairs, a table and an electronic front caught Sara's eyes.
"You're free to watch TV here as much as you like, it's a common room. The only thing is, once a month the guys and me watch football here. Usually the first weekend a month they're here, so we'll be sitting in here or – if the weather is good – we'll take the stuff outside and watch in the garden. And around Christmas there'll be a big tree with a lot of gifts. I love gifts, so everything I see and like from the November, I wrap and put it under the tree. My mother shook her head the first times because I lived here alone and there were so many gift boxes. I had bought a few cheap book and DVD collection at Ebay and wrapped every book and DVD separately. The same with Christmas letters. I wrap them and open them on Christmas day."
"You'll have fun with our Christmas hater Sara." Greg laughed.
"Do you have this awful Santa Claus and reindeer that sing the whole time?" Sara got a headache by only thinking of this stuff.
"No, I don't. I'm into the old fashioned Christmas. If somebody wants something singing, I'm more than happy to play a Christmas song on the piano and everybody can sing. I'm with you this singing shit is annoying. So yes, a lot of decoration but no, nothing with sound."
"That's good."
"It's supposed to be a feast of peace and thoughts."
"Yes."
"Let's see the garden." Keith opened the door to the garden. A little area around the glass door was paved, so was the area around the BBQ, the rest was lawn.
"The fridge is in the little shed over there, the key to it is in the kitchen, next to the door. There are also chairs inside. A hammock is between the trees over there."
"Oh yeah." Sara smiled. She loved hammocks.
"It's big enough for two or you enjoy it alone with a book. Nothing better than on a sunny afternoon falling asleep in a hammock. Feels like holiday."
"I can imagine."
"Sara, I'm more than happy to share the hammock with you." Greg offered.
"You're dreaming, Greggo."
"I am."
"Wake up."
"Later, five more minutes."
"That's basically the house and the garden, there are some additional features you'll find for yourself. Feel free to walk around, have a look around and make your decision. Can I offer you some coffee?"
"Yeah."
"Yes, thanks." Sara took a look around. The vegetable patch – secured under a huge glass wall - was full with carrot, salad, potatoes, strawberries and herbs. A raspberry bush and the hammock were knotted to two cherry trees. Keith loved not only music, he must have a soft spot for gardening too. How he managed to have vegetables at the end of November was a mystery to her.
"Greg said you drink it black."
"Oh, thanks." She hadn't heard him coming back.
"You love gardening?"
"It's relaxing, yes. And with the music I've got a loud hobby and job, I need something quiet. I'm thinking to make the vegetable patch bigger, to get a few more fruit trees. You know, a greenhouse, that way there'll be fresh vegetable the whole year around. Nothing better than fresh vegetables and fruits out of your own garden."
"There's something better: this coffee."
"Like it? I've got a coffee machine from Italy and Italian coffee. Fresh brewed. I don't like the instant shit, having instant coffee is like having a date with your dream woman and your most hated teacher out of school shows up."
"Interesting image."
Out of the corner of her eyes Sara saw a black shadow rising.
"You've got a dog."
"Are you scared of them?"
"No." Sara bent down. She didn't know much about dogs but she knew what breed this one was. The black and white hair, the intelligent and interested eyes.
"You're a Border collie, aren't you?"
"Yes she is. Her name is Luna."
"You're a beautiful woman. Luna." The dog came to Sara and sniffed her hand.
"She makes sure I get my exercise every day. We go out of town for an hour or two three times a week, there's a training area for dogs and she loves doing all kind of tricks. And if there's not enough time for that I take her out with my bike. That's the best way to get her some exercise, isn't it, Luna? You love the bike."
The dog barked once.
"Smart girl. They understand up to 250 words, really smart animals."
"Animals are usually smarter than human."
"True."
Sara petted the dog, Luna let herself drop on the side and offered Sara her belly. Softly she caressed the hair.
"Looks like you found a friend."
"Yeah, a really kind one."
"She isn't that kind all the time. If I wouldn't be here and you appeared in the garden alone, she had attacked you. She's here for protection and she's good. People are only allowed when she knows they live her or when they arrive her with somebody who lives here."
"Means I don't have to lock the door."
"If you forget it, whoever wants to come in has to deal with Luna first. She doesn't growl, she bites quietly." Keith had found one night a teenager who had tried to break in and Luna had stopped him. His arms and legs needed stitches and it was good that Keith was at home to stop Luna.
"Smart girl." Sara put the empty cup of coffee in the grass and had both hands for Luna. A balcony over a lovely garden, a dog and so much space and all the silence. This place was paradise.
"You know I can't say no to this place? How could I with a big room with a balcony, a garden, quiet neighborhood and a dog? I just hope I can manage to live in a house with other people. The last time I shared my apartment is a long time ago."
"You've got your room where nobody will annoy you and we're all working, we'll be out of the house. It's not like we're all unemployed."
"What a horror."
"That means you'll move in?"
"Who'll get the other room? The one next to my bathroom?"
"Well, you have to share the bathroom, it's your decision. I'd prefer a woman, to have it fair but if you prefer a man, it's alright too."
"I think I prefer to share a bathroom with a woman."
"Thought so. In that case, welcome to the house, new housemate."
"Thanks. Hey Luna, wanna move in next to me?"
"She's got her own house here in the garden and a thick blanket in the living room."
"What a shame. When can I move in?"
"Greg's coming over at the weekend, he gave his landlord notice he wants to move out ASAP. The room is free so whenever you feel you can move in."
"I wrote my landlord weeks ago I want to move out to the end of the month. For a while I thought about staying in a casino, you get a room from 20 bucks per night in the week, the weekend is more expensive but I can work there and sleep in the lab; for a few days. This is much better of course. I think, I'll start moving in tomorrow or tonight, depends on the work."
"No problem. Talk to Greg, you guys can share a van and save some money. He told you the price?"
"Yes. You're sure that's all you ask for? I mean, it's a big room, it's a big house, it's a good area."
"It's my house, I look for housemates because living alone is boring. It's not about the money, it's about the company. I know Greg and me get along great, we know each other since five years and I think we two will also go along good. He told me a few things about you, the boy had a crush on you."
"I know." Sara sighed.
"He's over that, don't worry. He likes you, can't blame him for that. Lets make his day and tell him he you join him here. He'll be delighted to meet you every now and then in underwear in the kitchen."
"In his dreams."
"I think in his dreams you're in his room."
"You're right on that." Sara laughed. She'd move in with Greg and Keith. She'd share a house with two men, if that was a good idea, she'd find out. It sounded interesting for a start and it looked like she'd finally get some sleep again.