joe_shane

To spend years building a house, you learn to fill it with the things you can't find a place for
Unaware it stacked up, over time the walls you painted begin to peel, the carpet begins to mat, and it grows with a clutter you thought you didn't mind, but no you couldn't mind that, where else would you put it.
All your doors are closed, some locked, and some filled.

And soon your locked inside.

How long does it take to know you can't stay inside there, you can't live amongst a past your not a part of anymore
A family that isn't there anymore, how long does it take to know you can't leave.
It's then you can panic, maybe nobody will notice, maybe nobody will see if you loose yourself in the home you built.

But is it the same home if you destroy it.
Burn it from the inside, flip the tables, rip up the carpet and destroy your house.
Leave your house.
Or burn down with it, for if a house is divided by itself, it will not be able to stand.

14MNDR6

With a low light heating the space she'd still had left to claim, for she curled tightly next to Percy her head resting on his shoulder, her ear hearing the quietest vibrations as he read from the book in front of him.

The same book they'd read for so long, for even wren had begun to memorize the words only brought back by his voice, soft as it never went too high, and never too fast.

For that was all she had known for the past months they repeated in the routine that shaped her life, and held it together. Mr Owens would tidy the kitchen until 6:00pm then come upstairs to ready their toothbrushes and run the bath.

It was a simple routine that ran through many ways in the day, but it was the only thing she could rely on, for she'd learned that things change, for the house lay empty of her mother, Wednesdays she would go see her, and Fridays she would come home for the weekend.

She had gotten better, much better than before, sometimes she would even be okay with Mr Owens when he would pour her tea before returning back upstairs where she preferred him.

She hadn't gotten there yet, but her smile has returned to how wren remembered it, it was wide full with life that has been resumed. For it would make wrens even wider, as she would only know she would get better.

She often accounted people's smile, she would make sure Percys was the same, and Mr Owens was real, for Percys cheek would grow two times when he smiled filled with a flush that drew the warmth she cuddled next to.

It was Ronins smile she waited for, each day she wondered when she would see it. If it had changed, maybe even gotten bigger.

That she would have to wait for, until he came back down from where he'd built himself upon, distant and restrained by his own past. Locked in the house he built, painted in regrets, cluttered with thoughts, and rank with his mistakes he wouldn't clean.

For she had seen his house before, it was different than her own, and yet it was the same in finally ways.

Even that she would ponder if it had changed, if he could've repainted the walls, scrubbed the table clean, maybe even aired out his room.

chapter 20