My forever Mate

Chapter 4

The next few weeks went by very quickly, Jackie would stop by in the evening, everyday to spend some time with Leah and to train Cassie to become a virtual assistant. Jackie went over various office programs with her from appointment booking tools to bookkeeping and even helped her improve on her typing speed and accuracy. She also helped Cassie with advanced applications on Microsoft office as well. 

One of Jackie’s realtor friends, Josh Truman, was working on selling their house and another of her family friends was looking for suitable places in Wolf-Creek for them. Mr Truman was a middle-aged family man who took an immediate liking to them. He treated them both like family and managed to get a great deal on their property, with a fast closing date and above the asking price. 

At the other end Mr Mathews found them a gorgeous property in Wolf-Creek at a price Cassie couldn’t believe. It was bigger than their current house at almost half the price.

It was a gorgeous, two-storey house with 3 bed/3 bath + den. The house itself was situated on a good sized lot and featured a fairytale style garden. The kitchen boasted of a huge island for prep work and eating. It had a contemporary look, with dark coloured cabinets and light coloured counter tops with a bold and unique backlash.

The cooking range had gas cooktops and the oven was a baker’s dream. She could easily see herself baking here with Leah as her helper, just the way she used to bake with mom. The kitchen led into the dining/living area making it a huge, open concept, space. This gorgeous and roomy space opened up into a huge deck from which you could step down into the garden. The views from the deck were amazingly beautiful and peaceful. 

Upstairs, the master bedroom boasted of a five piece ensuite. The other two rooms were also good sized and had their own washrooms as well. The enclosed den was perfect for a home office. It was a newly renovated family home but the owners had to move abroad unexpectedly…. looking for a quick, hassle free sale. It wasn’t even listed yet. It was sheer luck on their part that Mr Mathews was handling the listing and was able to close it for them at a very fair price, leaving them with a hefty amount for investment. 

She also met Mr Wilson, a reputed financial planner (another one of Jackie’s contacts) who had prepared a very detailed plan with some conservative as well as some quick profit making investments for them. He went over the pros, cons as well as risks and rewards with her in detail and offered to manage their investment at a quarter of his normal managing fee. 

It was as if the entire universe wanted them to move to this new place, all of her tasks were getting done quickly and efficiently to speed up the move.

Cassie took her time packing their family albums and keepsakes so she could remind Leah, from time to time, how amazing their parents were. Then she moved on to years of Christmas ornaments, decorations, mom’s cookbook, dad’s carving knife and other items that held precious memories for them. She packed the family heirlooms, mom’s jewellery as well as dad’s coin and watch collection. Each item, lovingly collected, had so many emotions and memories behind it. She packed mom’s wedding dress, their family’s Christening gown, grandma’s special occasion dishes, the silver candlestick that mom loved so much……… she took everything that was important to them and packed the rest of the items under the piles set up for donations. 

Cassie decided to give away most of the furniture as well. The only things she would be taking with her were mom’s rocking chair, dad’s antique desk and chair from his study and the cupboard Cassie helped make for Leah’s room. Leah has outgrown her baby bed so Cassie had planned to get her a new bedroom suite for her birthday. She’ll take Leah furniture shopping with her and let her select her own princess bed. With everything else packed and ready to go, Cassie arranged for movers to come day after tomorrow. 

Leah was so giddy she couldn’t sleep that night, finally she had a big girl bed and not just a regular one but a princess bed complete with a canopy. 

“My bed so petty (pretty) with so mny (many) strs (stars). Cassie said it mor (more) thn (than) 100 str (stars) tht (that) glo (glow) at nite (night), wn (when) lite (light) go of (off)… jst (just) lke (like) mne (my own … all mine) sky.” Leah told Jackie happily over phone.

Leah was so excited about her new bed that she chatted with Jackie, over phone, for more than an hour. “Leah get slep (to sleep) in nw (new) bed. Leah get nw (new) rume (room) and a nw (new) dsre (dresser) a spcl (special) drs (dress). Leah gt (get) to kep (keep) mgc (magic) cpord (cupboard) my dad and Cassie mde (made) me. I gt (get) to pck (pick) pctrs (pictures) fr (for) my wls (walls). 

