There is an abandoned house on my street. Raccoons romp through it, and bats use it as a safe haven when they are not flying over the night-clad pond in search of supper. Hanging behind the broken glass are curtains. The curtains fascinate me.A woman once called this place home, and carefully chose the fabric to frame her view of the world. I wonder if she knew, as she hung them, that they would remain long after she was gone? Did she picture them, rotten and threadbare, billowed by both gentle breezes and gale winds?
Today my adventurous niece, Aimee, and I screwed up our courage and peered in the windows of this shell of a home. Things were as the lady of the house left them; a can of Chock Full 'O Nut's coffee elbowed up to a lovely antique tureen on the kitchen counter. The sink was stacked full of dishes. The wooden four poster bed in the tiny back bedroom was carelessly made, a stack of books on the bedside table. Floral wallpaper hung in peels, and oddly, a can of gasoline nestled up to the easy chair in the living room. In the garage, a hand-made ladder climbed up to a hay-filled loft. Ancient tools and a old oil lamp hung from the rafters.
Outside, a wall of mature lilac bushes bloomed profusely, perfuming the air with an impossibly sweet scent. I wondered if the lady of the house had planted the original bush, looking forward to first flowers.
As I drank the scene in, camera in hand, a gentle wind blew past the blossoms, through the broken window glass. The old curtains stirred as if lifted by an unseen hand.
1 comment:
How poignant.
It reminds me in a happier way of a house I rented in Raleigh. The landlord had bought it from the son of the original owners, and had lived in that neighborhood when they did. He told us "Miss Audrey made those curtains herself" of the side door curtains. I could tell Miss Audrey liked green, from the curtains, the main bathroom, the family room linoleum, and a few other things that hadn't been changed. The yard told me she was heavily into variegated leaves. For the year I lived in that house I could feel Miss Audrey's approval every time I planted something, or enjoyed my coffee in the bay window that looked out to the back yard flower bed.
Mary Anne in Kentucky
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