Alice already had her door fob in her hand when she reached her stairwell, still high from the day. Yeah the day had been excellent, a whole day of doing Alice stuff, no one else’s. Not that she’d really done very much, caught the bus over to the next town, a bit of window shopping, lunch in ‘Spoons before slipping in to the Odeon to watch an admittedly lame addition to the Fast and Furious series.

Well okay, it was hardly a girly flick but she wasn’t the only girl in the theatre although the others were all with at least one male of the species. The bus ride back took over an hour as she’d taken the slow bus rather than the X. Back in doors, cup of tea, then settle in front of the idiot box to catch up on Sunday’s Poldark.

Except the fob wasn’t working, the damn thing just wasn’t releasing the lock mechanism. She didn’t really know any of the neighbours and despite trying the intercom she couldn’t raise anyone anyhow. Now what?

Ring the council? Not ideal but how else could she get back to her flat? Of course her phone had migrated to the bottom of her bag, forgotten for the day of Alice time, which was probably how she’d missed the two texts that popped up.

The first one was from the council repairs people, ‘blah de blah de blah – repairs to your property.’ Huh? Repairs? She hadn’t been expecting any repairs to be done today, maybe it was something to do with the problem with the door.

She flicked to the second message which was timed just after lunch. What? She read it again, ‘we have now repossessed the property, please contact us asap to arrange removal of your possessions’. No, it can’t be right.

“hello, I’ve just had a message from you to arrange to collect my possessions?”
The rest of the conversation was short but life changing.
“so er when can I get in?” she asked with some dread.
“tomorrow morning, say nine o’clock?” the council chap suggested, “do you have somewhere to go?”
“er I think so.”
“we’ll see you in the morning then.”
“um, yeah, the morning.”

The call ended, she slumped down onto the low wall opposite the block entrance, for the first time aware of the cool breeze that now blew around her bare legs. She couldn’t blame anyone but herself for the eviction, there had been letters about the rent but she’d ignored them. It wasn’t even that she didn’t have the money, things were tight but not that tight, no it was a sort of denial that there was an issue at all.

What now? Indeed where now? For all intents and purposes her possessions currently ran to what she was stood in, a summer frock, a pair of low heels and – well what was in her handbag. Not exactly warm or suitable to spend the night, well there’s nothing for it.

She hit the speed dial.
“Mum, I’ve got a bit of a situation.”
“what sort of situation,” her mum sighed.
“I’ve been evicted? I’ve literally got what I’m stood up in.”
“I suppose you want picking up?”
“it won’t be for long.”
There was another sigh at the end of the line, “Christopher, what are we going to do with you?”

© Maddy Bell 14/08/2019