"At least we've got this," Claude exclaimed, grinning cheerfully.
Laura could only glance over his thin shoulders at the wreckage before her. It was a long way from what she was used to, that's for sure.
The house, if you could call it that, had seen better days, with mould creeping up the outside walls, mismatched windows, cracked and boarded up. Trees and bushes, their spindly branches reaching out across the creaky old verandah.
But what added insult to injury, wasn't the piles and piles of rubbish that had collected there.
It was the down and out, sleeping rough in the corner!!!
And to think, this was what she'd been reduced to....
... a major 'fixer-upper', widowed, made redundant and a single parent, all in a matter of weeks.
"You okay there?" Claude was worried.
He'd never seen her like this. In the short time they'd been a family, she'd always been so strong, so happy, so....comforting. He reached forward his arms stretched out, wanting to hug her, but she recoiled, the very idea of being comforted... appalled her.
She was the one who had to be strong..... to hold things together. But she was having difficulty... a LOT of difficulty indeed.
"I'm sorry," she whispered hoarsely, "I'm.... sorry. I just.... can't seem to handle all of this."
She felt ashamed of herself for acting so childish. It was simply a hug, that's all..... a HUG for crying out loud. And she'd hurt his feelings with her brush off and flat refusal.
She turned her shame into anger. Angry because of all the crap that had been thrown at her from every possible angle. And now this..... this..... place..... and it's rotten creaky floorboards and peeling painted window frames......
She looked up at the broken down, derelict house and her heart sank. It was going to cost a fortune to replace practically everything. It would take weeks, maybe months to clear all the clutter that had accumulated.
This was her.... a broken down wreck, in dire need of a 'fixer-upper'. Although what she needed fixing, wouldn't cost much, but it would take months to repair.... or maybe not..... depending on how she was going to cope with this sudden downturn in her luck.
And she needed a job. The insurance premiums from her late husband, came to ... practically nothing. They flatly refused to pay out because of a suicide clause in the small print. Even the sale of their family home, bore little fruit, in the way of ready cash. Most of it had had to go back into paying off her late hubby's HUGE gambling debts.
It was a kick in the teeth, when she'd gone back to work, after a couple of week's 'compassionate leave'. To find that she'd been booted out on her ear.
Hauled into the office, she was confronted by her haughty boss who announced clearly that she was a 'dead weight' in this business. That her continuing absences of late, weren't pulling the company forward and that the temp was better at her job than Laura.
That was the thanks she got for putting in three years' work. Always there when she was needed. Yes, she'd spent a lot of time off lately. Simply because she'd been nursing injuries caused by her abusive ex husband, then his 'face-off' with a sawed-off shotgun. The stress of it all, had almost caused her to have a nervous breakdown.
It was young Claude who'd been the 'backbone', the gentle support etc.
Jonas had been against the adoption in the first place, telling Laura that a kid was a dreadful pull on their resources, and that he was too stuck in his ways to have a kid around the house.
And now, as they stood in front of this run-down 'fixer-upper', the only property she could afford with her settlement. There was a crushing hopelessness surrounding her and she wanted to cry.
She'd planned their future, hers and Claude's, so carefully. They'd have a nice house, live comfortably for the rest of their lives.
And it had gone horribly wrong.
She looked bleakly at Claude, whose cheerful mask slipped slightly, before sliding back into place.
"There's some woods over there," he said, pointing behind her, "we could explore and stuff, like we used to back......."
He trailed off, biting his lip. He'd done it again. Upset her.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"No, no, you shouldn't be Claude," she replied, wiping away a stray tear, "I'm the one getting all upset here. This should be a cause for celebration. It's a change in direction for the two of us. A brand new start!"
With that, she pulled him close, wrapping her arms around him in a firm hug.
"We'll get through this," she said quietly, "you'll see."
Claude just hoped so, as his optimism was only valid for a limited time only. And Laura's mood swings were starting to wear him thin.
