Exporing the House
After adding some wood to the small fire and stoking it you swing a small pot over the flames. While the pot heats up you chop an onion and throw it in to fry in some lard you found in a box above the heart. You add as few vegetables as possible, for you crave mostly meat but know you need to eat some greens for your health. With some carrot, potato and parsnip in, you add water and throw in a good handful of smoked meat found hanging along one of the kitchen’s walls.
Knowing that your little impromptu stew will take some time, you scratch around in the cupboards and whatever boxes you can find, looking for something to ease the gnawing hunger. After looking through almost every container in the kitchen you let out a squeal as you find a round loaf of sourdough bread, of which you tear off a chunk and immediately bite into it, but eating only enough to quieten your stomach.
Having staunched your hunger for now you decide to explore the house properly while your stew cooks as you’re a bit wary of looking outside and seeing what you might find. Staying away from the windows, you retrace your steps through the house to the bedroom and give your clothes a proper examination. Among the clothes you find some pastel coloured dressed in blues and greens, some blouses and skirts of similar colours. The variety of the collection is nothing amazing but you’re glad to have anything to wear. Currently you are wearing a plain white tunic and a grey pair of loose trousers.
After your closet diving you explore the bathroom, only to find that it has only a toilet and wash basin but no shower or bath to speak of. Looking around the bathroom, however, you spot a large copper tub hanging on the wall in an empty corner of the room and surmise that it must be the bath, though how you’ll fill it is currently beyond you.
You then go and properly explore the rest of the house, finding a small bookshelf in the sitting room containing little knick knacks, some landscape paintings on the walls. You also take note of a wooden, varnished coffee table. In the dining room there is a square wooden table with two chairs, one on either side.
Having now become acquainted with what is actually in the house you decide to look out the windows at whatever world awaits you. Feeling nervous, you slowly approach the sitting room’s window, its sill deep and the window open. For the first time you can smell the scents of spring as you approach the bright rectangle of light. When you reach the window itself you lean on the sill and allow your eyes to adjust to the bright light and within seconds the outside is revealed to you in lush greenery that spreads out down a gentle slope, the landscape dotted with other houses or cottages, each with a small garden but no fences. Here and there you spot orange and black shapes, part of their colour blocked out by other colours.
You are still wary of going outside and so decide to just watch the scenery and the daily life of the townsfolk you can see while waiting away the time. Every now and then you go back to the kitchen to check on the stew, adding some water when it needs it and a bit of seasoning. By the time the meat stew is ready the sun is already setting on the far side of the town. You decided to move the dining room table and a chair over to the window and eat your stew while enjoying the sky’s shifting colours.
Written by green-eyedtiger on 10 July 2017