Dream Home

It really was a beautiful house. Made of rough stone, with ivy creeping up the side, a heavy wooden door, and even a cobblestone walkway through the garden. It really was perfect. It had met all of her requirements, and for that reason she was pretty sad to leave it. But the world is full of adventures and she knew eventually she'd come back.

At first she missed the house a lot, she was reminded of it often and remembered it fondly. But as time passed and months turned into years, the memory of the house gathered cobwebs in her mind that she would have to mentally dust off every so often when she reminisced.

Finally the time came for her to return from her travels. As the date drew nearer and people reminded her of her imminent departure, she realized how excited she was to reunite with the house. It once again occupied many frequent thoughts. She wondered if it had changed much, if the ivy had been cut back or left to grow wild. She wondered if the dent in the front door was still there or if it had been fixed...

Upon her arrival her excitement was hard to contain, and as she walked up to the gate, she paused to take it all in. It was just as she imagined it, just as she remembered it. Maybe even more beautiful. Just as she was about to open the gate, as if in synchronization the front door also began to open. From behind her favourite wooden door, with the dent no longer visible, stepped another beautiful woman looking perfectly at home.

Suddenly everything shifts into focus. As the one woman walks down the cobblestone path, she doesn't even notice the other standing at the gate. She takes one step off the path to remove the "SOLD" sign from the lawn. The woman at the gate is at a loss...this isn't her house...it never was...it had always been for sale...she didn't even put an offer down before she left...and now it was occupied, though only recently, and the opportunity was lost.

There is no happy ending to this story. The woman was left standing there, unable to go any closer than the white picket fence to which she clung, and her breath caught in her throat. She exhaled a unsteady sigh of loss and regret. Then she turned and walked away, hoping that soon, very soon, the cobwebs would return and cover any images left of the house in a thick grey haze that could not be swept away.