Chapter 11: The Room

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July spent the next hour re-exploring the house, carefully examining each room. She even ventured into the basement, which was cool and dark. It had exercise equipment and weights all over the room and the only door opened to reveal a full bathroom.

She still hadn't gone into her room or her parents'. She couldn't do their room yet. Hesitating outside her old room, she stalled for a moment, not quite sure what she would find. The door didn't hold any clues for her except a wooden plaque that said: 'July's Room'. It was painted white and had firework designs on it, ever the representation of her name.

Slowly she opened the door and walked in. The room was painted a sea-green color. The carpet was a tan, like the color of sand, and the white canopy bed stood out against the colors. Everything was done as if she had done them recently.

I guess my style hasn't changed, she noted with a wry smile.

Other than the bed there was a desk, a bookshelf and on a wall was some shelves. The shelves held small figures, some were glass and some were painted. There were fishes, dolphins, penguins, and any other sea related creature. On the floor down below it was a chest, and opening it up she found some toys. Nothing had been moved at all.

In the middles of the left wall was a door, presumably to the bathroom. On the right wall was a large window alcove that faced west and overlooked the backyard. There were bamboo nightstand on each side on the bed; one had a lamp and a clock and the other had a phone. On the wall next to the door was a dresser and adjacent to it was a closet. I opened the dresser to find clothes for an eight year old girl. She opened the closet to reveal a small walk in closet with even more clothes and shoes. It was slightly amusing that all her old clothes were there, exactly were they had been left ten years ago. She closed both of them laughing lightly.

July turned back to the last thing she had left to explore, the desk. On it was a picture of her parents and her at the beach. Sitting at the desk, she opened the drawers to find coloring books, drawing paper, pencils, crayons, markers, and other craft stuff. She opened the top side drawer to find a folder. Taking the folder out, she opened it to find drawing she had done. They seemed so familiar, like she knew each line on the paper but at the same time the memory of drawing it was blurry and foggy.

There were a couple other drawings of the beach and some were just random doodles. They were rather good for an eight year old. One drawing caught her eye. It was a drawing of a black Dodge Charger. It wasn't the greatest drawing ever but she could still recognize the car.

Okay, this keeps getting weirder and weirder. First the same style, then the drawings, and now the car. Then again it does make sense since it was me.

Her mind was at conflict. Was this all her or not? Everything seemed like a different person but not. The room already seemed like home. True, she had only been in it for a little while but it already felt like it was hers, like she always had this room, had grown up in it.

Walking down stairs, July headed out to her car to grab her bag. Walking back to her room, she came into conflict on what to do with her old clothes. They weren't going to do her any good. Remembering there were some extra boxes in the attic, she went up and grabbed a couple. After packing all the old clothes and toys, she found a pen, labeled the boxes, and stacked them in an empty corner of the attic.

There was still so much to look through. She still needed to find the courage to go through her parents' room and through their boxes upstairs; but first she had to get settled in. Going through the motions of putting all her clothes into the dresser, she concluded she needed to go shopping, not her complete idea of fun but it was a needed task. When she had emptied out all of her drawers, not everything fit and now looking at what she had with her, she was in desperate need of some more clothes.

I wonder how mom and dad are? No, they are Mary and Sam and why should you care, they lied to you.

Her mind was at war with itself. Half of her wanted to turn around and run back to them and the other half wasn't having any of it. She was split. She wanted to know if Sam was getting behind because she wasn't there to help in the shop and how things were going.

July sat on her bed staring at the phone. She chewed on a nail debating if she should or shouldn't. Deciding she was too wound up to do it, and forwent the phone call for a bath.

She walked into to the bathroom, stopping just inside the door. It had a shower stall and a large tub. Checking next to the bath, under the sink, and in the cupboard, she found the place devoid of anything but towels. She was going to have to go out and buy some shampoo and whatnot.

July locked the house and headed to her car.

Hopefully I won't get lost. I'll just drive down the road and see if I see anything, she reasoned, reversing out of the driveway.

Once she got down the hill, she spotted a store down the road called Toretto's. It looked like it only had groceries but she hoped that maybe the person would be able to tell her where she could go. It couldn't hurt, right?

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tbc…