Life Happened Here

The unmanned kite soared high into the sky, caught by a west bound wind. It was a plain kite, red and diamond shaped with a ribbon tail following its many wild twists and twirls.

I remembered how, as a child, had loved to fly my own kite on perfectly windy days such as this one. I remembered it so clearly, my father teaching me how to fly it, that the image flashed into my head like a projector was rolling film onto a movie screen.

“Hold on tight,” he had said. I remembered how I nodded and smiled.

Sighing I wondered briefly who the stray kite belonged to. And if they missed it as much as I missed mine.

***

At first I though the taxi had gotten lost. We were driving on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, ten minuets from the cow town of Graysence.

But then I saw the street sign declaring that there was no mistake.

My stomach lurched as the cab turned the corner. I couldn’t really say why I was so worried. There was nothing threatening about neither the dirt road we traveled on nor the old two story house that had been visible for miles on the flat, grassy landscape.

In fact, the house looked quite charming. It was blue, with a white trim. Attached to the front of the house was a wooden deck with a few flower pots and two dark brown chairs and around the sides I could see a garden. In the drive way (which I guessed was dirt as well) there was an old red car. The appearance slightly surprised me as everything, even the car, seemed to be very well kept.
I had expected something a little less clean (maybe a need of a new roof or paint job) because of the age of the resident.

My dad, feeling that I needed to get out of the house and spend some quality time with my only surviving relative, sent me to spend the summer with my great-aunt Tabitha.
I had never even seen a picture of my great-aunt much less met her so I expected her to be older. Old enough that yard and maintenance work would be a problem for her. Was this what had me nervous?

I found myself hoping desperately, as the cab came to a stop that nothing would go wrong this summer. At the same time I found what had me upset.

I had a feeling something would.