CHAPTER 5

It's been almost a week since the funeral took place, the incoming calls from both friends and relatives for moral support had subsided.

Tom sat behind the desk in his dad's study and had been reading different books just to kill time. He had been studying since the night of the funeral being that there wasn't any other thing of interest for him currently. 

He had read his predecessor's journal and it turned out he was as normal as your everyday kid. Tom had been reading different books and cultivating his knowledge, a habit he picked up from his previous world. 

He was a fast reader with an extremely high rate of understanding, he was able to process and analyze information faster than an average teenager.

"Enough of lazing around and feeding only my brain. It feels like someone stuffed a bag of cotton inside my head, needing to stretch out a bit. Gym? Might as well until I put my head together and burn the piling stress while at it." Tom thought aloud to himself, not feeling comfortable with his current body stature. His appetite had grown a lot due to his body's urgent need for its lost nutrients. 

Right now Tom's current frame was still looking scrawny due to his long stay at the hospital and nothing like the compact body of an average young adult. And there was also no need to get a job right now because he had enough money to take care of himself for a while but he might need to find one later down the line for a constant flow of income. 

….

It's been a week already and though Tom had started out first with registering himself at a local gym nearby, mainly because he only had a set newbie dumbbells at home, he still didn't put in the hours, only going for a few days through the week.

The reason he even entertained going to the gym was just because of his stiff movements and the mild aches he suffered when he did something tasking that stretched his muscles like the time he cleaned the entire house immediately after he was discharged from the hospital. 

He had been left gasping for air as he slouched on a couch after he was done with just the living room, his waist hurting like hell because of the heavy lifting and bending he had to do. 

After he got his labored breaths in order, he moved on to the kitchen, slowing down his pace in order not to exhaust himself as he cleaned all the dusty utensils and cupboards. He had saved the rooms for last because they were the most dirty and in need of a thorough cleaning. 

The first room he cleaned was that of his parents, it wasn't that messy but was dusty and had a stuffy atmosphere due to the lack of fresh air and sunlight. He had started up the room cleaning by opening the windows and let in the much needed fresh air along with sunlight. 

While in the process of cleaning, he found a family album containing pictures of what a person might call a beautiful family. 

What had happened to them was quite unfortunate because they looked really happy. Not that he was complaining because that incident led to him getting a second chance at life. 

After he had finished up with his parents room, he proceeded to his brother's and the room was as childish as it could get. The kid had action figures of heroes on his dusty shelf. 

It wasn't stuffy unlike that of his parents, turns out he left his windows open with curtains slightly closed but enough for sunlight to get in. The walls were covered in posters of the flash like he was a hard core fan but one notable picture frame was on his desk, it was a picture which had his family in it with him having the biggest smile like it was a very memorable moment for him.

When he was done cleaning the room, a mischievous smile slowly cracked along his lips like he suddenly had a very pleasing idea.

He had noticed just how spacious that room actually was and the idea Tom had at that moment while glancing around the room was to transform it into his personal gaming room. Boys do love their video games. 

He proceeded to the next room immediately and he was done with his little brother's own. The next room was that of his predecessor's, which was now his. At first it seemed like the room of an average teenager but it was dusty and stuffy as hell, a skateboard which had a very slick design was resting in a corner of the room. 

There weren't any posters of heroes or even a family picture found in the room, the only notable thing in the room was the amount of books located on his book shelf. The books weren't comics or literature, they were sophisticated and could only be understood by someone with actual knowledge who studies extensively. 

Turns out the arctic was located above his room and it definitely needed to be cleaned. But it wasn't anything like he had expected, it had been transformed to a personal library. 

The arctic had a bookshelf which held books on a few advanced subjects. Tom was quite intelligent in his previous life but not quite on the same level when compared to that of his predecessor's. He didn't look like a nerd in the pictures Tom had seen, only that the books he read were on par with those that people going to their Doctorates read. The dude had most likely cleared most, if not all, of his college recommended textbooks. 

When he was done with his room, he went straight for the bathroom as it was the next place in need of cleaning.

Immediately he was done cleaning the house, he started rearranging the settings to his liking. The original settings of the living room had the TV positioned at the middle of the far end wall and surrounded by chairs, a small table stood on the fancy rug at the center of the living room. 

He then moved the necessary furniture to his preferred spots, the TV was placed in a location which gave him a visible view of the door. This verse is occupied by lunatics and who knows when a psychopath might barge into his place he needed to be prepared to hightail the fuck out at any moment's time, was Tom's thought at the time. 

The couch he had shifted before and which caused a strain to his lower back needed to be relocated again, it was moved in a position opposite the TV while the small table was placed beside it. The center rug remained at it's position, he then removed the withered flowers along with it's vase from the dining table and replaced it with a small fruit basket. 

The house then looked and felt a bit more comfortable to him, he looked at the portraits on the walls then contemplated whether to keep them in the parents room or just leave them as they are.

Tom thought about this critically before he made the decision to just leave them as they are, in honor to the family he had here and as a constant reminder to do better in his second chance at life.

The basement was as basic as it could possibly get, it was more like a storage room used for storing junks they didn't want to dispose of but might need them sometime. Such a manner of thinking didn't sit well with Tom because he believed if something is no longer useful or needed, it might as well be disposed of rather than letting it take up useful space. 

Luckily it wasn't infested by pests and had very few contents, plausibly it wasn't a tasking job doing the clean up. Next up was the only place he hadn't been to yet and was sure it needed to be visited. 

This was the garage and it was located by the side of the house, it led unguardedly to the driveway outside which was utterly visible from the kitchen's window. There wasn't much work needed to be done in the garage, it just needed cleaning since it had been neglected for a while. 

The clean up Tom did in the garage was almost as effortless as the one he did in the basement and took less time. 

When he concluded the house cleaning, he found himself utterly exhausted and his muscles profoundly strained. The work served as a form of exercise for his scrawny muscles due the amount of time he had spent on the hospital bed, even the physical therapy sessions he had before full recovery doesn't compare to the task he just finalized. 

 He was drenched in sweat, almost like he had run a marathon . He headed straight to the shower to freshen up before he had his lunch. It was more like breakfast  because Tom hadn't eaten a single meal the entire day. That's because he was completely immersed in the work he had rounded up. 

After the satisfying meal he sat on the couch, turned on the TV and slowly scrolled through channels in search of entertainment. As he stared at the TV, the fatigue from the chores slowly caught up with him and he started to nod off. 

Before he knew it, he had sunk into the couch for a rejuvenating nap which might last till night time.