Imagine an older two-storey wooden house. The roof is steep and gabled, with horizontal siding along a small attic window near the peak. Below is a covered front porch with a railing, several narrow windows, and a central front door. The window to the right of the door is larger, made up of three glass panels. The curtains are pulled back, showing the silhouettes of a family. The window to the left of the door is a small single pane of glass. It’s dark, but a lone figure is visible within. The porch is reached by a short flight of steps. A straight walkway leads from the porch steps toward another set of steps. Half of the walkway is made from stone, the other half is made of concrete pads. The concrete is chipped and cracked. The stonework is well-worn. The walkway is bordered by a simple lawn, and two flowerbeds sit on either side of the porch steps.

Phone home

One.

He presses the button.

Nine, zero, five.

Seven, two, three.

Six, eight, zero, four.

He puts the phone to his ear and waits.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

Nobody answers.

He hangs up.

“Not sure what I expected…”

She doesn’t live there anymore.

That family doesn’t live there anymore—they moved away decades ago.

They moved on from that place and the people they used to be. From the innocence they used to have.

We all do, at some point. Willingly or not.

But it lingers.

Like the smell of a lilac.

Or the sting of regret.

Like the phone number he won’t forget.

The image is a close up of three pencils. The pencils are laying flat with the tips angled towards each other. Each tip is broken, with bits of lead strewn about the ends of the pencils. The image suggests a writer or artist is trying to master their craft, taking multiple attempts to get a particular piece of writing or artwork right.

One thought on “Phone home”

  1. Janet Preston says:
    Reply
    Janet Preston's avatar

    I used to have a flowershop, here in PEI and when people called to order flowers from the Durham area-Oshawa to be exact- I always wished someone would have my old phone number, from when I grew up there. It never happend because things have changed so much, but like you say I can’t forget that phone number. It started out RA 5 6600 then went to 725 6600.

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.