Choice of The Alpha

1.3

I looked out the window at the house we were pulling up to. I was shocked at how massive the place was. It was a sky-blue two-story house with a screened in front porch. On the porch was a cute little white porch swing. The yard took up the entire block and had an eight-foot privacy fence around it. There was a matching blue two car garage at the end of the driveway.

The driveway was lined with lilac bushes, the porch and the sidewalk going to the house was lined with rose bushes. The fence was covered with creeping vines that had purple flowers on it. There were flowering bushes of varying colors lining the fence as well. It was an overwhelming degree of colors. Even ar the park in Minneapolis there wasn't this many flowers.

“I take it that grandma had a thing for flowers.” That point was clear with the multitude of flowers surrounding the place. I really didn’t know what else to say at this point. I could certainly see myself living here, along with most of the town. This house was more like a mansion.

“That she did. I swear there are more flowers here than when I left. If you like the house now, just wait until you see the rest of it. After you see it, my assumption is that you will want the room in the basement.” She had a grin on her face as she said this.

“What do you mean? Why would I want the room in the basement?”

“Just wait and see.” She opened her door and got out of the car.

As I got out of the car, the smell of all the flowers hit me. It smelled amazing. I’ve always loved the smell of lilacs but the way that the smell blended in with the roses made it so much better. I took a few minutes to enjoy the scent before heading to the house. There were so many scents here and all of them were from flowers. There was no smell of exhaust from cars or any smells from the manufacturing businesses. It was all flowers and sweet scents. I could easily get used to this.

As I walked up to the porch, the smell of the roses got stronger. The smell was strong, but not overwhelming. It was nice. As I went through the door to the porch, I noticed that there were flowers in here as well. There were flower baskets hanging in the corners with dangling flowers. The flowers were pink on top and purple on the bottom. There were flower boxes along the inside filled with flowers in varieties of pink, purple and red. Everywhere I looked, there were flowers. I started wondering how anyone could take care of this many plants. Just the maintenance on this many would have to take all day every day.

My mom peeked her head out the door, “I see you are almost just as taken with the flowers as my mother was. Those hanging ones are Fuchsia. My mom was one of the few people I have ever known who could keep those alive. They are a finicky plant. It looks like she had Petunias in the boxes this year. She would change what flowers were in the boxes every year or so. Why don’t you come inside and take a look around? I promise the flowers aren’t going anywhere.” She opened the door and motioned for me to follow her in.

As I went inside, I noticed that it was more open than I anticipated, which made it look even bigger. I expected a long hallway with doorways going to each room. Instead, I could see almost every room in the house. To my left was a large living room with large bay windows looking out to one side of the yard. In the living room was a large sectional couch, a huge television that was half the size of the room and a fireplace. All the floors that I could see were hardwood and had soft fluffy area rugs.

To my right was the dining room. There were more bay windows that were looking out on the other side of the yard. The table in there looked like it could seat half the town. Granted, the town was really small so that wouldn’t take much. Along the front wall in the dining room stood a hutch. Inside the hutch were sets of expensive looking dishes. There were decorated plates, bowls and fancy glasses. That was not something I would expect from the people who raised my mother. This place was in a whole different world than I was used to.

Beyond the dining room was a fancy kitchen. Between the kitchen and dining room stood a marble topped bar with stools. On the other side of that was the fanciest kitchen I have ever seen. There was an island in the middle with one of those racks up above that the pots and pans hung on. Along the wall were oak cabinets that were so smooth they were shiny. There was a double sink in the middle with a dishwasher next to it. Along the back wall was one of those black electric stoves. At the end of the counter stood a black side-by-side refrigerator that had a screen on it as if a tablet was mounted on the fridge. Every single countertop was gorgeous, shining marble.

On the other side of the house, behind the living room and across from the kitchen stood a little room. It had a window taking up the entire wall with a bench seat in front of it. On the other wall stood a bookshelf full of books. There was a door on the other end that stood open. It led to a nice bathroom. There was a glass-walled shower, a toilet that had a cream-colored fluffy toilet seat cover on it. On the back of the toilet was a bowl filled with potpourri. The sink was set in a gleaming oak vanity with a marble top. The whole room just shined. I have never seen such a fancy and shiny bathroom before.

As I exited the bathroom, I looked to my left, just a little further behind the kitchen. There was a room similar to a porch. It spanned the width of the house. In this room, there were hooks for hanging jackets, a stand for placing shoes, large glass windows looking out upon the yard, and a door leading out back. I wasn’t sure if I should call it a porch or not. The floors were carpeted, and it was attached and open into the house. There was no door separating it, like there is on normal porches. It had the feel of a porch, but the comfort of a sitting room. There was a set of staircases on the right side of the room. One set led upstairs and the other downstairs. After debating for a couple of minutes, I decided to look out back before seeing the rest of the house.

