-Home Sweet Home-
By Evan
Sai did not bother to watch the dented taxi cab bounce
and careen down the dirt road that wound to their home.
The house was dark and quiet, not even the smart growl of a tiger from
the near by woods to let him know he had actually arrived.
It had been.... A very long trip.
Tossing his heavy bags onto the porch he spent the better part of an
hour digging through his pockets and things crawling for his house keys. Finally he
emerged breathless from the bottom of overstuffed duffel with the object of his search.
Leaving his unmentionables and once pressed clothes strewn about for God and the paper boy
to see he triumphantly slammed it into the lock.
But the door wasn't locked. It wasn't even closed. The door swung open.
Sai made a barely controlled face. He tossed his keys with much emotion
behind him and thought he might have heard them hit the lake (which was over 20 metres
away) with a cheery splash. Sai entered into his home with a great long sigh
and promptly fell over something and landed on his face. He lounged for a moment, glad to
be at least laying down then scrambled to his feet ready hurt something. He angrily
flipped at the light switch.
The living room remained dark.
In the dim light he noticed something fluttering on the front door. He
ripped it off and studied very close to his face.
A notice from the power company. Over do funds. Severance of service.
Twenty days notice??!
Sai's eyes narrowed.
Surely someone had gotten the bill? His gaze fell back to the rude
clump that had knocked him onto his face. It was a large impressive tittering pile of
mail. Left at the front door where the post man pushed it through the door everyday. Some
of it was opened, the ripped envelopes left where they had been opened. Sports
Illustrated. Play Boy. Play Girl. Several Chinese take out menus.
It was just about then, that the Smell hit him.
Holding a rolled up handkerchief to his face, his eyes watering, Sai
ventured deeper into the house towards the kitchen, where he was sure he would find the
mostly decomposed body of a rat, or maybe he mused as he drew even closer, a moose.
He stood and stared for a great while.
The kitchen (His kitchen!!) was transformed into something else quite
entirely. The cabinets all lay open empty and every single glass, dish, fork, chopstick
(and Sai was certain, but he was not brave enough to get closer and inspect) paper plate
was stuffed into the once pristine sink. Where there had seemed no more room to shove the
filthy dishes, space had been made on the nearby counter tops and ... Sai swooned and
clutched the doorframe for support.... the clothes washing machine.
The refrigerator had been left wide open, and with no power it had
seemed a grand effort had been made to finish anything in it as evidenced at the empty
ketchup bottles discarded on the floor, the half gnawed boxes of cereal and the melted
boxes of ice-cream that now sat, glued forever to the kitchen table.
Knowing this was not enough to sustain, Sai saw the inevitable endless
clutter of open Chinese food take out boxes that sat on every chair and shelf. An empty
beer bottle rolled and crashed into an overflowing rubbish bin upsetting a cloud of flies
and sending them buzzing about the room.
Sai staggered away.
A louder buzzing then the flies lead him tearfully to the den.
Sai took in the damage grimly.
This is where they had nested.
The television was on, set on snowy static. The cable, Sai noted dully,
was off but a wire, which a solemn look out the window proved to be hanging off the near
by power pole, pilfering from the next doors, kept the telly going. However, in an
elaborate attempt worthy of NASA, an intricate maze of coat hangars and tin foil had been
constructed bringing a fuzzy picture in and out of a baseball game.
A careful pyramid of beer cans which reached the ceiling decorated the
corner like a Christmas tree. The carpet had been blackened by what had looked like fire.
A football was lodged in a broken picture frame on the mantle. The sofa cushions leaked
their stuffing from very playful tiger looking like tears.
The sofa itself was missing all together.
Sai looked at the spluttering fireplace where it appeared someone had
been trying to cook hot dogs.
Oh there it was.
Not strong enough to face the reality of the loo Sai was prepared to
burn the place down. But then he heard the careless tread down the steps and knew without
turning who it was.
Sai turned anyway.
There Rowan stood, replete in his swimming trunks and highschool prom
jacket, because the rest of his clothing was laying in the washing machine with the dirty
dishes.
Rowan smiled broadly. "Welcome home!"
Sai fainted.
the end =)