I remember the way they used to hang their art so proudly with me. Messy crayon drawings of pure imagination. I saw them sneak popsicles from the freezer when no one was looking. I watched the plants on the windowsill grow, reaching for a sky on the other side of the pane. They cooked meals in that room and stained me with the flavor of bubbling tomato sauce, baked sourdough, and the gentle simmer of potpourri. There was magic sometimes, in the youthful grins over candles and the silent wishes they made. There were evenings of sharp, acidic vinegar and boiling eggs they dyed for Easter. There were arguments: yelling, screaming and crying—the growing pains of a family. There was violence too, tempers flaring, heads butting, and holes in the walls like black holes swallowing the light. There was a garden through the windows that grew with them—wild yet cultivated. This house was filled with their problems, with their love, with their lives. But, eventually, it emptied of them. Slowly, like an ancient lake dried up by the sun, they learned how to change to move on. They spread out like clouds across the sky and put me in a box. Now, I can’t help but wonder from my resting place: where have they drifted to, and how have they had to change to keep going?
