Marie parked her car at the curb and shut the engine off. She sat and stared at the old two-story brick house, remembering how it looked when
the brick was that deep rich Burgundy red, how the big front porch covered, painted white was nice to sit under when it rained.
Looking at the big Mulberry tree where she once played with her toys and had dress-up tea parties, the row of boxwoods that was the dividing line between the properties,
so many years have gone by, the bricks now painted white; the porch cover gone and a little overhang above the door painted a garish neon blue. The old cottonwood that stood at the back of the property had given way in a storm years ago, the Chieftain Newspaper came and took photos as it was determined to be the oldest tree in town at over two hundred years, a lot of memories were in that old tree and tree house; good memories that made her sad.
She had not been back home since before her Gram and uncle passed, she didn’t even come back when her father passed just had his ashes sent to her. Her two aunts called saying do you want this or that when they put the house on the market; but she said no, in her depression she couldn’t think clearly. Now, now she wished she had paid closer attention, but everyone had died so quickly and within what seemed such a short time of each other. How her grief still clung to her, there is no one left in this town she grew up in that even knows her name or what became of her or her family, so easy it seems once an entire family that lived and loved and fought here can just be gone no blood ties of that family left. Why did she bother coming back driving over six hundred miles she hasn’t quite figured out only that the joy or peace she sought was not found here, it’s like feeling homesick for a place that doesn’t even exist.
Written for Kellie Elmores Free Write Friday prompt as seen in the photo above. Thanks Kellie (((xx)))
