Chapter 5: Home At Last
Another three days passed for Meg as she and the others continued traveling cross country in the truck. She was still quiet, though, although Hank and the others had been very nice to her. It was still difficult for her to adjust.
By the morning of the third day, Hank drove into Texas. Meg grew more excited, as she knew she was getting closer to her new home. She wondered what it would look like. Later that evening, Hank drove into a little alley and then drove up to a garage with two doors. He parked the truck in the driveway. "We're here!" Hank announced.
Meg got out of the truck and looked at the house. It was a one-level house that was painted beige. It had a brown roof. Everything looked so neat and well-kept. She gazed at the well manicured lawn and the porch with the ceramic table. There was a sliding glass door to go inside.
"Sir, you've done a real nice job of keeping your house fixed up," Meg said.
Hank laughed, "Thank you, Meg. I'll admit, I am pretty keen with my lawn mower."
"My old dad couldn't use a lawn mower if his life depended on it. My old brother, Chris, always had to do it for him," Meg said.
"What do you think he did before Chris came around?" Hank wondered.
Meg thought. "I don't know," she said honestly.
Hank walked up to the sliding glass door and opened it for everyone to get inside the house. "Meg, we'll show you around the house so you can get familiar with it," Hank said. Meg nodded, and then, everyone led Meg on a tour around the house. When the tour was through, they returned to the living room. Suddenly, an old brown dog walked into the room. It looked old and decrepit. It walked slowly and limped along.
"Who's that?" Meg asked.
"Oh, this is our dog, Ladybird," Hank said.
"My family had a talking dog," Meg said.
Hank and Peggy looked at each other with a puzzled reaction. Peggy then looked at the clock. "Hank, it's getting late, we'd better get to bed. Come on, Meg, we'll show you to your room." Meg was excited. She couldn't wait to see what her room looked like. Hank led Meg to the hallway, where he pulled down the string that opened the attic door. The stairs fell down, and Hank led Meg upstairs.
At first, she saw a small, dark room with a bunch of boxes. The room didn't look very comfortable, and Meg feared that Hank was about to start treating her badly. But then she saw a partition with a door on it. Hank opened the door and Meg went inside.
Meg loved her new room. It was painted pink and white and looked very well furnished. "Thanks," Meg smiled, "you shouldn't have gone to all this trouble for me."
"I wanted to, Meg," Hank said. "You deserve it."
Meg went downstairs and got her bags and started to unpack. Then, Hank went downstairs and shut the attic door. Meg got in her new bed and fell asleep.
