The House

The house across the street used to be new. There is a young couple moving inside. As you enter, you are overwhelmed with the smell of the fresh paint, the lumber, and the new furniture which mix together like a dozen freshly-picked, sweet-smelling, blooming flowers. The floors set loose a lemony smell of disinfectant for the air to carry throughout the house.1

The colors all around are bright enough to blind you. The walls, a lustrous red, reflect the lively sunshine that comes through the clear, speck-free windows. The house has several mahogany cabinets, all filled with ornaments, big and small. Everything on these cabinets is carefully dusted, several times a day, if necessary, as if doing this made them brighter each time, and then placed back in its rightful position.2

Outside, the grass is always cut. It never reached ankle height. The smell of freshly cut grass always radiated from the yard for miles around all during the summer. In one corner of the yard is a small flower garden in which they grew several large sunflowers each year. In the winter, their children were always outside playing around or helping each other build an igloo, snowman, or anything that they could think of to attempt.3

Now fifty years later, all has changed. The young couple has died and the children brushed aside the house saying that it was a waste of time to keep up. Inside, it smells musty. A sickening smell that almost makes you vomit, races out the door as you enter, suggesting the presence of mold and mildew. There is also a foul stench of urine from stray animals who wander in to find shelter. Among all these smells is a scent of decaying wood.4

The paint paled out over the years for the lustrous red to a faded pink. On parts of the wall, the paint is curling up as if it was preparing for its last sleep. The entire house is dull now, made more prominent by the dusty, opaque windows. The ornaments, cabinets, everything, enveloped with dust. Nothing left uncovered.5

Multiple holes in the floor, almost camouflaged in the darkness, formed by vandals who walk on weak spots on the floor, as if the house were getting its revenge on people in general for abandoning it. As you walk through the house, the floors creak under your weight like they were about the give way and leave another person on one of the abandoned beds in the basement. With each noise, rats and mice scurry across the floor.6

The yard has changed for the worse too. In the summer, the grass grows long and no longer a nice smell of cut grass comes from that direction anymore. The flower garden is now invaded with weeds chocking anything else that grows.7

The house across the street was once beautiful, but time changes everything, even what is the best parts of life.8