p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Dom has been on his own since he was sixteen. That was when Brendol had taken him aside in the renovated garage that served as his father's study and demanded that Dom join the army. Even though the room had not housed a car in over twenty years, the exhaust smell was saturated into the walls. It mixed with the smell of books, hid within the rugs beneath Brendol's coffee-colored leather easy chair, and lurked behind glass cases of medals and war memorabilia and collectibles. Dom hated stepping into the room, always a place of punishments or ultimatums. "Meet me in my study," were words that guaranteed that Dom would spend the rest of the day (at least) miserable. This particular day, Dom had predicted far in advance. Despite his perfect grades, participation on the football team, and weekly attendance at the same Lutheran church that had once seen his father and stepmother's wedding, Brendol often complained of his son's lack of discipline. What he could be finding fault with, anyone could guess. At school, he was often pointed to by mothers as the paragon of educational virtue. Brendol failed to see any of the accomplishments that others saw. To him, his son was just plain not good enough. Becoming a soldier would be the only way that would straighten the boy out and he often said so over awkward dinners where his bulldozed stepmother would sit quietly only offering up agreements lest she be seen as second-guessing her husband./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"So, when Dom stepped into the room where his father spent most of his home time, he believed he was prepared for the speech that Brendol would give. And it did go just as Dom expected, complete with admonishments for how his son lacked adequate discipline and a proper vision of the future. Life, according to Brendol was not just something that happened, not if you wanted to have a life worth living. It required strategy, effort, and fortitude. Did Domnhall think that everything Brendol had in his life had just happened out of coincidence? No, it was Brendol himself who had taken the reins of his life. Then, the expected ultimatum had come. Dom would put his education on hold and join the military, just as his father and his grandfather had done./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Dom had looked around at the pictures of fighter planes, the paddle on the wall that had reddened his backside when he'd misbehaved as a child, and most importantly, the photograph of their family with its patriarch and the two subdued other members - a wife too disenfranchised to have any effect on her own life and a son too terrified and beaten down to do anything but be a good picture really shows a self-important jailer and two prisoners. In the army, it would be more of the same, more people telling him what to do and then telling him he hadn't done it good enough, to do it over. An entire institution of men like his father who never saw any of the good in anyone but themselves and who bullied everyone weaker than themselves./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Though the ultimatum was expected, Dom's response was not. He surprised them both that day when the words, "I believe I'll stay in school," came forth from his lips as though he was opting for a certain type of tea and not being brazenly defiant for the first time in his life./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"After his father's initial surprise, he waved off Dom's words, perhaps not wanting to accept what was happening in this petrol-scented room. "Bah, plenty of time to return to classes later. Those sorts of things can wait. And you'll be better equipped to handle them once you've gotten yourself some discipline, some life experience."/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Dom had locked eyes with his father, similar green eyes unwavering on both sides. "I'm not joining up."/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The fall out was tremendous and by the time the sun had set, Dom had found himself, bags in hand, on the wrong side of a door with no key. He'd never before nor since been more terrified, more utterly lost. Dom had felt himself weak even then, but he hadn't acquiesced to his father, not even then when everything in the world had been taken from him and his life was as bleak as the dark clouds that poured on his hair, clothes, and luggage. Instead of knocking on the door like the scared puppy he felt like, he had taken his money, a trifle for a man without a home, and put himself up in a hostel for the night. He'd cried in a room with foreigners making sightseeing plans. He'd cried for how cold and lost and miserable he was, but he'd also cried because it was finally over. The manipulation and the mistreatment were over. He was finally free of Brendol Hux for good and so he cried because he was scared and alone and happy./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"It's been nearly twenty years since he'd left home, but the sensation of being in a new country starting all over again has the memories of that day dancing about on the periphery of his brain. Dom looks up at his apartment building, luggage being set on the curb by the brusque taxi driver, and he feels extremely out of his element. He reminds himself that it's a new adventure, something to shake up the unimpressively linear path of his life then tries to quiet the voice underneath that that reminds him that he despises change and adventure./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""You good?" the driver asks after closing his trunk. It's nice of him to even ask. Dom has Millicent's carrier in his hand and that's the most important bit of his luggage, so with a quick look at the taxi as though he's going to be able to see anything he left behind in the backseat from outside the car, he replies, "Yes, thank you."