Better on our own - English

A future Home

The morning after the storm, we were woken up by the noise of a passing snow plow. It had just started to get light outside, but it was enough for us to see that the storm had stopped at some point during the night. Nevertheless, it had left behind a blanket of snow the likes of which I had never seen before and for the life of me I couldn't say how much snow had actually fallen, because the snow had piled up to one and a half meters in places on trees, walls and other obstacles, while the wind had almost completely blown it away in open areas.

The weather was good so Sam had contacted the pilot Tom Thomas to get us out of here to save time. Since the lack of reception on our cell phones was obviously not due to the storm, he couldn't say with certainty whether the pilot would receive the message in time and so we began to clear a path ourselves. After all, it was Monday morning and who knew what was going on in our cities. We were certainly all needed on our stations to prevent or, if necessary, contain chaos caused by all the snow.

Sam and I dug our way out of the front door and even managed to shovel a narrow path all the way to the gate until Tom finally came and he used the harnesses to pull us up into his helicopter. He dropped Penny and me off at her house before flying back to Pontypandy with Sam.

We briefly greeted Sarah and Cody, who had already been waiting for us with breakfast thanks to my message. Cody had been more than happy to get his mother back safely and had hardly wanted to leave her, but in the end he had to because we had to go to work.

Otherwise, Monday was pure chaos. Schools and academies were closed so Cody and Sarah had the day off and Sarah was happy to spend the day with Cody while we supported the clearing services in Tonypridd and especially older people who were overwhelmed by the amount of snow on their doorsteps. So we had shoveled driveways and house entrances, checked the routes on the main roads and at the companies in the industrial areas and we all went home dead tired in the evening.

Today, one day later, everything was back to normal and after Penny found out that my uncle was coming, she gave me half the day off so that I could take care of him and show him the house.

My uncle and the electrician he brought with him immediately started ripping the old wiring out of the walls while I took care of getting containers so I could throw out all the furniture - or at least most of it. I certainly wouldn't forget what Sam had said. I would make the decision together with Sarah about what was thrown out and what wasn't.

Today I would finally tell Sarah and I had been looking forward to the time when she would come from the police academy and get off at the bus stop at Penny's house, which I had asked her to do.

There was no better time! Sam's words had given me hope again. The workmen had already been there, so she could see that something was really happening here and I was doing everything I could to make the house beautiful, and the furniture was still in the house, which meant she could choose what we kept and what not...if she would consider it after the viewing after all.

"Okay, we're there. Wait! I'll open the door for you and guide you," I said quickly before jumping out of the car and running around to open the door for Sarah and grab her hands to help her out of the car. I had picked her up at the bus stop 5 minutes ago and she was visibly confused when I asked her to get in the car instead of going into the house.

"Niall, what are you up to?" she asked for what must have been the tenth time since I asked her to put on the sleep mask I had found in one of my bags. My Mum had packed it for me because she was worried that I wouldn't be able to sleep during the day if I had to work the night shift. I hadn't needed it yet, but at least to keep Sarah guessing until the last moment and hopefully increase the surprise, it now served me well.