A Story A Day. Story 10 of 365: Empty.

The door opened creaking, she had to push it a bit to unstop it. The thick smell of long-closed spaces hit her in the face, it was clear that it had been closed for a long time. Even through the darkness she could see the shadows of her long lost home. Memories started flooding her mind. She could see herself walking down those stairs as a kid, she could see her mother waving her goodbye before the door, she could also see her father arriving home from work, hanging the coat by the door.

She continued for the kitchen, feeling the dust on the furniture. She headed to a window and let the sunshine in. It lit everything up, but in a way it just made it sadder. Everything was as her mother had last left it. There were some dishes on the drying rack, the toaster was still out for the breakfast. A cloth lay lazily next to the sink, as if waiting to be picked up at any minute. But there was no one to pick it up, and there would never be again.

She closed her eyes and remembered the last time she had been in that house, more than fifteen years ago. She remembered the screams, the crying and the "never come back again" her father had said. It was the thing that hurt the most. They had never talked again, her parents had never visited her not even when she had her first child, they had acted as if they had never ever had a daughter. And now they were dead and they would never talk again. She was feeling sad, despite of everything, they were still her parents, and she still loved them. She had reached for them, she had, she had written letters, although she never knew if they had read them. And they had died without a possible reconciliation. All of sudden. And no one had told her until the lawyers found out that she was their only child, and by then they had been buried for more than three months.

She cried inside that empty house that had once been her home, and wondered if their last thought had been for her. If they had remembered their estranged daughter, and the stupid reason that made them lose her. Still, there was no use in wondering, as all that was left was that big, empty house.