Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.
Chapter 2– Alone Again.
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"Something serious, huh? Just what exactly is this about?" I ask, concerned, never having heard this tone of voice from Mummy Mee in my entire life, having only heard kindness and sometimes her stern voice, but right now, she is all business. There is no emotion to be seen on her face, Daddy Dee is trying to emulate her but can't quite manage it as he looks a little sad but resigned next to her, and they both look at one another as if to confirm something before they turn their gazes back to me.
"I am sorry, Detoro, but you can no longer live in the orphanage. There are too many issues caused by your continued presence here, the other children are afraid of you, and they are scared to leave their rooms in fear of running into you, so for the sake of all the other children within this building, we have to remove you from it." I remain absolutely motionless, shocked and in disbelief at the words that leave her mouth, and I don't know how to react in this situation. this is just so unbelievably unfair.
First of all, those other kids started picking on me and beating me up, and when the situation changed, I was beating them up in return, but I only ever fought with people who started the fight with me. Otherwise, I would just ignore them. of course, I became a bit antagonistic to goad them into fights as I got a little battle manic, but they could have easily restrained themselves and not acted as they already knew they would be beaten up. Still, they decided to do so and then started coming at me with even more significant numbers, so they can only blame themselves.
"B-But I- Where, where am I going to go? You can't just kick me out. how will I feed and clothe myself?" I nearly voice my frustration at the situation and the unfairness of it all. Still, I am mature enough to know that they already know the ins and outs of the case and what is actually going on, but even so, they have to think about the majority and me being the problem in an issue that can't be solved.
The easiest solution is to just remove the problematic piece from the equation to get things working again. I understand that, and so I don't complain, knowing it would be a waste of breath. I will be leaving this place for sure, but all I need to do now is find out precisely what happens after that and how I am expected to survive.
"We are an orphanage that is funded by the World Government Detoro. for every child that resides here, we are given a certain amount of berries to provide that child with everything they need, such as food, water, clothes and any other sort of expenses that they need to survive and live healthy lives. So while you may be leaving the building, we will still regard you as one of the children that live at the orphanage." I nod my head, not voicing my dissatisfaction with the situation.
"When the World Government delivers the funds every month, we will take the amount of one child and give it to you as a stipend, this should be enough to buy yourself anything you may need, but unfortunately, we can't have you living at anybody else's house in the village as that would make your orphan status null which would stop your stipend and everybody in the village only has enough for themselves until the harvest comes. So they won't be able to accept another person in their home." Mummy Mee says with a stoic expression.
Daddy Dee then cuts in. "Of course, we would not leave you without a place to sleep or a roof over your head. Myself and Daddy Dee are both technically employed by the World Government, so we are paid a good amount for our work, and with a portion of our money, we have managed to procure a small home for you, which is next to the beach. So with that, you should have everything you need." Daddy Dee finishes, and I once again find myself speechless, but this time it is due to the kindness shown by both Mummy Mee and Daddy Dee.
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Shokuyasi Village is a coastal village that resides by the sea and is quite a while away from the other towns that are in close contact with each other, and that is because between Shokuyasi Village. The other village is a massive rice field which is the main harvest on the island. This means we are pretty cut off from the other towns due to the significant difference, but that also means that everyone in the village is pretty familiar with each other. Not a lot of people are moving into the town, and so there are exactly the amount of houses in the town for the population of the village.
However, right here on the beach is my new house which is basically just a small wooden shack (small for an adult, big enough for a child). There are actually no other houses on the beach near it for some reason, even though it seems like quite a good location, but I don't question my good luck as this will make for quite the private home where I can be myself and have fun.
"Okay, Detoro, this is now your new home. From here on, you are responsible for your own home and well-being, use your stipend wisely, and if you want any more furniture or luxuries or you have to make repairs to your home, you will have to take care of those yourself. So look after yourself, Detoro. if you ever need any help, just ask but keep in mind that we are not miracle makers, and we have a full orphanage of children to look after." Mummy Mee says with a professional tone and face with Daddy Dee by her side, who nods along with her words.
They both go to leave, but suddenly Mummy Mee stops taking me by surprise as she suddenly turns around and lunges to pull me into a quick, powerful hug. All I can do is stare at Daddy Dee, who just shrugs helplessly at me, and then she lets go and turns around before walking off back to the orphanage with Daddy Dee following her coattails.
