"Flight" is a gravel road that runs near my place, and at the corner of Flight and Mashie stands a shunned house. I've never seen anyone at this house, though I've lived here over six months now and walk by there frequently. Once this place was loved. But no longer.
There is a dog run in the front yard and a lorn sign by the road that reads "Poodle Xing." There are decorative yard lights along the driveway that have long since broken or been so overgrown with tangled weeds that you can barely see them. In the side yard lies a girl's dark blue bicycle with a rusted chain.
Someone in this place must have been handicapped. Or maybe it was someone who visited there frequently. A wheelchair ramp leads to the back porch but the bottom of it would have to be cleaned of greenery before it could ever be used again. And across the back porch rails hang a couple of faded beach towels turned nearly into iron by long exposure to sun and weather. Yet, at night the lights come on, and you can see shadows cast on an upstairs wall by the slow wheel of a ceiling fan.
I wonder about the people who lived in this house. I wonder about the little girl. Did the family flee after Katrina and decided not to come back? Is "Flight Street" a prophetic name? Or is there a darker reason why the house lies empty? I imagine answers to my questions, of course. I imagine that it was the girl's mother who was handicapped. I imagine the family huddled with the night grown black as hurricane winds ripped through the woods around their home, snapping pines and power poles. I imagine the mother weeping when they left the house, with a fear that they'd never return. I have no idea if anything I think is true. But I wonder.
Sometimes I wonder most whether the little girl misses her bicycle.
11 comments:
I loved this post. Great writing, and spooky to think about. It would also make a good title, certainly. Reminds me of finding a gravesite in the middle of the woods from 1908, and an old abandoned well. Crocuses were still blooming near where a small house once stood. Eerie.
How sad.
The lights and fan come on at night?
Sounds like the beginning of a great tale.
I second what Kate said.
My great, great Aunt lived in an old farm house and once when we were visiting, my Dad and I found the old farmstead garbage dump. Your post reminded me of that day. There were so many forgotten treasures. An old WW2 helmet with a Giant rusted hole, many colorful glass bottles and silverware too. Who throws out silverware???
OH! And thanks so much for the wonderful comment on my pieces at the CWC. I appreciate you taking the time to read and respond :)
Yes. I like this. I've got a house like that not far from where I live too. Spooky, it seems abandoned, yet, someone always manages to mow the grass int he summer and hang clothes out to dry on the line. I've never seen anyone go to or from the house. It's strange. I've never seen anyone take the clothes off the line either. The next day their just...gone.
Yeah. I wonder if that poor little girl misses her bicycle. I wonder...
There's a house like this in my subdivision. It's been vacant for well over a year, and now the roof is caving in. Yet, there it stands as a sad testimony of the old man who had once lived there.
What a great post. Sad. Spooky. Love the picture as well.
Fantastic post.....I also now wonder, this can actually be a kewl story!
Great image and writing. I wonder too what happened -- probably not good.
Thanks everyone for posting. It is quite eerie to walk by there at night and see the light and the shadows of the ceiling fan. There must be a timer because they go off during the day. Or, maybe it's just a ghost with a good sense of time.
Great stuff!
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