/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"It's only two stories, the apartment, and he's on the bottom floor, so the door he's looking at, 138, is his. It's surreal. This whole venture has been. He sets Millicent outside and brings all the rest of the luggage to the door. The crime rate in Boston is actually better than that in London, by a not insignificant amount, but that doesn't mean that he wants to risk everything he now has by leaving it willy-nilly outside his flat… his apartment./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Dom carries Millicent across the threshold into their new home. He takes a deep inhale and is relieved when all that he's met with is new carpet smell and not cigarette smoke or cat piss. It's a loft-style flat, so he first encounters the hallway, where he stacks up the cat carrier, his suitcases, and two boxes. To his right are stairs. He notes that there is no railing, which is a little odd, but he's not a clumsy person so that should be fine. The left, the hallway proper, leads to the living room. He takes that path, seeing the kitchen on the left. The dining room is separated from the living room by a counter which could also be used for eating purposes. He didn't pack up a dining set to fly over the Pacific ocean, so this is probably where he'll be taking his meals. The living room is so large that Dom actually laughs. The one room is probably the entire size of his London flat which was, to be fair, a glorified closet. There's a sliding door which leads onto a small completely fenced patio. He sees evidence of past barbecues on the pavement. He does have a soft spot for grilled food, the flecks of char appealing to his taste buds. Perhaps once spring comes, he'll consider purchasing one. For now, though, he tracks back in some snow and dirt mixture onto the carpet and slides the door shut./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Upstairs, he takes a peek at the loo, mostly taken up by a shower. After the travel, it will feel immensely good to get underneath some hot water. The bedroom is perfect, not too big (though still far larger than his old one) and with one window that looks out onto a neighbor's backyard. He'd had the foresight to buy a cheap bed from that American giant, Walmart, and they'd offered installation for about a quarter of the price of the bed. He sits on it. It's quite serviceable for 150 pounds. The flat feels homier than he expected. When he'd seen that the place was over 100 square meters, he'd been worried that it would feel too palatial, like he was living in Gone With the Wind's Tara. But the floor plan seems poorly executed, smaller than the large number would indicate, and therefore it is cozier./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Home," he says. Then, because it's so unreal, he adds, "In America."/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"But, this is Millicent's place too and he lets her out of her carrier. She's hesitant to leave its safety. For however long the trip felt to him, it must have been ten times longer and a hundred times more terrifying. She does place one tentative orange paw outside the carrier and then another. She'll explore the place, probably find a hidey hole. Once she sees that no predator has murdered him, she'll come out and start running the place just as she did his London flat. Dom only wishes that he had someone he could look to the same way./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Well, he's been on a flight or in a car for most of his day now and he's looking forward to unpacking the small amount of his life that he's transported here to the states. Only once he gets everything in their proper places will he be able to relax and find his own hidey hole./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Unpacking reveals just how many things he's going to have to buy. With his long phone list in hand, he journeys to his first ever Walmart. TV had him thinking that every city in America would be either Bonanza or Sex and the City. Boston looks to be somewhere between that. Places are spread out as he'd expected, but they still look more or less as they should, like buildings, not ranches or skyscrapers. The Walmart is a whole other entity, with its fluorescent lighting that hurts the eyes and its bustle of people. It's immediately both overwhelming and disgusting. But, he knows he can get practically anything on his list there and so it is there that he goes. He's walked to this one, it being only a couple of km from his apartment, but he'll probably take a Lyft back since his list is so extensive./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He buys hangers and toilet paper, allergy meds and eye drops, a coffee machine and sandwich fixings, and the list goes on and on. The frugal part of himself twists in discomfort