The Boarding House

I live in a boarding house

It's a big house with lots of rooms

Some Lodgers come and go and others stay for a long time

My mother owns and runs the house

We have one room that's always empty

It has things in it

It's a traveling musicians things

He's a blind man that I rarely ever see

But he showed up today

Mom said he used to come through town regularly but it's become more famous and wasn't coming through small towns like ours as often anymore

He told mom he finally made enough money and bought his own house

So you he could take his things that he had been leaving in the room and the room could be rented out to someone else

He's funny and clever and charismatic

I think my mom likes having performers like musicians staying

They do the same to brighten up the place and everyone seems more lively and entertained by them

There's not much to do in our tiny town out here in the Sticks

Other than work and read books

That is what books you can get your hands on

Trade borrow or buy books or precious Commodities out here

Sometimes one of the borders will read out stories

We always look forward to the Christmas season when we read out the same stories every time like the Night Before Christmas and sometimes there will be an exciting new story by Charles Dickens or Louisa May Alcott or maybe even Mark Twain or LM Montgomery

Put on all like to read out their books sometimes they keep them to themselves and everyone sits quietly while people smoke and Whittle and so in the common room

We all get together and eat and if there is any news we share it

Some of the borders are really talkative While others barely say a word Messier neat they all seem to be a bit different

I mainly clean up people's rooms while they're away at work and help cook and clean the common room

Mama says I need to focus on my education even though I'm grown I still struggle with things that small children can seem to do sometimes

My sister said that we were treated like slaves barely paid it all for the work we did and she couldn't wait to get married and get out of here

But to me it's home and the only life I have ever known

We might live in a tiny muddytown out in the middle of nowhere

But it's still home to me