Finally Home

The cottage was falling apart. Ivy tangled up the sides and crawled through the broken glass in the window panes. Overgrown grass made the garden path close to invisible. The rotting wood that still hung in the door frame was splintered and swung loose in the breeze, creaking on its hinges as it did so.

To any passer by, the house would seem a fitting setting for a horror story: abandoned and eerie. But not for the man standing at the garden gate, or at least where the garden gate used to be. As he gazed on through thick lenses, leaning on his stick for support, the image before him began to change.

The ivy shrunk away from the walls, glass reappearing out of thin air, grass becoming neat and trimmed. He watched from his minds eye as the house returned to the glory in which he first knew it.

"Johnny! Come back!" Two boys sprinted around the side of the house, one close on the heels of the other. Both boys, red in the face from laughing chased each other excitedly around the garden, no shrub big enough to be in their way.

"Boys! Will you stop tearing up the garden! Go and wash up now, dinner's almost ready." The boys mother stood in the doorway, hands on hips, trying to scowl but there was an unavoidable smile on her lips as she saw the joy in her children's faces.

The two brothers bounded inside past there mother, the laughter never ceasing for a minute. It was a happy house, a loving house. This much could be seen by anyone.

As he remembered his early years, John began walking down the path towards the cottage. Careful not to trip over the cracked stones, he took his time, remembering the years of fun he shared in this garden with his brother. Remembering the smell of home cooked meals that wafted out of the open kitchen window as his mother stood by the stove. A brother and a mother, both long gone.

As he reached the threshold of the door, John paused. It wasn't going to take much effort to get the nearly rotten door open, but before he had the chance to, another memory consumed him.

The closed door was the only obstacle left between himself and home. After 4 years away, he'd made it back, finally. Brushing down his uniform one last time, John turned the knob and took a careful step over the threshold.

As he stepped into the hallway his mother appeared from the adjacent room. On seeing her son, alive and well before her, she leapt into his arms and broke down into tears.

"Johnny! You're home! You're alive" his mother cried, clinging onto him with all her might as if trying to protect him from the very conflict he'd just returned from.

"Hi mum." John whispered into her hair as he hugged her back. A hug long awaited. A hug neither wanted to let go from.

A tear rolled down John's cheek as he entered the house. Amid the damp there was still a familiar and heartwarming smell. Slowly, he made his way to the living room, or the room that used to be the living room when there was furniture and character in the house. Now all that remained was one rickety wooden chair by the window. Tired and weary, John took a seat and gazed around the empty room as it transformed before him once more.

Children's laughter filled the air again. But this time, from another boy. Another that looked very much like the first however.

"Daddy look look! Father Christmas has been!" The young boy exclaimed upon seeing the bright and dazzling Christmas tree and the floor around it flooding with presents.

John entered behind his son, an arm around his wife and watched as his son open the gifts before them. A truly joyous smile rested on his lips. Everything he loved, was before his eyes and none of life's miseries, past or present, could bother him at that moment.

The final memory disappeared and the smile that John's younger self had had, was now across his own lips. A truly content and peaceful smile, remembering a life well lived; a life well loved.

Placing his cane carefully on the floor, John relaxed back into the chair, and turned his gaze out of the window to a view that will always be his favourite, for it was his first. As time caught up with him, John closed his eyes, smile still on his face, and took one last breath. He was finally home.