Late in night you could find Bella talking to herself. A bit odd yes. But who was there to be with. Just her and the crippled Ballet flats. Mostly Bella would not talk to herself in whole conversations wise. She would reassure herself. Council herself. The sweet air lifted her curtains. Like a breathing child. So peaceful. It was the fresh air from a summer night that calmed her. She counted the curtains breathes as the wind circulated through her room.
The Melatonin in the house had surprisingly ran out. So the struggle to clam her body over the amount of anxiety that fueled her system. Like her brother said ' She truly is a creature of the night'. When her parents weren't around. Bella would sneak in the attic to see her brother. Bringing along and a pack of skittles.
Yet those memories were to haunting to come across again.
She tried to get the gloominess of her thought to exit her body. She hummed through her lips a metal song by Three Days Grace. She tried to strum a couple cords to Pachebel's Canon on her Lute. Yet nothing seemed to make her body any more wide awake then it was.
The sun was not due for a long amount of time. She gazed out her window. Only to hear a plane passing over head. She lived fairly close to the San Jose Nation Airport. So the norm was to always hear a couple planes passing by. Her eyes traveled to the plan over head until she caught something out side of her eye.
A form of a women blackened by the dim lighting of the room made her silhouette visible to Bella. It seemed the women was tending to a baby. Her fingers danced on the rims of the crib. Soon her hand slowly reached in to take out a plump baby. She held the child up in the air slightly and admiring a piece of herself. She could see that the mom soon was cradling the child in her arms gazing at it and rocking gentle with her arms leaning right on the edge of the cradle.
Bella cried that night, still she slept.
That night Bella dreamed.
She dreampt of open orea boxes. Tangy fruit punch. Metal music set at the lowest notch of sound. She dreampt of round lensed baby blue glasses and scattered match box cars. She dreampt of the seventy style fuzzy rugs with a sea green tint. She dreampt of algebra text books and fancy binoculars.
She dreampt of magical laughs and the boy that left her.
Forever.
She dreampt with an old photograph that held the most important person in her young life.
Soon the curtains like all things stopped breathing. Yet light scattered through the thin lace. Making the room light up with just a kiss of the sun. A typical Sunday morning.
Soon Bella woke up. Strangely like always she was confronted with blackness from her eyes that needed redirecting to open. Soon bright blue eyes were unveiled to her tired and reckless refection in the mirror.
She was brushing her crooked teeth with the gap in the middle. Sharing an awkward breakfast with Charlie. Practiced her ballet a little bit and now brushing her hair on the couch contemplating what to do today.
Still the only thing in the back of her mind was Drawbridge. The warm environment still lingered on her skin and she could barley feel the wind passing through her hair. Yet she had no idea why she was drawn to Drawbridge, like a nightmare was drawn to a dream catcher. She was under it dark devil's snare. Soon she felt it would conqueror her.
She felt a furry body weave its way through her bare legs. She looked down to see a plump gray cat that had a lot of a resemblance to a whoopie cushion.
"Mickey." Bella called. The fat gray cat ringed its bell as she planted her bottom on Bella's lap and purred happily. The cats fur shed on the short shorts which Bella was wearing. Soon Bella's gaze lingered to the door. The cat looked up at Bella and Bella looked down at the cat.
The bright sun felt strange on her fair skin. Being the Midwestern girl she was. Bella was use to snow and scarfs. Soon she came close to a 1965 Mustang red convertible in the front drive way. That reminded her of the Aerosmith song "Crazy". Soon she was heading out on a twenty two minute ride with Prince baring out from the speakers as she passed the city of Alviso.
Wind streaked out from her hair as she felt the salty atmosphere on her skin. She was just out of the limits of the city and the world seemed less chaotic. Soon the path became less clear for Bella. The earth under her car was hard on her tires and she then came to see the Union Pacific Railroad track right by Marina Park. There she knew that she had found Drawbridge territory.
The walk was soon enough. She decided that walking on the outside of the train tracks and avoiding the grass would be the best decision. The train track seemed like an treadmill. She kept going and going. But all she saw were the same mountains. The same long grass. The same yellow dirt. Even though the walk would only be two miles.
In the distances she heard something. Something unintelligible she couldn't make out. Like an humming noise. Pure rich it was to her ear drums. Yet it was fast. Quick and steady.
Chooo Ch Ch Chooo.
Bella's body was in a stand still from shock.
Soon she turned around to see a train rumbling down the tracks at her. Yet her feet felt glued to the ground. Then in a second she fling her body to the ground rolling around on the grass. She put her hands over her hears to avoid the loud sound of the train popping on the train track.
Scared or still in shock. Bella laid in the grass. Grinning. For no apparent reason except she found something.
A home.
There it was like a crippled Polio patient it stood tall. It was an rotting wood color and it was quite large. The window looked like they were the drawing of a kindergartener. It was concaving into its self. It was completely square with a flat roof. Yet the amount of character it had made it perfect.
She got up and dusted herself off. Using the after shock of the train to get the energy to run to it. She stumbled into it. It looked to have an porch. Weeds wound there way practically tearing down the shack.
The floor was covered in dirt. Excess panel of wood covered it so much you could not tell what was the floor. Graffiti covered the walls. Strangely she could make out every thing.
In the corner she could make out the nobs of where a bathroom used to be. She could see a area for bunks. She noticed one of the beams and read this.
Drawbridge, California
Alabuma County
James Manson
A home.
This place was someones home.
Once.