I watch them go into the distance, and I keep observing as they move farther and farther away and slowly fade out of sight, and then they are gone. So I watch for a little longer just to make sure and affirm that they will not be coming back for me, I wait a good ten minutes, and they are not back, which means I am now officially on my own.
I pull out the key given to me by Mummy Mee and Daddy Dee and unlock the front door of my house and enter to lay sight on the inside, which is surprisingly sparse, having only a bed in the left corner with a bedside drawer, a small wardrobe near the end of the bed, a kitchen in the front right corner with a wooden stool placed in front of the counter which finishes of the meagre inside of my tiny house.
However, I suppose it is enough for a kid that lives on his own. With the door now unlocked, I go back outside to collect my luggage which Daddy Dee carried here for me. It is just a minor case which holds my clothes and a few of the items I was able to scramble together in my time at the orphanage.
Dragging the bag inside, I kick the door closed behind me with my foot and then lug the bag on top of the bed before unzipping it and beginning to place the contents in their new locations in the house. as I am doing so, I decided to look at the silver lining which is this nifty little house that is secluded and seems to be very well made. This house is actually a steal. It's a wonder why no one ever bought it before Mummy Mee did for me. I really lucked out, didn't I?
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Drip. Drip. Drip.
Water was leaking through the roof, and I had to place some of my cups, plates and bowls in strategic places to capture the water drops, which also meant that I had to move my bed into the very centre of the room where no water dropped. Also, it was freezing, and I only had one duvet for myself, which wasn't enough to keep me warm.
I am sure that when Mummy Mee and Daddy Dee looked at this property, they didn't see any problems with it, and that would be very true as it hadn't rained for nearly a week, which meant the signs of slight water damage were not that obvious. However, since we had hot sun all week, it was hot as well, so I can't blame them for accidentally buying a less-than-ideal house for me. I can't even complain since they had no obligation to do it and did so out of the kindness of their own hearts, which means that I am going to have to stick with this place.
Not being able to sleep, I get out of bed and light the lanterns in the room. As I pass by the front door while doing so, I reach out a hand and pull the handle just to check that it is locked. When it is, I give a sigh of relief, being scared that I had forgotten to lock it on the first night alone in a new place and afraid that someone might come in during the night, having lit up the room and having nothing better to do I begin to properly inspect my new home and discover all the other defects that have been hidden.
After a long inspection, I had found a lot of things about the room, all of which assured me that the former owner of this house was a dick. They must have gotten fortunate to have been blessed with good weather, and then when they heard that someone was looking for a home, they quickly went and hid all of the bad things in the house in a desperate bid to see it, and unluckily the orphanage owners fell for the ploy.
I had discovered that the entire floor had been painted to cover up the water damage, they had hung a mesh kind of material across the top of the room to hide the roof, under my mattress, most of the wooden supports were broken as well as the springs in the matters also being broken, and the worst thing I had discovered was that when I moved the wardrobe out of the way there was a big child-sized hole in the wall and that's why the room is so cold. The bastard former owner just covered it up with the wardrobe.
Even so, I can't call them out on it because if I do, then that means he will be exposed in front of the village, and while that is good. But ultimately, it won't mean that my housing situation will be resolved as the contracts are already signed, and the house has been sold. But, still, most importantly, if I do expose him, then Mummy Mee and Daddy Dee are going to find out, and they will be mortified they gave me such a decrepit and shoddy home, and I don't want them to experience the guilt they will feel as they are good decent people.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Resolving myself, I decide that I will deal with all of this stuff tomorrow and get set out on making a plan to fix this place and turn this house into a home, feeling that I should at least get some sleep in preparation for tomorrow I go and blow out all of the candles and walk back to the bed and- OH CRAP! Who the hell left that pot on the floor, and why is my arm now so cold now, looking up I am face to face with a wooden wall, and when I look down, I can see my arm going through it, and it is getting incredibly wet and cold, so I pull it back in, but now I am left with the new problem.
Deciding to take a leaf out of the former owner's handbook, I walk over and drag the bedside table over in front of the new hole and then climb back into bed. I huddle up inside my duvet and curl in on myself, hoping that tomorrow will be a better day than today.
