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Dragon en Morta
Junior Member
since 2002-07-31
Posts 12


0 posted 2002-08-05 10:52 AM


I take a slow walk through the playground set behind my old neighborhood. No longer filled with running children and chatty mothers, it waits. It waits for me. Like it did when I was a child.

“Come.”

It would beckon. Like a whisper taunting my daydreaming thoughts, I could hear it call me. I remember when the teacher would turn off the classroom lights to silence the noisy children. I would lay my head on the cold smooth desktop and listen to its alluring voice.

“Come.”

Those days are long past now. The neighborhood has changed quite a bit since my family picked up and moved many years ago. I had hoped the times of change would touch upon this old neighborhood. But it seems there were other plans for this childhood sanctuary. Old houses with peeling paint, tattered lawns, and dying trees speckle the desolate streets that surround the playground. It reminds me of a run down lighthouse on the edge of a rocky seashore, void of any heart and of any love. The path from my house to the playground is now hardly visible through the overgrown bushes and unkempt grass. The water fountain that I once called ‘safe’ is now rusted and holds stale water stagnating in its basin.

A cold dry wind blows in from the north and causes the squeaky swings to play their song. The chirp and clank of the chains upon the crossbar perform a well-rehearsed sad song. Like the sound of a mother mourning for her stillborn child, the song mixes with the wind and disappears into the gray clouds low above me. But still the playground waits. It waits for me.

“Come.”

I pull my jacket closed and tie the sash around my waist. I had come here for a reason. To pay my dues and return to this old playground what is rightfully its possession. This old bracelet I wear belongs here as it always did. I knew that when I first lay my eyes on it. It gleamed in the sunlight like a diamond in the green grass. As I approached it, I felt, at that time, an uneasy voice.

“Come.”

I kept that bracelet near to me at all times. I remember my Mother asking me where I had found such a tarnished treasure. It’s funny but I can’t exactly remember what I told her, I only know I told her it was mine. Mine to cherish, mine to remind me of where I belonged, and mine to keep the voice of my refuge in my head.

“Come.”

I'm old now and I miss my husband so much. I fear, old friend, that my time has come. I’m here to say goodbye and return to you what I have kept so close to my heart for so long. I’m tired, beaten, and ready to be with my husband once more. For it is he who beckons me now.

“Goodbye.”


                               oooOOOooo


A little girl peeps from behind an old utility shed that resides just beyond the playground’s reaches. Her eyes grow wide as she catches a glimpse of a shining sparkle in the dead brown grass. Cautiously, she makes her way to the beckoning treasure that lies before her.

“Come.”

[This message has been edited by Dragon en Morta (08-05-2002 10:54 AM).]

© Copyright 2002 Dragon en Morta - All Rights Reserved
Kethry
Member Rara Avis
since 2000-07-29
Posts 9082
Victoria Australia
1 posted 2002-08-09 12:02 PM


Wow, full circle prose in such a short space.
Well drawn.
Keth

Here in the midst of my lonely abyss, a single joy I find...your presence in my mind.  Unknown



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