Mommy , tell me again about the new house!

Cathy put the last of the kitchen utensils in a cardboard box and sat down, glad for an excuse to take a break from her work. She'd been up since dawn, making sure everything was organized for the move, and she was absolutely exhausted, even though it was only three in the afternoon.

–Well, it's old, and it has four small windows in the front, which look out onto a narrow garden. There's another garden in the front and a larger one in the back.
Robbie sat on his lap and put her arms around his neck.

–Tell me about the tree!

Cathy smiled, and hugged him.

"There's an apple tree in the front yard, right under your bedroom window, and it'll soon be in bloom. And later there will be apples we can pick whenever we want."

–And no one is going to kick us out of it?

"No one is going to kick us out of it," Cathy said.

–And can we pick apples even at night?

Cathy smiled and kissed her son on the cheek.

–Yes, even then.

–I'll climb that tree, all the way to the top!

–We'll see.

Robbie looked at her worriedly.

–And will there be friends I can play with?

"Oh, yes!" Cathy exclaimed, trying to reassure him, because she knew that this was one aspect of the move that worried Robbie.
There must be a lot of children in the village because there's a very nice school, with a new playground and a pond...

–And if I don't like it, can we come back here?

Cathy brushed back her red hair and looked around the dingy kitchen, with its damp walls and cheap kitchen cabinets. If she'd had to spend another day in that box, she'd have gone crazy.

Cathy looked out the window. From where she was, she could see only gray clouds. There were no trees in sight, not even a building. Cathy sighed. Apparently, someone had once thought it was a good idea to put people in boxes instead of houses, and to build them so high that the inhabitants could feel the building swaying in the wind, but she couldn't understand how they had invented such a thing. Except that it was supposed to solve the housing problem, although for her, living that way created others.

Cathy remembered the graffiti on the walls, the trash in the streets, the smell that accompanied every trip to that twelfth-floor apartment. Then she looked at her son, curled up in her lap. Soon he would learn to read, and then the graffiti in the neighborhood would begin to have meaning for him, and his sweet innocence would be tainted before its time.

"Because Dale says the countryside is very boring," Robbie continued. "He says there are no shops, and if you want candy you have to walk for miles!" He says...

"Well, when we're settled in, you can invite Dale over and show him how lovely the countryside is, shall we?" Cathy said. And before the little boy could repeat anything else his friend had said about country life, she added, smiling, "Don't worry. You'll love it, darling. We both will."

Daniel turned up the collar of his jacket. Damn! It was cold! He really had to fix the Land Rover's heater. Three weeks of icy March wind were enough for him. He drove past the garage, which seemed to have stood still in time, with its gas pump and pre-war advertisements for everything from chocolate to laundry soap, and promised himself he'd go and take the car in first thing in the morning.
The village was quiet that afternoon. A few lights could be seen on the old chalets dotted with greenery. But few people dared to go out in that rain and cold. He had to have the brakes checked as well. He pressed the brake pedal and the Land...