I gt (get) my bg (big) girl poty (potty), my bthrm (bathroom)…. Leah gt (get) nw (new) tbl (table) chir (chair) st (set). I jst (just) wish mommy and daddy leb (live) in nw (new) huse (house), Leah gib (give) my nw (new) rm (room) but Cassie sd (said) tey (they) go lib (live) in bg (big) palce (palace) bith (with) God and tey (they) wtch (watch) us frm (from) up. Tey (they) sng (sing) and dnce (dance) bith (with) angls (angels), tey (they) leb (leave) my Cassie bith (with) me. Cassie lub (love) Leah, albs (always) bith (with) me.” 

“Cassie sd (said) no sde (sad)… mks (makes) thm (them) sde (sad) to (too) be hapy (happy)…. mom, dad in hre (here)”, she said pointing towards my heart. 

“Cassie pnky (pinky) prmsd (promised) me she albs (always) bith (with) Leah …… no cn (can) brk (break) pnky (pinky) prmis (promise) is scrd (sacred) promise.”

After her non stop chatter, Leah finally fell asleep for tomorrow was a big day, they will go to their new house tomorrow …..

Cassie had a very early start that morning. She saw to all the last minute details and did a quick check of the entire house to ensure she had not missed anything. Then she took all their personal and important things and stored them in the back of her car.once they were done eating the breakfast, they waited for the movers to arrive.

 After supervising the loading of the truck Cassie confirmed they had the correct address for delivery and sent them off. Jackie was here by now and playing with Leah. They said a tearful goodbye and left but only after getting her to promise to visit them soon. Leah was drained after all the excitement of this morning and promptly went to sleep…..

Leah was awake and impatient by the time they reached their new place. As soon as Leah saw the magnificent house she couldn’t contain her joy and quickly opened the buckle of her car seat, eagerly waiting for Cassie to open the door and let her out. She ran towards the house ahead of her and couldn’t believe her eyes as she followed the sideway path to open the small, wooden gate leading towards the back of the house and right into the garden and just like that she forgot that she was tired and cranky and hungry…..

Leah just ran to the middle of the garden and laid down on the soft, green grass looking at all the colourful flowers surrounding her. Cassie knew then that she had made the right decision for them. She opened the front door and headed straight towards the deck and called for Leah to come inside. Leah didn’t want to leave the garden but was equally impatient to see the rest of the house, specially her new room. 

She oowed and ahhwed when she saw the huge living room and the beautiful kitchen. She was impatient to see her room first so she grabbed Cassie’s hand and tried to drag her towards the stairs. 

Cassie showed her the room next to hers and she quickly ran inside to examine all the murals on the walls. It was so much bigger than her old room and she didn’t even have to go down the hallway for the bathroom as it was attached to her room.  

Cassie was content seeing Leah happy, truly happy. From the moment she crossed the sign board that said “Welcome to Wolf-Creek” she felt at peace. It felt like she was finally home. This was their fresh start, their new beginning.That night as they laid their make shift bedding of sheets and sleeping bags on the living room floor, Leah kept chattering, even though she could barely keep her eyes open. 

It took almost a week to settle down completely. All the furniture was arranged, everything was unpacked, the kitchen was all set up soon it would be time for pre schools to start accepting new batches so Leah would be busy as well. It was finally time for Cassie to find work. Though their future was better secured, financially, with all the surplus left from the sale of their old house she still needed to work, she could not keep using funds from the invested amount. She decided to call Jackie tomorrow, after her online classes, to check if she had any opportunities available for her……

(Derrick)

“Get out” ……came the shout from the big office, for the 3rd time this week. 

“Where do you get such bumbling idiots from, this one couldn’t even spell properly. Mrs Alfred, you are the only person competent enough to keep my business life running smoothly, so until you can find someone as efficient or figure out a way to clone yourself, I forbid you to retire……” said Derrick.