The View From the Past

Snow fell gently down onto the front lawn, painting the vibrant green grass a soft white. On the street, a blue mini van with too many bumper stickers slowly drove past.  A few minutes later it returned, red brake lights illuminating the falling snow. Two figures, a man and a woman, emerged from the car. The man, maybe in his late forties, wore a deep blue sweater vest and a red beanie. The beanie hid his balding head and every now and then he reached up and scratched under the beanie. It was obvious he hadn't wanted to wear it. The woman, same age as the man, wore a black button down jacket contrasting with the light sprinkling of gray edging in like a lost pup through her chocolate brown hair. Holding hands, they walked across the snowy front lawn and onto the porch of a small cozy house with a shingled roof and tan walls painting the house in a warm hue. Together they knocked at the old wooden door. Through the glass panels at the top of the door, the couple could see two young boys, one blonde, one brunette, racing for the door, laughing hysterically as they nipped at each others heels. The door opened with a small creak instantly drowned out by the joyous shouts of

''Hi Uncle Scott! Hi Aunt Lilly!"

The woman, Aunt Lilly, enveloped the two squealing children in a hug. Uncle Scott stood, a slight smile playing across his lips. A woman came to the door. She had vibrant blonde hair toned down by the wrinkles across her face. On the edges of her smile. 

"Lilly! Come on in. It's been too long." She embraced Lilly, then shook Scott's hand.

"Scott." 

Scott nodded

"Tracy"

He brushed past her into the house.

In the living room, next to a small brick hearth sat a withered old man. In his hands he held a small wooden airplane with a wind up rotor on the front. Beneath his thick glasses and the liver spots that pock marked his old eyes was a twinkle of memory. Remembrance buried by the weight of age. The front door closed and he looked up, eyes focusing once again on the warm brick hearth and the small dining room table that'd been their since he was a child. 

"Lilly, Scott, I want you to meet Jewel."

The couple turned to the old man as the two kids rushed past them, through the sliding glass door that led into the backyard. Jewel watched them go, a wrinkled smile on his lips.

''Oh i'm going to miss these late nights with the kids.''

''What was that?''

''Nothing. Nothing at all.''

Scott extended a hand. 

''Scott. It's nice to meet you Jewel.''

Jewel smiled a warm smile and took his hand.

''Hello Scott. Tracy's told me a lot about you.''

''I bet. This is Lilly.''

Jewel turned to Lilly, who looked not quite as solemn as Scott had become. She beamed and shook his hand.

''Hello Jewel.''

''Hello Lilly, my, you look beautiful tonight.''

Lilly blushed slightly.

''Well I do what I can.''

Still smiling, she left Jewel and found Tracy in the kitchen. Scott walked over, eyebrows furrowed in mild annoyance.

''You know where the drinks are?''

Jewel pointed to the sliding screen door that led to the backyard.

''Ted's out there cooking dinner. He's got the cooler.''

Scott nodded. He seemed to relax a little. He nodded his thanks and walked out into the backyard. The kids ran back into the living room. Tracy, who'd been talking to Lilly in the kitchen, rolled her eyes, a scowl on her face. 

''This is what you get when you forget the birth control am I right.''

Tracy ran over to where the kids were playing and shooed them away. Lilly stood where she was in the kitchen, a nauseous feeling writhing in the pit of her stomach. She remembered a time not so long ago when she and Tracy would take the kids out on a walk and Tracy would talk for long hours about Ted and how much she enjoyed having kids. Their was a light in her eyes then, an unmistakable youth that slowly slid away as the years had passed. Lilly had felt it in herself too, like a gentle breeze that rattled her bones and shook her to the very core. She spotted Scott in the backyard and decided to join him. Walking through the warm hall and through the sliding screen door. Scott was talking with Ted, a beer in his hand, as she walked into the yard, he gave her a slight nod and returned to talking.

''Did you catch the football game last night?''

Ted wore a scratchy brown stubble of a beard. He had on a plaid jacket that vaguely concealed the undershirt and the beer belly under it. He talked with a slight southern lilt, and as they talked, Lilly couldn't think of a conversation more simple or more human than that.

''Hey. Happy New Year Scott.''

Scott lit up with a genuine smile, one neither Scott, Tracy, or Lilly had seen in years. Like a warm orange sunrise after weeks of bleak rain.

''Happy New Year Ted.''

Their was a taste in the air then. A bittersweet breeze singing gaily through the yard. With it came fireworks. Lights in the distance that signaled the New Year, and as the light burst through the starless sky,  Lilly could almost see the memories floating up into infinity. And in the house, Tracy looked up with a sudden longing. A longing of a time when the world was a coloring book and her most important problem was where the red crayon went. When the swing hanging on the tree back in her North Carolina home could take you to another planet, rip through the seams of reality and climb back to the day before where nothing mattered.

In the starless night lit up by the soft lullaby of the fireworks. Scott felt a euphoric feeling spreading through him, reminding him of a bar in downtown L.A. A warm light illuminated the room and men roared as the Kings beat the Ducks and took the Stanley Cup. Ted was there and as the bar roared, Scott couldn't help but feel a closeness. It was a feeling he could grasp, but would never grasp. It touched him, but he never felt it, and over the years, it slowly ate away at him, yet in that moment yelling at the bar with all the other men, Scott felt free, and though he would never feel it again. he felt it become a part of him. It was a human feeling and it became inseparable with the passing of time.

And in the deep red couch in the cozy living room next to the hearth and the dining room table. Jewel felt a longing of a time not so far away. Past the tenement in New York City, through the gunshots and the paralyzing buzzing of warplanes swooping overhead. Past the thorny black gates. The bleak white roses a far cry from the true feeling carved onto the reapers rock that told of a life once touched by the woman in the ground and the pain of having to march on into the lonely night every day after she'd passed. Past the warm brick hearth and the dining room table that had been there since he was a child and into another lonely night. The only difference, he craved it.

 Memories mingled with the passing of the night, climbing into the clouds to be lost forever as the names of the wind, yet in that moment, a feeling passed between them all. An inexplicable feeling that sung out to the souls of both the dead and the living. It was a song of humanity, and as the dawn found the planet in the New Year, the clouds shriveled into nothing, leaving the sky a clear new blue.