Safe Haven (Image 1)
Tobi threw her bag into the room ahead of her, shut the door behind herself, and slumped with a heavy sigh onto the floor. A tentative, “Mrow”, sounded from under her bed as two beady black eyes peeked out at her.
“Sorry, did I scare you?” Tobi crouched onto the plush green carpet, she liked to imagine it as grass beneath her bare feet sometimes, and coxed her kitten, Mooki, out from his hiding place. Mooki’s tiny paws and legs almost disappeared completely within the thick carpet, making him look like a floating body as he made his way into Tobi’s outstretched arms. Scooping him up close to her face, Tobi sneezed violently, once more frightening Mooki who dug his claws into her arm. Wincing in pain, she stroked his back reassuringly and peeked under her bed. Sure enough, everything she had stashed under there, posters, old dolls, candy wrappers, and other useless treasures, was covered in a thin layer of dust, making the underside of her bed look almost like a winter wonderland. She briefly considered cleaning, but something outside her window caught her attention. A small ray of sunshine had found its way through the clouds and hit her window pane in such a way as to make the glass glisten with the promise of clear skies. Tobi pressed her forehead against the smooth glass and sighed wistfully, fogging up a small circle of glass. Raindrops trickled past her eyes as she looked out at the dreary scene below. One of the downsides to living in Seattle, Washington, at least for Tobi, was the almost constant rain. Despite having a “boyish” name, Tobi was a girly-girl through and through. To make up for the lack of sun in her life, Tobi had had her room painted in a cheery, sunshine yellow with pink and blue flower trimming when she was 5 years old. Eleven years later, the colors still appealed to her. Her bed was covered in a soft, lacey coverlet that her grandmother had embroidered with pink and yellow roses, and she kept a pair of hand-sewn dolls propped against her pillows. On those rare occasions when the sun was shining, Tobi could pull back her rose colored curtains and everything in her room would glisten.
Upon entering her room, one might assume one was in a small child’s room. The bright colors and flowers gave a very light, innocent feel to the space. One of the few signs of her actual age was Tobi’s desk. Her desk sat on the other side of the window from her bed, angled toward the corner of the room so as to take up a bit more space. Her hand-me-down Macintosh computer sat amongst stacks of school books and papers consisting of homework, doodles, and notes that had been passed during class time. The desk was white and, of course, had small painted daisies scattered about to decorate the drawers. A solitary picture frame stood to the right of the monitor, a simple black frame, holding a picture of a small child and a woman laughing in a park. It was the only photograph Tobi had in her room, and it was her most treasured. She let out a sigh as she looked at it now, the smiling faces beaming up at her from behind the messy pile of homework she still had to complete. Mooki began to squirm in her arms, so she dropped him to the ground and he scampered off to his cat bed. Tobi had gotten creative with her placement of Mooki’s sleeping space. In the first few weeks she had him he had slept with her, but after a few nights of rolling over and being clawed in the face she decided it was time to give him a place of his own. A small bookcase stood to the left of her bed, a simple vase of plastic flowers sat on top, a row of devotional books and a Bible occupied the top shelf, and on the bottom, curled into a tight ball, Mooki was curled up in his blue and white checkered cat bed. This was a much better solution than having his bed placed somewhere on the floor where it was liable to be stepped on, and he was close enough to Tobi at night that if either one of them got lonely they could easily find the other.
The thin stream of sunlight from her window fell on a small column of books on her shelf across the room. In her younger years that space had been occupied by a doll house, and a small table with matching chairs and a play tea set. Now, a white bookshelf that matched her desk stood there, reaching from floor to ceiling, but only taking up about a fourth of the wall space. Tobi’s reading chair, a bowl-like purple seat that was big enough to curl up in with the pink fleece blanket she had draped over the side, sat to the bookshelf’s right in the corner. Tobi’s retro flower lamp sat in between the two. There were three separate flowers with their own bulbs that could be angled wherever the user chose. Tobi had turned the lower most one, a yellow flower, down to her reading chair, the middle one, a pink flower, shone on her bookshelf, and the top purple flower pointed toward her bed. At night, Tobi could turn on her lamp, turn the other lights off, and have just enough light to curl up with a good book, place it back on the shelf, and find her way back to her bed. A lot of times during winter this was exactly what she did, and she usually had a cup of hot cocoa or tea with her. Right now an empty mug sat by the chair, another reminder of the cleaning she needed to do.
Mooki suddenly flashed by, disappearing behind the beaded divider Tobi had set up to her bathroom. There was no question what he had to do. Tobi’s bathroom, or her sink at least, was connected to her room. An opening about the size of her bedroom door connected the two along the wall her desk and chair were nearest. Flower beads, mostly from Mardi Gras, hung down to the floor as a sort of division between the two spaces. Tobi pushed back the beads now, surveying her bathroom, and being careful not to look under the sink. A full length mirror ran across the counter that held her sink, and all her necessities. Makeup bags littered the countertop, and an old ballerina music box stood open, jewelry spilling forth from its mouth. Tobi had given her mother a bit of a break on decorating the bathroom, and had tropical fish wallpaper put up. Her towels, one of which hung to her right as she looked at the mirror, were simple white cloth with swimming fish on the edges. A door to her right was closed, meaning her sister was currently using the toilet. That door, along with her bedroom door, marked the end of Tobi’s “territory”. She counted herself blessed to have her own sink and mirror, sharing a shower and toilet wasn’t half as bad when she could come in here and finish her daily preparations in peace. To Tobi’s left was another door, this one slightly ajar, leading to her walk-in closet. Tobi never thought of herself as spoiled, but if she needed a reason to, that closet was it. All her clothes hung neatly on the racks, or were folded on top of the shelves. Games were stacked on the very back shelf, easy to get to if she or her sister wanted to race in and grab something, and all of her shoes were hung on the shoe rack she had lovingly hung on the back of the door. Tobi didn’t much care about clothes, but shoes were her favorite. She had a wide variety of sandals, boots, and heels, and two pairs of sneakers for gym. What she couldn’t fit on the rack on her door, she laid out neatly underneath the hanging clothes so she could easily slip them on and go.
Mooki gently rubbed against her leg, letting Tobi know he was done with his business and she should do hers. Directly under her sink were cabinets which contained extra toilet paper, shampoo, her hairdryer, etc. In one cabinet door however, a small kitty-door had been cut out, similar to the one on the front door of their house. Behind there lay Mooki’s litter box. It was less of an eye sore here, and just as his bed, not liable to be stepped on or in. Tobi cleaned it now, knowing Mooki was picky about a tidy box.
Suddenly, her watch beeped. Tobi glanced at it and sighed. It was 5:30, time to go get dinner started. She quickly rinsed off her hands in her sink, and then brushed past the beads to her room. Glancing longingly one last time at the fading sunlight coming through her window, she opened the door and left her sanctuary, eager to come back soon.
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