A Short Story by Eliza Rowan

A short story by Eliza Rowan

The house was perfect, sure it needed some repairs but other than that it was just right. It wasn't too big or to small it had just the right amount of room for their family. It was small enough to be cozy but large enough to offer plenty of room for their things. Who ever had owned it before hadn't cared much about the condition that the outside got in that's for sure however they had put a lot of thought into the décor of the inside. Everything was done in a style remnant to that of the 30s or 40s maybe even later than that. All the fixtures were done in brass which despite the years that the house had been empty still carried a deep shine as if they had just been polished that very morning. Also there didn't appear to be any dust or cobwebs with in sight which just probably meant the realtor company had spent time carefully polishing and cleaning all of the surfaces. There was some structural damage to the outside no doubt caused by the weather over the years. The inside was in good condition needing very little except maybe a little tender loving care. They decided to take it and began moving in immediately.

The moving went smoothly each of the kids found a room that they liked and there weren't any fights or arguments about who got which room. Each of the four children seemed to almost be drawn to their room and no one got jealous of any one else's room. Even Miranda the oldest and pickiest of the four found no problems what so ever with the room that her and her siblings chose. This was a blessing for she was the one that was always causing trouble; Debra couldn't understand how her husband had conceived such a terror with a small, mousey, meek, and very devout catholic. But she was his first born and he never could see any wrong in anything that she did. He claimed the whole problem lay in the fact that she wasn't from Debra's womb. The fact was that Debra couldn't have loved her anymore if she had given birth to her. Debra had been a part of Miranda's life from the time that she was one and a half. Miranda's first word had been momma and it'd been directed at Debra not at her real mother Amy. Debra thought that she did a darn good job in treating Miranda with just the same amount of love and affection as her own three.

As far as Paul, Timothy, and Beverly were concerned Miranda was their sister not half sister. As Timothy often said how can she be our half sister when she is a whole person that doesn't make any sense to me. Even though Miranda had a relationship with her real mother she called Debra mom. She always referred to Amy as mother never mom or mommy. It was always formal just like their relationship. Of course it wasn't Miranda's fault that her and her mother weren't close. Nor was it Charlie's or Debra's. If fault lay with any one it lay with Amy because she was the one that almost always had a business trip or a conference. Debra and Charlie where constantly telling Amy that she needed to make more time for Miranda or at least put more effort into bonding with her when they were together. After all Miranda was almost sixteen and wouldn't always feel obligated to spend time with her mother. In just three short years Miranda would be leaving home and off to college so it was apparent to everyone but Amy that time was running out. Debra just couldn't understand it Miranda despite her sometimes bad attitude and her pickiness was a wonderful kid who in their right mind wouldn't want to spend time with her? Well it was out of Debra's hands all she could do was give Miranda as much love and affection as possible and hope that the girl didn't feel that her life was lacking too much.

It was because of Miranda that they had made the move in the first place. As far as Debra was concerned a sixteen year old girl needed her own room and her own privacy. And this house offered each of the children their own room something that none of them had ever had before. Of course the extra space was just an added on bonus even if this house hadn't been available they would still have moved because this house was close to the two colleges's that Miranda was interested in attending after high school. And even though the house was fifteen miles away from their old house none of the children had to transfer to a new school because the drive to their school was easy, safe and short.

An hour after they arrived the moving van finally made it and they began unpacking their stuff and making the empty shell of a house feel more like a home. Six hours after they had started unpacking everything was in its proper place. The family sat down to their first supper in their new home and then it was time for the kids to get their baths and head to bed. Since the large house had three full