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I am currently in one of the only bookstores in Shokuyasi village, and I am staring at a carpentry book for idiots which costs ฿400, and I am thinking. Still, whether to buy it or not since I could just find some planks of wood and nail them onto the walls to cover the holes, which would make shoddy repairs. I also have to think about my money situation, yesterday Mummy Mee gave me my stipend for this month, which was ฿10,000, which I thought was a lot of money, but that was only because I had never had to buy things for myself.
After a bit of exploration today, I discovered that things are not as easy as I thought they were. After visiting all the shops and finding everything I would need to live through the month, I made a few calculations in my head and discovered that I would not have much extra money left over at the end of the month. The things I would need to buy are a loaf of bread for breakfast, some apples or other fruit for lunch, some meat and flavourings for dinner, and I would also need to purchase water for all my meals as well as I can't drink seawater. Finally, I would buy some new things for the house.
A loaf of bread costs ฿100, and it would last about a week, which means I need to buy four loaves for the month. A bunch of apples or fruit costs ฿60, and I would be eating a bunch a day, meaning 7 bunches a week which is ฿420. I would be buying some fresh meat along with seasoning every day to eat so I grow up big and strong with the proper nutrients so that would mean ฿250 for a day and ฿1,750 for a week. Finally, I would need to buy some water for the week, which is thankfully cheap at ฿155 since we are literally surrounded by the stuff.
All in all, when considering the costs and then stretching out the calculations to cover an entire month, it would result in ฿400 a month for the loaves of bread, ฿1,680 for the fruits a month, ฿7,000 a month for the meat and seasoning and finally ฿620 for enough water to last the month which all adds up to a sum of ฿9,700 which leaves just ฿300 for my own personal use but right now I need ฿400 just to buy the beginners guide to carpentry so that I can start to fix up my home which I will be living in for the foreseeable future.
I guess while I do need all the food I can get to grow up big and strong, I can just buy fewer bunches of fruits as the bread and meat will provide most of my sustenance. The fruit was just to be healthy, and I could use the extra money to buy the other things I needed. If I eat just 3 fruits a day instead of 4, I can cut down my monthly cost of fruit by ฿420, which would make my outcome a month ฿9,280 and leave me ฿720 for my own spending, which means I can buy this book and then still have ฿320 left over to buy some other stuff.
"You have been staring pretty hard at the book in your hands for quite some time, young'un. Why would a child like you be thinking about learning carpentry?" An old man wearing glasses and generic nice old guy clothes appears out of nowhere with a bushy moustache and a kind smile on his face. as he looks down at me and as I look back at him, the word 'Flanders' flashes through my mind, which must be from my previous life and this guy, and his atmosphere just reminds me of a Flanders whatever the hell one of those things are.
"Ah, I just wanted to try fixing some stuff at my home. There are a few broken things, and I want to fix them and to fix them I need this book so that I can figure out how to fix them. Still, I just wondered if I had enough money as it is quite expensive for a child like me," I say to him while looking down at the book and resolving myself to buy this book and start learning about this stuff so I can turn this shoddy little wooden house by the beach into a great home. Maybe if I turn out good at this, I can make a career out of this and renovate and flip houses in the future since the world might change, but appearance, greed, and profit do not.
"Oh ho, and here I thought all the kids in this village were more bothered about playing pirates and marines and goofing around. To think there would actually be a diligent and thoughtful child in this village brings an old man joy. Because of that, I am willing to sell that book to you at a discounted price of 75%, and then in a few years, there will be a new carpenter around to come make new shelves for my books and fix things around my home, at least I hope so." He says, and I am quick to respond with a yes as this 75% price means it will cost only ฿300, which is the exact amount of money I had leftover in my first calculation.
But even so, I will stick to the new estimates as I may need to buy more stuff in the future. So I go to reach into my pockets for the money before I realise that I don't have any on me and I can tell the old man realises that as well by the look on my face but I quickly pass him the book and tell him to hold it for me as I am going to run back home to get my money.
I run through the village all the way to the outskirts and then through the open fields till I get to my home and quickly fish out the key from my pocket and unlock the door before closing and locking it behind me and then reaching under my bed that is still in the middle of the room and removing one of the wooden planks and fishing out my money, making some quick calculations of what I need I take ฿1,120 which should pay for all my food for the week and my meat for the day as well as that book that I desperately need.
