9:24 PM
by Hanis Syahira
It was a hot day outside. Typical summer day. R lay down on her bed with the white sheets and the sunlight was streaming down onto her face through the window blinds. She sighed. It was hot and a bead of sweat ran down her forehead. She didn’t switch on the fan,she was way too lazy for that. She was,in fact,way too lazy for anything. She was trying to fall asleep,but her mind was too active for that. She hated this. She hated being bored and lazy.
Eventually R decided to get up and be productive. It wasn’t always that she got to stay at her grandfather’s house,after all. Her parents had abandoned her – well,they really just wanted her to stay there while they were on their third honeymoon trip (in Bali,this time. They decided not to go to Europe anymore ever since this one incident where R’s parents got separated for 3 days. R honestly didn’t know what difference Bali,Indonesia would make,but whatever) but to R it felt like abandonment - and she was stuck at her grandfather’s place in Somerset for 6 weeks.
Somerset was a nice place to live in. It was peaceful and the houses were well-kept and looked like they belonged to people who were in a profession that certainly paid well. Her grandfather’s house was no exception,of course. R wasn’t even sure whether she should even call it a house,since it was practically a mansion. Her grandfather’s mansion was a huge three storey building and it had an enormous garden,where flowers grew beautifully. There was a small pond with koi fish in it on the east side. There were gardeners who attended to the garden,of course. Her grandfather could definitely afford gardeners.
As of the moment,her grandfather wasn’t home. He was at a meeting somewhere,maybe. She didn’t really know and honestly,it didn’t make much of a difference. He was always in his study room on the third floor,anyway. Her room was on the first,so the only times they would meet were during mealtimes. But her grandfather wasn’t a cold,quiet man. He was actually very warm and friendly and always had a smile on his face. Her grandfather reminded her of Kenny Rogers.
She went down the stairs and walked the whole length of the living room downstairs to get to the front door. The living room was her second favourite place in the mansion,after her bedroom. It had a great view of the part of the garden where all the roses grew. She got to the front door,which was huge wooden one,with a brass handle and walked out.
All the way to the gate,R passed more rose bushes. Her grandfather seemed to like roses – or rather,her grandmother liked them,since after the gardeners her grandmother attended to the garden most. Her grandmother was a soft-spoken woman and usually spent her day indoors taking siestas. Lots of siestas.
R was pulled back as her grey cardigan got caught among the rose bushes. She had to disentangle it,and as she did,she brought a red rose close to her and smelled it. Roses were great,she thought. Beautiful and they smell nice too. It was no wonder,really,that her grandparents had a lot of these rose bushes in their garden. She didn’t want to flatter herself,but she guessed that there was another reason these beautiful flowers were abundant here.
Roses were her namesake.
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