As I stepped outside, my breath caught in my chest. The yard was massive. Along the inside of the fence stood more flowering bushes. Just outside the door was a covered stone patio. On the patio stood several chairs, a couple of tables, and a huge grill made from a stack of smooth stones. There were two stone pathways leading out from this patio. One path took you to another stone patio with a firepit in the center. It was built like an amphitheater, with stone levels going down to the firepit. This patio was surrounded by stained-glass tiki torches and had several chairs set up on the levels. The other path led to an in-ground pool and hot tub. There were more chairs and tables with umbrellas over them out here. The whole place was surrounded with cute yard lamps on posts.

“Wow, this place is amazing.” I thought to myself. “My grandparents must have thrown parties for the whole town.” I slowly spun around, looking at everything. This is like a dream.

“Hey, I know the yard is amazing and you will probably spend most of your time out here, but there is more to the house you know.” My mom called out from the door. “You just might like the rest of the house as well.” She chuckled as she said this. The way she kept grinning and chuckling was really making me curious. If this isn’t what has er excited about seeing the place, what else could she be hinting at?

I walked back to the house to explore the rest of the place. Considering my mom thought I would enjoy the basement the best, I decided to look upstairs first. As I climbed to the top of the steps, I found myself looking down a long hallway with windows at both ends. The first door on the left stood open and led to a laundry room. In the laundry room, there were cabinets above the washer and dryer that held laundry soap and towels and washcloths. There was a door at the back that led into another room. This door led to another bathroom. In this bathroom, there was a bathtub with a shower. Again, there was a fluffy toilet seat cover and a bowl of potpourri. I went back out to the hallway to keep looking around. There were two more doorways on the left. Each of these led to a bedroom. Each room had walk in closets and queen-sized beds. There was nothing special about these rooms. They were just normal bedrooms in my opinion.

There was only one door on the right of the hallway, and it was all the way at the end. As I entered this room, I knew immediately that it was what people would call a master bedroom. The room was massive. It had more bay windows looking out on the yard with a window seat in front of it. In the center of the room stood a king-sized bed. There were double doors at the end of the bedroom that led to walk-in closet that was the size of a small room. If you went through the closet to the other side, you came to another bathroom. This bathroom had a large, marble counter with double sinks. It also had a glass-walled shower in one corner and a whirlpool bathtub in the other corner. If I had my choice, this would be my room. However, I knew my mom would claim this room. The fact that she said I would choose the basement really got me curious now, so I headed back out toward the stairs.

As I went down the stairs to the basement, I froze in my tracks and gasped. It looked like a whole other house. The basement was split into three separate areas. The first one was the living room, which is where the stairs ended. This room, like the one on the main floor, had a massive television and a sectional couch in it. There was also a fireplace along the wall. Beyond that was a kitchen, of all things. It was fully equipped with fridge, stove, sink, everything. Beyond the kitchen were glass patio doors that led to another outdoor patio. I didn’t see this side of the yard when I was outside, so I never realized that it sloped downhill on this side, leading to the patio outside the basement door. The patio was partially covered and had the typical chairs and tables. There was also a staircase that led up to the main yard. This was beautiful. My mom was certainly right so far.

I headed toward the bedroom, as this was the only room I had not looked at yet. As I entered the room, I realized that it was set up just like the master bedroom upstairs. It had a huge king-size bed in the center of the room. Instead of a bay window with a window seat, there was a smaller window up at the top of the room and below it sat a couch with tables on either side and a lamp. Here, as with the other room, there were double doors leading to a walk-in closet. Through the closet was a master bathroom exactly like the one upstairs. It had the shower and whirlpool bathtub, but only one sink set into the vanity. In here, there was another door on the other side of the bathroom. This door led to a small laundry room. This whole level of the house was truly a second house. It had everything a person would need.

“So, what do you think?” I was startled out of my amazement by my mom leaning against the doorway to the closet. She had that grin on her face as if she knew what I was thinking.

“Wow, mom, this is amazing. You were right, I really like the basement. It’s like my own apartment.”

“I knew you would like it. This was my area when I was about your age.”

“Again, why did you ever leave?” I laughed as we headed out towards the living area.

“I know, it’s weird, isn’t it? You have no idea what I went through when I lived here though.” Again, there was that sadness to her voice that hinted at things she refused to talk about.

*Ding*Dong*

“That must be the movers.” My mom headed up the stairs quickly. It was as if she was trying to avoid any conversation about her past.