Quickly hiding my stash of money under the wooden planks again and locking the house up, I run back through the village with my money safely stored inside my pants pocket and avoiding people as much as possible scared that I may bump into them and the money will fall out, or someone will swipe the money from my pocket, and I finally make it back to the bookstore which I enter with excitement and spot the old man sitting behind the counter.
"I am back. Here is the ฿300 for the book. I can't wait to read it and then get to fixing the house. Just watch. I am going to make it into a mansion." I blurt out excitedly as I dig into my pocket and whip out the bundle of cash before counting out ฿300 and handing it over to the man, and then pushing the rest of the money back into my pocket and waiting for the old man to hand over the book to me.
"Ha, you sure are excited, aren't ya? A mansion, ya say? I'll wait till I see it. That's also a lot of money you got there. Do you want to buy more than one book? Because if so, I have a lot of good books that I think will serve a good lad like you well." He says, taking the money from me, pulling out the book from inside his desk, and putting it into a bag before handing it over to me. I get a bit worried when he questions the amount of money I have in my possession, but then I remember that this man gave me a discount and he was also helpful, so he is a good person.
"Ah, this money isn't for more books. It is for all my groceries for this week. I need to buy a lot of food to last the week, which is why I am glad that you gave me a discounted price. Otherwise, I would not have been able to buy the book. Thanks, Oji-San." I say to him with a happy smile on my face as I take the bag with the book inside. This book is the key to starting fixing up my house and turning the home that Mummy Mee and Daddy Dee bought for me into something magnificent.
"Haha, is that so? Then feel free to come around often, and you can sit around and read some books. I could do with some company as this old shop can get quite lonely sometimes. But you will have to buy any books you want to take back home. see ya later, young'un." Saying so, he waves me goodbye as I walk out of the door and go on my way to buy my groceries for the day and source some fresh meat to cook for dinner when I get home.
And then, after eating, I can start reading my book. One thing for sure is that I am gonna take that old man up on his offer and begin reading books at his shop because I don't really have much else to do all day, and I can learn even more instead of buying loads of books. Right now, though, I am going to have to start shopping for food and then, after that, carry it all home. So it isn't that hard to live by yourself.
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Right now, I am at home in bed and reading my newly bought book in my bed after a long day of shopping and cooking my dinner, which was just some beef that I managed to procure from one of the farmers and which I burned quite a bit on my oven which I am grateful for working considering that I forget to check that and if it didn't I would have just had some raw meat and been able to do nothing with it.
Buying the seasonings was a great call because even if I burnt the food so much so that it basically tasted like charcoal, I was able to season and flavour it, which made the taste much better in my mouth. However, it still wasn't as good as what was served at the orphanage.
After that, I went and explored the surroundings of my house for a while, but there were only some woods close by. So the rest of it was pretty deserted, which was just great for me as it meant that I could easily bathe myself in the sea instead of looking at other possibly expensive options. This way, all I had to do was make sure I stayed in the shallow waters and kept a watch out for any fish or dangerous aquatic creatures. Then when it was getting dark, I decided to go to bed early and read my book by candlelight.
Still, I realised that I had made a mistake when I was freezing in my bed, having forgotten how cold my home was. So it was a blessing that it was not raining right now, which I comforted myself with as I huddled up under the duvet and resolved to learn everything in this book so that I could sleep well at night.
I am really learning a lot from this book, and I am feeling very optimistic about the future and just how many repairs I am going to make on this structure starting tomorrow. I am going to use a hammer and some wood to start fixing up those holes and nailing some wood in.
I am going to use a saw to cut some wood exactly to create some new skirting boards to put around the room to protect the bottom of the wall, as I am liable to kick it in with my occasional bouts of clumsiness. I am going to replace all the wood in the structure little by little and get rid of the rotting wood, I am gonna make new drawers and cupboards for all the excellent possessions I am going to have in the future, and I am going to use a ham-
I don't have a hammer, I don't have any equipment, and I don't have any material or nails either. I don't have anything I need to repair this building, and I most likely don't have enough money to buy it with my current stipend. I can't get equipment or material to improve my home without money. I only get ฿10,000 a month which primarily covers my food leaving only a little left for other things, which means to make any sort of improvement on this home, I am going to have to figure out how to get more money.
Then it is settled. I am going to go to sleep, and then tomorrow morning, I am going to try and figure out a way to acquire more money so that I can fix up my home and no longer be so cold at night. I am going to make something out of this shoddy house. I won't give up, no matter how difficult it might seem.