Landlord

A Story by SasMaeRic

Short story I wrote for a piece of homework when I was fourteen. From the perspective of a young child.

"Tidy up Elsie, the landlord's coming soon! We can't have this place looking like a dump." I heard my Daddy say to Mummy.

We can't have this place looking like a dump? It looks like a dump anyway. It smells of mould and damp, I'm hungry because we have no food and I don't understand why we don't have any because I saw Mummy and Daddy had sugar in the kitchen earlier and they wouldn't give Ellie and I any and they're so mean. Mummy and Daddy are tidying up and I can tell they're scared of our landlord... I don't know what a landlord is but I'm scared of it. Mummy and Daddy continue talking but I feel really hungry.

"Mummy, I'm hungry!" I whine. I hate that they never give me any attention; maybe if they know I'm hungry they'll feed me.

"You'll have to wait until later." Dad said.

My Daddy is mean when he has too much of that special stuff to drink and it makes him smelly, but he always says it makes him happy and not angry, so I just go along with it. My sister Ellie says, "Dad, the sugar you were sniffing earlier is on the table, go clean it up, the landlord's coming."

All of a sudden there is a knock at the door, and everyone looks scared, I think it's because of whatever this landlord thing is. Maybe it's something that judges your house and moves you into a better one. Ellie and I go up to the door and the landlord is a man. He says we are evicted and we need to be out by tomorrow morning, so I see Mummy start to cry and say bad words at him that I've never heard before. I don't like it when my Mummy cries. We have to leave our house and we have bin-bags to tidy up all our stuff. I don't know why everyone is upset, maybe we can live somewhere that gives us food, that doesn't have broken windows and mould all over the walls.

Daddy just sits on the floor and I'm scared to ask him what's wrong. Sometimes when I ask 'silly' questions he pulls my hair and makes me cry on purpose; if Mummy tells him off, he hits her.

We take all our bags into the wind and rain and find somewhere new.