Reincarnated

My little suburban neighborhood was my world. Beyond it, there was nothing else for me to look at. All of life was happening right here, all around me.

For seventeen years, I have observed from the safe haven of my porch as people lived, grew up, and died. I have seen true love, and then bitter heartbreak. My memories were full to the brim with crying mothers waving from nicely cropped lawns as their children went off to college.

There were the teenagers who snuck out at night to meet their first loves. The husbands who opened the front door for secret lovers while their wives were shopping or away at the spa. And the old, married couples who never lost that special glint in their eyes for each other; it was truly ‘till death do you part.

And then there was me, the lonely observer.

I was the thirty six year old, unmarried man who lives in that pretty house down the street. I was the guy who gave the most candy on Halloween to the neighborhood children. I was the handsome fella stuck inside a rocking chair, wasting my life away watching other people live theirs.

And I knew people wondered about me. Sometimes, the woman across the street would pause to wipe her brow of sweat as she worked on her precious begonias and glance at me with that wondering look. With her eyes, she would ask me, “What’s your story?” I would just smile, pretending ignorance, and wave at her from my rightful place on the porch.

But inside, I would die a little. Inside, I would answer her.

I do have a story, lady, a tragic tale of love and loss. I am here because of it.