Prophecy fulfilled

The ingredients had been cooking for weeks. Signs and omens were all over the place, from Hungarian eyebrows to French smirks. All 110 square metres seemed to hold their breath in anticipation, until - BAM!!- an hour ago it happened. Our first house fight.

Anxious readers should lay aside their worries - after all, I'm still here to write about it. It was 23:00 o'clock and our small flock of disoriented youngsters was getting ready for bed, when something in the air snapped, doors were slammed, lights were turned back on, and we all found ourselves in the kitchen, as if magically brought together just for this purpose. The kitchen plays a very active part in our small kingdom. Decisions are made over breakfast (or is it yesterday's dinner), shopping lists scribbled while waiting for the water to boil and problems discussed - after all, it's the place where most of the problems are. On a happier note, it is also the place where we say hello to the first person of the day.

Technically speaking, we were not all present. Our invisible flatmate (I'm starting to wonder whether she is just my imaginary friend) is gone once again, and one of us pretended to sleep through the racket. Many things were finally spat out, and shall we say not always in the friendliest way. Apart from our vocal chords, the tension was clearly visible in other ways - cigarette smoke was all over the place and the girls lost half of their nails during the 20 minutes or so.

We all ran out of steam at some point and things took an unexpected turn when each one felt like doing something really nice for the others. Wiping cloths appeared from nowhere and the dishwashing detergent started flowing. In a determined act of catharsis, one of us tore down all the post-its and even the weekly work list down from the walls and threw them into the garbage. Our official slogan starting today: "Let's start from the beginning". I even got such amorous comments as "That was the first time (I had such an argument with anybody)".

The lights have been turned off again, the kitchen is glowing, toilet paper has been taken out from hiding places and doors have been tenderly closed shut. And I think I just heard our front door heave a sigh of relief.

Good night.