I was jolted awake by the screech of speakers, bumping my head against the window I was leaning against. I lowered my hood, squinting in the sudden brightness, as the train compartment I was in slowly came into focus. I raised my arms above my head in a much needed stretch, a large yawn escaping me. The screeching of the speakers finally stopped as the Conductors voice came through.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we will shortly be arriving in Ballarat. Please check your seats and surroundings to insure you have all your belongings. Thank you." he said.

Finally, I thought, as I leaned forward to get my backpack from under the seat. Shaking off the last bit of sleep, I stood up slinging the backpack over my shoulder as I reached up into the luggage rack to get my duffel bag. Thus equipped with the majority of my worldly possessions I headed towards the nearest door.

I stretched my legs while I waited and it wasn't long before the train started to slow. Looking out the window I could see the train station so I picked up my bags and moved to the door. The train crawled into the station and ground to a halt, I pushed the button to open the door and stepped out onto the platform.

I guess now would be a good time for introductions. Hello, my name is Jack Weaver, I’m 29 years old, roughly 5’10” tall, slim with short dark brown hair and hazel eyes. If I had to describe myself with one word it would be “Average”.

Now that the introductions are out of the way, let us continue.

I walked down the platform and exited the train station, heading toward the taxi rank. The taxi rank was empty so I sat down and took a bottle of water from my backpack and decided to wait. I sipped the water and within a couple of minutes a taxi arrived, I put my bags in the back seat hopped in, gave the driver my address and away we went.

Now seems as good a time as any to fill you in on the rest of me, so here goes: The reason for me carrying the majority of my possessions upon my back is that today is moving day. I had decided a month ago that due to increased cost of living in Melbourne, and the fact that I never really enjoyed the city anyway, that a move was in order.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Luckily my job could be done from anywhere as long as I could access the internet. I make my living as a Researcher. Basically people pay me to find information for them. Thankfully, I’m quite good at it.

I had chosen to move to Ballarat after a few days of research and found it fit my criteria. It was a relatively cheap place to live, decent infrastructure, population just over 100k and it had history, being the site of a major gold rush in the latter half of the 1800’s and has the honor of being the home of the Eureka Rebellion, the only armed rebellion in Australian history.

This was not my first time in the town as I had come here twice in the previous weeks to look around and find a nice quiet place to rent. The town, like most old towns, was a mix of the antique and the modern. Large stone buildings took up most of the real estate in the main part of town with the buildings getting more modern as you moved from the center.

The place I had chosen to rent was only a five minute drive from the train station so it didn’t take long to arrive. I paid the cabbie as we pulled up to the house, grabbed my bags and exited the taxi.

The house itself was a small 2 bedroom, 1 bath with a tiny backyard and equally small front yard. It was only me living here and I don’t require all that much room. Aside from the stuff in the bags my bed, computer and everything else that was too large or heavy for me to take on the train would be arriving tomorrow, in the care of the removalists I had hired.

Walking to the front door I unlocked it and entered my new home. It was getting dark outside, but inside it was already pitch black. I took my phone from my pocket and switched on the torch function. The electricity wouldn’t be switched on until sometime tomorrow, not that it mattered at the moment seeing as the only electronics I had on me were my phone, a powerbank for the phone and the electric lantern I had picked up for tonight.

Moving my phone around I shone the light around the entry hallway. The walls were cream colored and the carpets dark gray. I walked down the hall into the living room and dumped my bags on the ground. The house smelled musty so I continued on through the house, opening windows a little as I went to let the rooms air out. A cool September breeze slowly freshened the air.

That done, I headed back to the living room, which was to be my bedroom for the night. I opened the backpack and took out my water, snacks and the electric lantern. I turned the lantern on and switched off the torch on my phone. I then took a sleeping bag out of the backpack and unrolled it on the floor.

Sitting down on top of the sleeping bag I took my snacks and water and had something to eat. While doing that I checked my emails on my phone and because I had nothing else to do at the moment I watched some stuff on Youtube for a while.

A yawn made me realize it was starting to get late so I plugged my phone into the powerbank and set about getting ready for bed. I didn’t feel like showering, so I changed into my pajamas and went to close the windows I had opened. After a brief stop to empty my bladder I returned to the living room and got into my sleeping bag.

Checking my phone it was 11:20 pm. I double checked my alarm to make sure I was awake when the removalists arrived in the morning. That done I switched off the lantern and tried to make myself as comfortable as I could.

I laid there staring at the ceiling for a while, going over my plans for tomorrow. I probably should have brought a pillow. I finally managed a comfortable position and even without the pillow it didn’t take much longer before sleep claimed me.