The rose-embroidered wallpaper and the dust perched on it were not the same at all. The roses had literally faded and the wall had changed color. Since no one had come for a long time, the insects took advantage of this situation and established their own order.
This state of the mansion surprised me. It had always been a bit resplendent and modest, but now there was no trace of its old self… I ran my hand over the banisters leading downstairs. Apart from dust and dirt, my hand also touched old memories and felt them. These were the banisters on which my mother leaned when she invited us to dinner, which my father touched with his dirty hands while gardening, and where my sister’s handkerchief embroidered with her initials touched while scolding my father.
While pacing the stairs, I raised the gas lamp in my hand, the pictures on the wall were not visible because of the dust. As I took out the handkerchief from my shirt and cleaned the surface of the picture, I saw my mother’s eyes, her soft and elegant features as I smiled at her, this time I turned towards the frame where I knew which picture was. After cleaning it with my handkerchief, my little brother was smiling with his messy hair. However, my mother had done his hair especially for this picture and made his wear one of my father’s little shirts. He was a naughty little boy who didn’t like order, he immediately ruined his hair. I didn’t tamper with the pictures any further, but I threw the picture of this mischief into my bag.
The downstairs was always colder than the other parts of the house, so we opened a summer lounge here, the whole town loved to cool off here, and my mother invited them over. The white sheets draped over the furniture in the living room disturbed me. There were no carpet-patterned seats and flowers that my mother had always been proud of; all that was left was faded dry stems and white dusty covers from her colorful personality. I lifted the sheet from one of the seats, but there was no image I wanted to see behind the dust. Apparently the moths had feasted on my mother’s precious ones. I left the living room and entered the pantry, my mother used to say that this place was a cold heaven for food.
I moved towards the chest in the corner, the chest that haunts my nightmares… Our family secrets were hidden in the trunk in the basement of our house. When Iopened the trunk, I learned things that completely changed my outlook on life. There were a lot of documents in the chest. My mother said that turning points were hidden in this chest. Here was my sister’s high school certificate, the pictures we made when we were little. Black and white pictures from my parents’ wedding day, our birthdays, and my sister’s wedding. A bunch of lavender that my mother was deathly allergic to, a document stating that my father had a heart attack, a bloody handkerchief with my sister’s name embroidered on it, and a lock of hair from my little sister. I put a manuscript into the chest that my mother liked very much and that I also adore. This was my turning point.
As I left the house, I took a deep breath and got lost in the dark night.
