Dark House

Dark House – Watercolor – 8.5 x 11 inches.

Once upon a time in our little town, there was a house that was always dark. For as long as anyone could remember, no light was ever seen inside that place. Perhaps someone had lived there, maybe it had been a home. But that would have been long ago, beyond what still remained of our memories.

Once in a while, my sister and I could hear what seemed to be the sound of someone singing a lullaby. And one evening a cloud of green smoke floated out of the big chimney and saturated the air around us with the fragrance of orange blossoms. Now, look! A light!

“Wasn’t the house originally painted black?”

“No, it only seemed so because of the shadows of the forests that used to surround it.”

“How strange now to see a light appear!”

“Strange, oh yes. Now you and I can see things. Isn’t that the wreck of a boat in the parlor at the foot of the stairway?”

“I see it, it looks like something Viking, but maybe it’s only a ghost. It’s raining in there too. And aren’t those apple trees sprouting from the wreckage?”

”The apples are black. The walls are mumbling. I see holes in them and cartridge casings scattered everywhere.”

“There’s a young woman sitting on the edge of a bed with her face in her hands.”

“That must be a memory, sister. Look, now she’s on the bed, on her back. Wait, there’s something crawling between her knees. The room is getting darker. Wait, wait, there’s another. Two! Both of them little girls!”

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