Bittersweet Home

I saw a familiar looking house, painted light green, with an oak tree on each side of the side walk. Then, I watched as the paint brightened into a turquiose, the trees disapeared, and the door lost it's doorknob. This was how the house looked when I left it all those years ago..

Again, the look of the house changed in my mind. The doorknob came back, and flowers surrounded the side of it; then snow fell, and a snowman appeared; one last time it changed. Two huge bushes grew where there were trees before. And a tiny, 5 or 6 year old me got out of a car and hesitantly walked up the sidewalk, staring at the house with wide eyes. Younger me opened the door, and vanished into a life of difficulty, even before the hurt from the last house left my (her?) eyes.

I heard a car drive by behind me, and flinched as the vision left, wiith only this different-yet-familiar house behind for me to stare at. Straightening my spine, I hefted the duffel bags and walked into the house of my childhood.

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I spent the whole day sleeping off the time lag from the flight, and pushing back memories from the time I lived here before. Finally, when I was thinking about getting up for dinner, I just stopped fighting it. As I got up out of bed, I remembered waking up my brother in this same room. I didn't bother hiding the smile as I relished the fact that I had the bigger bedroom this time. Ha! Take that!

The smile faded as I noticed that they had fixed the hole in the wall downstairs. My other brother had made that... Well, we had blamed it on Kate, but still. It was his bony foot that had done it! I was half-glad that they had painted over all of the writting and painting on the walls... All except one. Upstairs in my office (that used to be my bedroom) was a slanted part of the ceiling, and on it were the words "I love you, Jacy!" surrounded by hearts. It was written by Kate, and I just couldn't paint over it.

I shook my head and sipped a beer as I stared at the new-looking house around me. That was the window that Becca was sitting by when her hair was braided for that one 7th grade dance...the one where Tammy came over to my house to get ready with us, even though I didn't like her. I had photo evidence of it, too.

As I finished eating, the doorbell rang. I set down my second beer and opened it to find my (former?) friend Christina. "Hey!" I greeted her, smiling and letting her inside. "Thanks for overseeing the remodeling."

No problem. Thanks for letting me move in. I'm soo glad to get out of my parents house!" she replied. Then she spotted my drink on the counter. "Oooo can I have one?"

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Hours later, I got up off the couch and started heading upstairs, flicking off the TV because Christina looked like she was passed out.

"Are you going tomorrow?" she quietly asked. Huh. Guess she wasn't out yet.

"Going where?" I asked, pausing by the stairs.

"The Summer Festival." She said it like everyone should know about it. Wow, she still was a bitch, afer all this time. "It's tomorrow until, like, Saturday. Starts at 9 or so, ends whenever people start leaving. Kate started it about four years ago."

"Of course," I muttered. Then, louder; "Hmmm.... I think I just might check it out."