Finally we make it into the small town of Graaff-Reinet. The drive here felt like it took forever! Looking out the window, I study the small town that we could be calling home soon. It's nothing like what I expected.
It feels like we've gone back in time, the Cape Dutch architecture is absolutely stunning. Most of the houses seem like they haven't been upgraded or renovated in decades, although they're old I must admit they're still in really good condition.
We drive past an old church and a few people walking their dogs before turning into a little street occupied by only eight or nine houses. "This is the street, can you see the house anywhere?" I look around but see nothing that resembles the picture Megan gave me.
We drive slowly, looking at the house numbers until we find number 9. My eyes nearly fell out of my head, my heart sinks as we climb out of the car and look at the house I've been dreaming about for the last fifteen hours.
The once perfectly manicured garden is extremely overgrown, the white paint is chipped and peeling, revealing the dull grey wall underneath which is covered in graffiti and vines that are growing from who knows where, the fence is missing some wood and whatever part of it that remains is rotten and broken. All the images of our perfect life here goes straight out the window. I turn to Mark, disappointed that this turned out to be a load of shit. "Come on, let's go."
I turn around to go back to the car when suddenly a woman spots us and comes rushing towards us with papers in her hands and a huge smile on her face. "Hello! My name's Kerry, I'm the estate agent. We spoke on the phone earlier, you must be Mark! Lovely to meet you, and you are?" She looks at me with big friendly eyes. I sigh and shake her hand "I'm Kayla. Look, we were just leaving. This isn't what we expected, sorry for wasting your time." Her smile quickly disappears, but comes back as soon as Mark speaks up .
"Nice to meet you too. May we go in and have a look?" He asked politely "Absolutely! Follow me." Without even glancing at me she turns around and practically sprints up the stairs to the front door.
I look up at Mark, who grabs my hand and starts leading me along the narrow pathway. "We came all this way, we might as well look inside." I smile up at him, glad that even though we probably won't live here, he loves the idea of having our own home away from the city. "You're right, it won't kill us to have a look."
He smiles back and I glance up at the house, trying to picture it as it looked in the picture. Just before I look back down I see a curtain move and a dark figure peers out before closing it quickly. I stop dead in my tracks and pull on Mark's arm. "Did you see that? Someone's upstairs!"
"I didn't see anything, are you sure?" "Yes, I'm sure!" I let go of his hand and walk up to the woman waiting for us. "Excuse me, is someone living here at the moment?" She looks up from her cell phone, her eyes wide.
"No there shouldn't be anyone here. We have had problems with kids coming in at night to explore, but they're harmless, they think the house is haunted!" She laughs, waving her hand at us. "Its not, of course. It just needs a little TLC, that's all."
"Mark, could you go up stairs and check it out for me? Please?" He kisses my cheek and walks past the woman and into the house. If there's a homeless person squatting in one of the upstairs rooms I'm out of here. After a minute or two Mark comes back out with a huge smile on his face.
"There's nobody here. Kayla, you need to check this place out, it's amazing. " oh, well I'm sure it was just my eyes playing tricks on me. I walk past the woman and into the house, she excuses herself saying she needs to make an urgent phone call but insists that we go on without her.
The first thing I notice when I walk in is a massive mirror, covered in black paint in an old frame, placed on the wall. As I walk through the house, I notice that all the furniture is still here, just covered under white sheets and layers of dust. The living room consists of three large couches, a table, fireplace and a wooden display cabinet containing all sorts of nick nacks.
Walking up the stairs, I notice there are no pictures on any of the walls. When I reach the top of the stairs I see a little trap door in the ceiling right in the middle of the passage. "Mark? Where are you?" "In here!" He calls from the room closest to me. I poke my head in and what I see takes my breath away.
We're standing in a nursery that, unlike the rest of the house, isn't covered in dust and white sheets. The walls are painted a light pink. Theres a white wooden cot in the corner with a rocking chair next to it. An old wooden changing station occupies the right side of the room, above it are all sorts of little teddy bears and children's toys set neatly on shelves.
The gorgeous room pulls at my heart and the longing for a family of my own returns in full force. I walk up to Mark who has his back facing me, when he turns around he's holding a tiny yellow baby shoe in his hands. "I think with a little work, this place could become home for us. We need a new start, a new life. Let's buy it, Kayla. In a place like this, we could start a family and finally settle down.
The look on his face tugs at my heart even more. I can see he wants this, how bad could it be? The inside doesn't need much work and Mark is quite the handyman so he'll be able to fix it up the way we want it. Yes, this could be good for us.
"Yes, let's do it." My heart swells with happiness looking at the excitement on his face, he wraps his long strong arms around me and lifts me up off the ground before giving kissing me sweetly. He rests his forehead on mine and looks into my eyes while he cups my face. "I love you, you know that?" "I love you too, I have such a good feeling about this."
We make our way back downstairs to where the agent is standing outside, waiting patiently. As we approach she looks up, waiting for us to say something first. "We'll take it." The woman's eyes go wide at our words, but she wastes no time taking the papers out of briefcase and handing a pen to Mark. After signing the lease she gives us her banking details and leaves.
Two days later, we pick up the keys and we're standing in front of our new home with just two suitcases and a few mirrors. I managed to get an interview at one of the local bars, luckily that's only tomorrow so I've got the rest of the day to clean up and explore the house a little more.
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