Page 7 of Hidden

Which, I think is accurate, because this is really the first day of my new life.

I press the shutter and move around the room shooting everything, the wardrobe door hanging open at its crooked angle, the desk with its surface still completely empty, and the view from the window which is not spectacular. It's a car park, a stretch of sidewalk and the edge of another building. It’s the sky that’s spectacular it’s doing something extraordinary with the last of the light and I shoot that instead, leaning my elbows on the sill.

My phone buzzes in my back pocket.

I pull it out one-handed, my camera still raised.

Dan, I smile.

Dan

Are you there yet?

I lower the camera and type back with both thumbs.

Been here two hours already. It's so good Dan. I love it.

The three dots appear immediately.

Dan

Send pics.

I grin and scroll back through what I've just shot, the window light, the crooked wardrobe, the empty desk, and send them all at once.

Dan

Why does it look like a prison cell.

Sadie

It does NOT!

Dan

It absolutely does. A very nice prison cell.

Sadie

I hate you.

Dan

No, you don’t.

I'm laughing at my phone, shaking my head. He knows very well I don’t hate him.

I take a photo of my own feet on the bare floor, the camera strap pooling around my ankles, and send that too.

Dan

Artistic. Proud of you kid.

He calls me kid even though I'm only fourteen months younger and I’ve told him approximately eight hundred times that it doesn't work that way.

Sadie

I'll call you tomorrow.