A NEW LIFE

 

By Atonia

Nestled on a low rise amongst a copse of trees near the creek sat a new stone house with a tiled roof fully furnished and with the beginnings of an English garden. The new owners of this house were still up in the air.

The smell of coffee had awakened Toni and she sat up looking out surprised to see land below them at last. She turned to see Ritchie still out and reached over brushing his hair out of his face.

“Hey, Richie we’re almost there time to wakey.”

“Hummpf, what is it babe?”

“Coffee is coming Richie wake up.”

He straightened himself up bringing the seat back to sitting position, “is that land?”

They had been in the air forever from New York to LA to Australia and after a long trip through immigration and finding their luggage they were in the car park loading the back of the Land Rover.

“Toni, the steering wheel is on the wrong side.”

“Oh so it is I forgot about that, want me to drive?”

“Are you kidding?”

“I have driven on the left side you know when I lived in England.”

“Hey, in the car,” he gave her bottom an affectionate pat.

Richie studied the controls for a minute and started the Rover driving around the parking lot a couple of times before heading out.

“Toni…something tells me we ain’t in Kansas anymore.”

“No love we’re downunder and in for a culture shock, oh Richie you can breathe the air,” she said rolling down the window.”

Richie was indeed in for a culture shock; he’d never lived anywhere except New Jersey and had never lived in a house. He was excited and nervous and gave his gum a workout.

Toni was part British and had lived part of her life in Yorkshire before moving with her family to Virginia. An unlikely pairing of a southern/British woman and a New Jersey Jewish lawyer had raised eyebrows in her family who still lived in Virginia. After college Toni ended up in New Jersey living with a friend and working as a physical therapist. She first encountered Ritchie in a bar where he bought her a drink, winking from across the bar. She thought he was attractive and smiled at him, only to see the long legged blond emerge from the ladies room and reclaim him. She pushed the drink back and gave him a dirty look.

Their next meeting came in her therapy room, Richie had been shot in the left shoulder on the court house steps by a disgruntled relative of a former client and now was looking at eight weeks of therapy to get his shoulder and arm working again. He hit on her before she had the electrodes attached to his skin.

He was persistent and she finally gave in after many therapy sessions and went out with him. That was two years ago and they had never looked back. The letter notifying her of her inheritance couldn’t have come at a better time. She had just survived a bruising mugging and had enough of the mean streets around Richie’s apartment. She had been surprised that Richie was ready for a change too thinking she was going to have to do some pretty fast talking to get him out of New Jersey.

Many hours had been spent on designing the house and furnishings. Richie pretty much agreed to everything she wanted, having no clue as to what a house really needed. He only asked for a weight room so he could work out and a big flat screen TV.

“We’re getting closer, closer, I can’t wait, can’t wait!” Toni was bouncing on the seat

Richie laughed, “Hey calm down and tell me which side of the road is the turn off?”

Toni dug around in her seat and found the instructions, “it’s on the right, there’s a drive way.”

“That shouldn’t be hard to find, prob’ly the only one out here,”

“Oh there’s more, I’m not sure how many of my cousins have moved out here yet, it’s all new a new community.”

Richie stopped the car and backed up turning onto the drive that took them up to the house. “Well I’ll be damned.” He said his eyes wide, “You sure this is it?”

Toni jumped out of the car dancing around waiting for him to get out of his seatbelt. “Its beautiful and its ours Richie, hurry.”

Richie grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to him kissing her long and soundly, “I don’t know how to thank you for this Toni, I love you.”

“This is for us Richie, a home of our own, now lets go check it out, there should be a bedroom.” She said arching an eyebrow.

“Let me carry you over the threshold, let’s do it right okay?”

He carried her over the threshold and up the stairs to their master suite where a king sized bed awaited the weight of their bodies.