as he fills the bulky blue cart with everything that he already should have, did have at his real home in London. He's questioning himself, wondering if all this will be wasted by the job not working out. He's even wondering if he'll be too homesick, too fish out of water to do his job right here. He might just go running back home like a child that can't handle summer camp. But, this is the plan and Dom has never been one to deviate from a plan. The total comes to only a little over $400 which, after some google conversion, is amazingly less than he'd expected. He'd been anticipating the imported costs. His inner Scrooge relaxes and he takes his taxi with household goods home and in good spirits that he'd survived his first Walmart trip./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"So, when Dom stepped into the room where his father spent most of his home time, he believed he was prepared for the speech that Brendol would give. And it did go just as Dom expected, complete with admonishments for how his son lacked adequate discipline and a proper vision of the future. Life, according to Brendol was not just something that happened, not if you wanted to have a life worth living. It required strategy, effort, and fortitude. Did Domnhall think that everything Brendol had in his life had just happened out of coincidence? No, it was Brendol himself who had taken the reins of his life. Then, the expected ultimatum had come. Dom would put his education on hold and join the military, just as his father and his grandfather had done./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Dom had looked around at the pictures of fighter planes, the paddle on the wall that had reddened his backside when he'd misbehaved as a child, and most importantly, the photograph of their family with its patriarch and the two subdued other members - a wife too disenfranchised to have any effect on her own life and a son too terrified and beaten down to do anything but be a good picture really shows a self-important jailer and two prisoners. In the army, it would be more of the same, more people telling him what to do and then telling him he hadn't done it good enough, to do it over. An entire institution of men like his father who never saw any of the good in anyone but themselves and who bullied everyone weaker than themselves./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Though the ultimatum was expected, Dom's response was not. He surprised them both that day when the words, "I believe I'll stay in school," came forth from his lips as though he was opting for a certain type of tea and not being brazenly defiant for the first time in his life./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"After his father's initial surprise, he waved off Dom's words, perhaps not wanting to accept what was happening in this petrol-scented room. "Bah, plenty of time to return to classes later. Those sorts of things can wait. And you'll be better equipped to handle them once you've gotten yourself some discipline, some life experience."/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Dom had locked eyes with his father, similar green eyes unwavering on both sides. "I'm not joining up."/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The fall out was tremendous and by the time the sun had set, Dom had found himself, bags in hand, on the wrong side of a door with no key. He'd never before nor since been more terrified, more utterly lost. Dom had felt himself weak even then, but he hadn't acquiesced to his father, not even then when everything in the world had been taken from him and his life was as bleak as the dark clouds that poured on his hair, clothes, and luggage. Instead of knocking on the door like the scared puppy he felt like, he had taken his money, a trifle for a man without a home, and put himself up in a hostel for the night. He'd cried in a room with foreigners making sightseeing plans. He'd cried for how cold and lost and miserable he was, but he'd also cried because it was finally over. The manipulation and the mistreatment were over. He was finally free of Brendol Hux for good and so he cried because he was scared and alone and happy./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"It's been nearly twenty years since he'd left home, but the sensation of being in a new country starting all over again has the memories of that day dancing about on the periphery of his brain. Dom looks up at his apartment building, luggage being set on the curb by the brusque taxi driver, and he feels extremely out of his element. He reminds himself that it's a new adventure, something to shake up the unimpressively linear path of his life then tries to quiet the voice underneath that that reminds him that he despises change and adventure./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""You good?" the driver asks after closing his trunk. It's nice of him to even ask. Dom has Millicent's carrier in his hand and that's the most important bit of his luggage, so with a quick look at the taxi as though he's going to be able to see anything he left behind in the backseat from outside the car, he replies, "Yes, thank you."