Out In The World

Millie kept apologizing all the way up the stairs and then up the narrow staircase to the attics. It was only a box room she explained, barely furnished, he’d have to come downstairs to the bathroom at the end of the hallway. Opening the door to the little room she went in checking to make sure the linens were there and the lamp worked.

Johnny thought it was great and told her so, placing his bag on the bench at the end of the bed. He opened the window and the curtains blew out with the breeze. Millie backed out and left him alone. He sat down on the bed and looked around the room, the ceiling slanted over the bed. It wasn’t much more than a place to sleep but that’s all he needed and he could afford it.

Finding some paper and a pen in the bedside table he balanced a book on his lap and wrote a short note to his mother to let her know where he was. Things had not been good between them when he left he hoped she had calmed down by now.

Taking his letter down stairs to the outgoing post he almost ran into a girl coming out of her door.

"Oh…sorry," he said moving past her.

Amanda stopped barely getting a look at him as he hurried to the staircase. Broad back and dark hair passed by her. ‘I haven’t seen him before," she thought and looked back in the direction from which he’d come, a narrow staircase at the end of the hallway.

Johnny went down to his car and got the rest of his things…clothes hastily thrown in the back seat, he carried them up as a bundle to his room. After he had everything squared away he went out for a walk. He was on his own now, place to stay, a job…he reckoned a farm boy was going to make it out in the world after all.