Runes: Day I

Moving Day

Autumn glanced out of the van window, restlessly tapping her legs against the edge of the seat. She couldn’t remember ever travelling in a van before, so she had been excited when her dad had said she could go with him to get the last of their things from the storage container while her mum and little brother went ahead in the car to get a few things sorted. She glanced across at her dad, driving the van. He grinned back.

“Not long now! Let’s hope they’ve got the kettle on. I could do with a pit-stop before we start unloading all this.”

They had been living out of suitcases for the last two weeks. Autumn hadn’t really been following the discussions too closely but, from what she had picked up, the people renting her parents’ old house in the Highlands had unexpectedly needed to stay on a little longer than anticipated as their house purchase had been delayed. As Autumn and her family had already committed to moving out of their rented cottage a couple of hundred miles away, two of her parents’ friends in a nearby town had offered to put them up for the interim period. It had been fun. Autumn hadn’t lived in a town before, and they made the most of the fortnight by visiting the museum and library, and eating out at various different restaurants. They had been trampolining three times, and go-karting twice.

They had moved out of their cottage right at the start of the holidays, and the rest of the summer still stretched out ahead of Autumn. It had already been the hottest summer she could remember, and the solemn-sounding newsreader on the radio had mentioned climate change a number of times over the last few days. “Even so,” she had heard her mum say quietly to her father one evening, “it seems unnatural. It reminds me of the summer before Autumn was born.” Autumn’s dad had laughed. “I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about, Maggie,” he had said. “It just seems strange going back, that’s all.”

The van slowed, and Autumn listened to the tick of the indicator as they reached the junction. To her right was woodland, reaching from the road to further than she could see in the distance. A wide gate marked the start of a path through the trees. A young woman was coming out of the woods, leading an excitable black spaniel. Autumn just caught sight of two children on bikes further down the path before they turned left off the main road.

In front of them was a village hall with a small car park. Her dad flicked the indicator again immediately, turning right and passing alongside the hall. He pointed to some houses which backed onto the car park.

“That’s us!” he said cheerfully. “The tradesman’s entrance, anyway. We have to drive round to get to the front.”

They drove round the hall in a small loop, curving to the left and left again, passing a series of bungalows of various different sizes. Most of the gardens were neatly kept, with shrubs and flowers surrounding manicured lawns. One man was mowing the grass, his dog lazily stretched out in the sunshine on the driveway. The man looked up and gave them a friendly wave.

They had just passed a house with an overgrown garden, the grass reaching knee-high, and wooden windows peeling with paint when Autumn’s dad turned left into a short driveway. He stopped the van in front of a large garage door and turned to Autumn.

“And here we are,” he said. “Home!”