Moving Day
The car was all packed and ready to go, but I wasn't.
“Where's Mungo?” I started to panic.
“He was here a minute ago, I thought you had him,” said Mum, shutting the boot of the
heavily loaded car.
“I've got to find him,” I raced back into the
house, grateful for an excuse to delay the departure.
It seemed so much larger without all our stuff cluttering the floors and walls. The lounge was just a
room with nothing familiar in it anymore.
“Mungo!” I called, running through to the kitchen.
Flashes of memories surfaced as I glanced around
the room, but it no longer felt like home. The house seemed eerie now, it had finished with us. We were already just
a memory, as it made room for it's new family.
I didn't want to go upstairs. I wanted to remember my room as it should
be, not empty and lifeless. I called him from the bottom of the staircase,
“Mungo! Where are you Mungo? Come here boy”.
I thought about how he must be feeling with all this kafuffle
going on around him, confused and upset. He is just a dog, he doesn't understand that we're
moving house and he's probably just looking for somewhere comfy to snuggle up until it all settles
down.
“Mungo,” I called, a little softer this time and started going up the stairs. “Come
on boy, it's alright”.
I had a feeling he might be in my room, but I hoped he'd
come out on his own. I walked across the landing and tried to coax him towards me,
“Don't worry Mungo, we're just moving house”.
I looked in the bathroom, sometimes he liked to drink the toilet water, but not today.
I passed my sister's room, now empty of course, usually
it was so messy that you couldn't see the carpet,
“I know it's weird Mungo, but you
don't want to stay here, your home is with us.”
I had no choice now, I'd passed Mum's empty room and there was no sign of him.
If Mungo was where I thought he'd be, then I had to go back into my room to get him.
The door creaked and it echoed around
the room. It was much bigger than I remembered it, but it was no longer
mine now, although we hadn't even left yet.
It was plain and clean, everything that was mine was packed away for the new house.
It felt strange to me. Until I saw Mungo poke his head out of the cupboard.
“There you are Mungo. Good boy!” I opened the door and fussed him
in his hideout.
“Don't worry, I know you're scared, but we've got to go, I get that
now”.
Mungo came out of the cupboard and licked my face and I hugged my best friend
in the whole world.
The car horn beeped outside, Mum was getting impatient,
“We'll be fine Mungo, we've got each other,” I said and we left my old room together.
At the bottom of the stairs we paused to take one last look at the old house.
“Goodbye,” I said and Mungo barked. I closed the door and Mungo ran to the car.
Mum smiled, “Ready?” she asked,
“Yeah, we are.” I stroked Mungo and smiled back at Mum.
Jenni Carlton – September 2009 (revised May 2010)