/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"It's only two stories, the apartment, and he's on the bottom floor, so the door he's looking at, 138, is his. It's surreal. This whole venture has been. He sets Millicent outside and brings all the rest of the luggage to the door. The crime rate in Boston is actually better than that in London, by a not insignificant amount, but that doesn't mean that he wants to risk everything he now has by leaving it willy-nilly outside his flat… his apartment./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Dom carries Millicent across the threshold into their new home. He takes a deep inhale and is relieved when all that he's met with is new carpet smell and not cigarette smoke or cat piss. It's a loft-style flat, so he first encounters the hallway, where he stacks up the cat carrier, his suitcases, and two boxes. To his right are stairs. He notes that there is no railing, which is a little odd, but he's not a clumsy person so that should be fine. The left, the hallway proper, leads to the living room. He takes that path, seeing the kitchen on the left. The dining room is separated from the living room by a counter which could also be used for eating purposes. He didn't pack up a dining set to fly over the Pacific ocean, so this is probably where he'll be taking his meals. The living room is so large that Dom actually laughs. The one room is probably the entire size of his London flat which was, to be fair, a glorified closet. There's a sliding door which leads onto a small completely fenced patio. He sees evidence of past barbecues on the pavement. He does have a soft spot for grilled food, the flecks of char appealing to his taste buds. Perhaps once spring comes, he'll consider purchasing one. For now, though, he tracks back in some snow and dirt mixture onto the carpet and slides the door shut./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Upstairs, he takes a peek at the loo, mostly taken up by a shower. After the travel, it will feel immensely good to get underneath some hot water. The bedroom is perfect, not too big (though still far larger than his old one) and with one window that looks out onto a neighbor's backyard. He'd had the foresight to buy a cheap bed from that American giant, Walmart, and they'd offered installation for about a quarter of the price of the bed. He sits on it. It's quite serviceable for 150 pounds. The flat feels homier than he expected. When he'd seen that the place was over 100 square meters, he'd been worried that it would feel too palatial, like he was living in Gone With the Wind's Tara. But the floor plan seems poorly executed, smaller than the large number would indicate, and therefore it is cozier./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Home," he says. Then, because it's so unreal, he adds, "In America."/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"But, this is Millicent's place too and he lets her out of her carrier. She's hesitant to leave its safety. For however long the trip felt to him, it must have been ten times longer and a hundred times more terrifying. She does place one tentative orange paw outside the carrier and then another. She'll explore the place, probably find a hidey hole. Once she sees that no predator has murdered him, she'll come out and start running the place just as she did his London flat. Dom only wishes that he had someone he could look to the same way./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Well, he's been on a flight or in a car for most of his day now and he's looking forward to unpacking the small amount of his life that he's transported here to the states. Only once he gets everything in their proper places will he be able to relax and find his own hidey hole./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Unpacking reveals just how many things he's going to have to buy. With his long phone list in hand, he journeys to his first ever Walmart. TV had him thinking that every city in America would be either Bonanza or Sex and the City. Boston looks to be somewhere between that. Places are spread out as he'd expected, but they still look more or less as they should, like buildings, not ranches or skyscrapers. The Walmart is a whole other entity, with its fluorescent lighting that hurts the eyes and its bustle of people. It's immediately both overwhelming and disgusting. But, he knows he can get practically anything on his list there and so it is there that he goes. He's walked to this one, it being only a couple of km from his apartment, but he'll probably take a Lyft back since his list is so extensive./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He buys hangers and toilet paper, allergy meds and eye drops, a coffee machine and sandwich fixings, and the list goes on and on. The frugal part of himself twists in discomfort as he fills the bulky blue cart with everything that he already should have, did have at his real home in London. He's questioning himself, wondering if all this will be wasted by the job not working out. He's even wondering if he'll be too homesick, too fish out of water to do his job right here. He might just go running back home like a child that can't handle summer camp. But, this is the plan and Dom has never been one to deviate from a plan. The total comes to only a little over $400 which, after some google conversion, is amazingly less than he'd expected. He'd been anticipating the imported costs. His inner Scrooge relaxes and he takes his taxi with household goods home and in good spirits that he'd survived his first Walmart trip./span/p