1~1 The Unknown

Week 1

Day 1

We arrive at the farmhouse. Alone. 

"Pretty spiffy place!" The old man says, twirling his cane. 

"Uh-huh." I mutter. I guess the outside isn't that bad. But it makes me wonder about the inside..

 

Yeah...now I understand why old man Curley handed this dump off so easily. Everything is broke and it's filthy!

I swear that old fart Curley broke the washer just before we got there! 

"This sucks." I say out loud, sighing. But it beats being homeless. So...

I clean a counter. 

And somehow manage to fix the sink by whacking it 500 times with a wrench I found under the sink. But it's fixed!

Father don't seem happy with our new digs. Well tough crap old man. I'm not too happy either.

"C'mon Dad. We're going to the consignment shop!" I yell, getting out my paid to use cell phone from tracfone. The only thing I can afford. 

"But I want to rock some more." Father whines. But he gets up anyway and hobbles down the steps as I call us a taxi.

It is a nice consignment shop.  I'll give the town that.

I have Father sit down since he can't stand that long.

 

I haggle with the woman at the desk. I buy us a bookshelf for $125 so Father can read and I can try to learn some skills for the farm. 

And I think $125 is freaking high for a bookshelf. But it comes with books, so eh. And they even delivered it free, so I guess it works out. 

 

We walk over to the Library and I finally meet Tate Curley. Father thanks him for letting us live on the farm and I remain quiet, smiling. I don't want to ungrateful.

 

I grab a random book and leaf through it while Father talks with old man Curley. 

After what seems like hours, Father and I head "home".

 

I clean the stove and the sink while Father goes and rocks in his rocking chair some more. Party time. 

I fix us Autumn Salad for super after finding some food in the fridge. I admit that is nice that Mr. Curley and his wife put some food in there for us. I should stop brooding for a few moments and be thankful for what we do have.

 

I make sure Dad comes in off the porch and we eat super without speaking. Dad and I aren't exactly close right now. I would be lying if I said I'm not bitter or angry with him for the situation we're in. 

I go upstairs after dinner because I gotta pee like a rain horse and find everything broken in the bathroom too. Ugh. Still I use the toilet. The gross icky toilet. On a bright note, I do like the wallpaper in the bathroom.

 

I go back downstairs and take a nap on the couch. 

Day 2

 

I took a nap instead of going to bed because guess what the AWESOME school decided to do? SEND ME HOMEWORK! And I haven't even officially attended one day of school with them! Grr.

I do my homework, while being extremely angry and trying to ignore the pile of stinky clothes behind me.

I finish my homework and get ready to go to bed. But Dad comes downstairs and faints. He does this sometimes. I get out the smelling salt and make sure he's okay before making him go back to bed. 

 

On the way upstairs, I swear the washing machine is floating..and going through our wall. I shake my head and chalk it up being sleep deprived. Or I've gone crazy.

I finally climb into bed at 4 am and do my best to ignore whatever is in my room. This house is straight up weird!

The school bus comes way before I want it to. I got roughly 3ish hours of sleep. Yawn. 

After school I check on Father, who is rocking away in his rocking chair and take one very stinky nap. Ew. 

I get the tub fixed after a few hours of beating it up with a wrench. Who says you can't fix things by beating them up? Lies!

(Note, I had to move the tub because she couldn't get to it)

I take my first bath! Yeah the tub is icky but I feel a lot better after getting a bath in.

  I get in another nap after making sure Father takes his bath, eats and goes to bed.

Day 3

 

I eat some leftover Autumn salad before doing my homework. I really need to get back onto a regular sleeping schedule. I'm starting to hear things. I go to sleep and go to school. At least at school I got to go on a field trip to the Police Station. I had a lot of fun there. It was nice to have some fun again.

 

After school I take a nap...while Father reads with his foot in a dirty plate. I really need to do the dishes sometime. Opps. 

 I hang up some wet clothes I find on the back-step. I'm truly amazed they stayed wet that long. 

 

I do my homework in the weeds so I can have sometime to myself and become a delicious meal for mosquitoes. 

I pay the bills. $161. Ugh. That leaves us $214 left. I really need to get to this farming thing or find another way to make a bit of cash. 

I take another nap. My homework is done but I still have some things to do. 

Day 4

I take a bath. I don't want to run around school with a foul order ever again. I don't need to earn any bad nicknames.

I finally fix the sink and some weird voice tells me I've learned my handiness skill. I'm at level 1 now. Weird. 

 

I nap until it's time for the bus so I can save the time of having to get dressed later. 

As I run for the door, Dad has to eat cereal for breakfast. The Autumn Salad leftovers are gone. Good thing I get school lunches for free.

After school I nap as Dad reads with his foot in a dirty plate. I'm feeling a sense of  Déjà vu here..

 

After my nap we go to the Criminal hideout which is funny because we can plainly see it! 

I take Father there so I can hunt for seeds. I find about 5 but only one I can plant now. Argh.

Father found a little pond in some weeds. He fishes while I do my homework. I don't think he'll catch anything but to my shock he catches a minnow. I plan to have him sell it at a consignment shop. 

We head home and I go to bed early for once and so does the old man.

Day 5

I wake up at 4:30 am and make waffles for the old man and I. 

Burnt waffles. Eh. I'll eat them. It's food.

Umm....

I stand there, holding dirty plates and stare at the ghost. Who is eating my burnt waffles. We have a ghost. A GHOST. Whaaaaaaaat?! Part of me is freaking out and the other part is thinking "OMG SO COOL!"

 

"We have ghosts, Hope." My Father tells me, scared.

Thank you Captain Obvious.

"And a ton of flies. Can't you wash a plate every now and then?" I ask him. 

 "I like dirty plates." Father replies.

 What a slob. 

 

I come down from getting dressed for school and find Father on the floor. Another fainting spell. I get the smelling salt and revive him, then make sure he eats some waffles.

When I'm leaving, the ghost girl is is doing dishes. She can eat as many burnt waffles as she wants if she'll do housework. I like her.

After school I nap. I wish I could be paid to be a professional napper. I could so do that. 

I finally plant my orange tree seed. Behold, my huge garden!

I then eat, take another nap and bathe before...

Unclogging the toilet! I finally have everything in the bathroom fixed!

Day 6

The closest I've gotten to a full night of sleep since I've gotten here. I miss it.

 

I tend my little garden. I'm happy to see that the seed has sprouted so quickly.

 

I had heard from a friend at school that you can harvest honey and beeswax at the elixir consignment store once a week for money. I harvested from both beehives and cleaned them both. 

 Father consigned his minnow.

And I consigned the 6 beeswax and 10 honey I harvested.

Day 7

After a nap, I FINALLY fix the washer. Then I do my first load of laundry in it before going to bed. I ended up sleeping until 11:00 am. I needed the sleep, so I'm not going to feel guilty about it.

I pay the bills again. $138. Which left us $76 bucks! I'm worried while I eat and garden but a delivery comes. Father's minnow and my honey and beeswax sold (some of it anyway). Now our bank account is back up to $696. I'm relieved.

I finally get all the dirty laundry washed up too.

I take Father out seed hunting and find some spotlight mushroom that glows out it's butt. I half wonder if I can smoke it but decide to keep it and another one I find to plant someday. 

I bump into Cruz Martingale from school and talk to him for a bit.

He invites Father and I to his picnic, I happily accept. I like Cruz. He gave me free food. That's always awesome in my book.