Chapter 9: Meaning

You have filled my world with meaning. You have made me so happy and more fulfilled as a person. Thank you for taking me as I am; loving me, and welcoming me into your heart. I promise to always love you, respect you as an individual, and to be faithful to you forever. Today I choose you to be my partner, and commit myself to you for the rest of my life.

Joy stood before the old crippled house for a long time, staring at the broken shutters and the complete state of disrepair of it. Most of the glass panes had been broken, either by vandalism or by the storms that had blown strongly over the house for the last thirty years.

The breeze was gentle as it fluttered across the prairie, moving slowly the leaves and the weeds and plants on the garden surrounding the house. The noise of the wind whispering against the old house should have been scary, but it only caused even more curiosity to Joy, as she couldn't figure out why that place felt familiar.

She felt the breeze lightly touching her skin, making her long blue dress glue against her legs as she slowly approached the rusted gates through the old dirty path coming from the town, her blue high heels sinking in the fresh soil.

Joy leaned her head to the side as she stared at the house, feeling once again the strange sense of familiarity burning in her chest as she looked at the peeling paint and broken window panes of the property.

Joy slowly walked up the dirty lane towards the small iron gate, completely covered by rust thanks to several years of disrepair and very wet summers facing tornados and pouring rain, followed by freezing winters common to that part of the country.

She slowly pushed the opening gate, hearing it moan on its hinges as she slowly entered the private property.

The feeling of familiarity grew as she stepped beyond the gate. Her curiosity lead her around the porch and she found something that made her pause.

She was in a garden.

Someone, a long time ago, had dedicated a long time of his or her life to keep that garden well tended. But now ivy had overtaken the clean spaces, but several rosebushes still fought bravely to survive, lolling silently in the breeze.

Joy felt a shiver and glanced at the rosebushes, feeling a faint memory stirring on the back of her mind, of the smell of fresh earth and delicate small hands tending pretty roses.

And as soon as the image came it went, just like a wisp of smoke.

Joy looked down to the rosebud she still had in her hand, rolling it between her fingers pensively.

She finally turned to the house and slowly climbed the porch steps, hearing the steps groan under her weight, careful not to stick the heels of her blue high heel shoes in any rotten piece of wood.

She refrained from touching the handrail of the stairs, afraid of it falling apart such was the state of disrepair of it. Finally she arrived to the door, finding it locked.

She looked around, sad for losing her time with such foolish thinking. She turned around to leave and something made her stop. She walked over to one of the windows and slowly ran her hand over the window pane. After some tries, her fingers touched something that surprised her.

She took it into her hand and stared at it, trying to imagine if that key was the one to open that door.

And how did she know where to find it?

Another mystery to be solved.

She went the door and used the key, closing her eyes when she heard the click of the lock turning. She slowly entered and found the house empty, as she had expected it to be. There was a thick cover of dust over everything and once white bed sheets covered the bigger pieces of furniture.

And yet, the house gave her chills as she again felt a strange sense of familiarity towards it.

She walked through the living room, finding rotten curtains hanging at the windows, dirt and dust covering everything. She approached a low furniture piece and removed its cover, finding a beautiful red Victorian settee under it, its silk cloth still a shiny red despite its age. She looked around and removed the cover of another sofa, sitting down on it trying to figure out what her mind was trying to tell her.

"I've been here before." She looked around the living room, before her gaze fell on the door that led to the kitchen.

A noise from upstairs made her look towards the stairs and she gasped as she saw a little girl carrying dirty blankets in her arms coming down the stairs, crossing the living room with her cargo and moving to the kitchen.

The child was in threadbare clothes, one piece over the other, and there was a disturbing familiarity in the way she moved that took Joy's breath away. The little girl stopped before the kitchen's door and glanced back.

Joy was completely aware that the kid was a hallucination, as she was kind of transparent just as a ghost should be, but the kid's stare was direct when she turned to Joy and leaned her head to the side, in a gesture so familiar that froze Joy's mind for a moment.

The kid smiled and disappeared in the kitchen.

Joy jumped off of the sofa and followed the vision, finding herself in the kitchen, which was in an equal state of neglect as the rest of the house.

She looked around, but the little girl was nowhere to be seen.

She reached the kitchen counter, supporting her hands on top of it and closing her eyes, taking deep breaths trying to calm herself.

No, she wasn't going insane.

There must be a logical explanation for it.

The abrupt noise of a door closing somewhere upstairs made Joy jump and turn around. Her gaze fixed on the little girl who appeared again, this time pushing a kitchen chair from the kitchen table all the way to the kitchen cupboard. The little girl pushed the chair in a straight line right in front of Joy, her brown gaze always fixed on Joy's face until she stopped, turned to the cupboard and opened it.

She put something blue inside and closed the door, finally disappearing again.

Joy stayed there for a full minute, staring at the old kitchen cupboard, trying to figure out what that was supposed to mean.

Who was the child? And what was she trying to show her?

Joy, in shaking steps, walked around the counter and slowly approached the kitchen cupboard, one of her hands stretching ahead towards the door knob.

She sighed loudly and opened it very fast. She got even more confused when she saw its contents.

Inside the cupboard was a small blue winged unicorn, threadbare and dusty from years of residing in there.