The boxes could have the other end of the room.

The box marked KITCHEN contained a lampshade. I was sure there had been a reason for this when I packed it. The reason had not made the journey.

Dev had helped me carry the last of the light things upstairs. We were standing in the new flat, trying to remember which bag contained the kettle. I kept saying we could have tea as soon as I had sorted one more box.

He asked whether "one more" referred to the box by the door or the entire room. It was a fair question.

We unpacked for the next few hours.

We cleared the route through the flat and made sure I could reach the things I needed that night. The bed had bedding. The bathroom had a towel and my wash bag. We found the kettle, two mugs and, after a less efficient search, something to eat with.

The table had been assembled earlier and was ready to use. We put the remaining boxes against the far wall without blocking doors or the heater. This left an actual place for dinner rather than a plate balanced on a box whose contents I could not remember.

I heated the soup I had bought and put bread on a plate. Dev found two spoons. Neither matched the fork I had been carrying around for twenty minutes, but by then I was willing to relax the collection policy.

We sat down before the room was finished.

From the table I could hear a bus stopping outside. Someone in the next building was playing a piano, stopping at the same part each time. Dev asked whether I liked the flat. Until then I had mainly considered whether each object would fit through its doors.

I did like it. The kitchen window caught the late light, and there was a shelf where my books could go. I said so. Then I noticed that the shelf did not need filling before I could finish the soup.

Before he left, we chose a time for the remaining help he had offered. I wrote down the two things I wanted to find first tomorrow. It was a short list, made while sitting in a chair instead of opening boxes at random.

The lampshade stayed in the kitchen box overnight. In the morning I found its lamp. This seemed a good enough reason to begin there.