Explosions

3

Driving down the streets surrounding my childhood neighborhood brought back many memories. I could see myself riding my bike down Elk Lane and jumping rope with the girl a few houses down from me. I could see me chasing after my dogs while they chased down another, and me desperately trying to pull my dog off of a female he would eventually impregnate. I loved reminiscing, that's why it was always a joy of mine to come back home for dinner with my parents and siblings, because afterwards we'd sit in the front yard and talk about anything.

As I turned the street to enter my neighborhood a chilling feeling came over me and I instantly became nervous, darting my eyes from left to right to find whatever it was that already took hold of me. I drove slowly to my house but couldn't see anything that would cause me any worry, out of force of habit I looked down the connected street to check for cars and my eyes would land on the house that brought me the most pain. I blinked a few times to calm myself as I drove a little faster to park in the driveway before my sisters could. I quickly took my purse from the passenger seat and exited my car, running to the front door only to find that they'd added a new screen whose key I didn't have.

"Hello, your biological daughter is here." I banged on the screen, my dogs ran to the door and began to bark in excitement, the oldest one jumping towards the doorknob.

"Stella!" My dad's voice was music to my ears as he rushed to the door, nearly knocking me out with it but engulfing me in a bear hug that I wished lasted for eternity. "How's my little office worker?"

"I'm pretty good daddy, how's my hero?" I smiled at him before kissing him on the cheek.

"Doing good, excited for this dinner. Your mom's inside frying the tortillas."

"Well, shouldn't you be helping her?" I laughed, playfully pushing my dad out of my way to get inside the house and continue my greetings. "Momma! I'm here!" I rushed to the kitchen, not bothering to touch my dogs just yet, and came to see the sight of my mom standing a foot or two away from the stove as a tortilla splattered oil everywhere.

"Don't come over here it's dangerous." My mother held her small hand out like a crossing guard, it almost seemed like she was trying to use the Force on me.

"My powers are stronger than yours grandfather," I walked over to her, hugging her before turning the dial to low to reduce the risk of her getting burned. "Need any help?"

"Your dad was helping me but I'm not too sure where he went." She rolled her eyes, waiting to hear his response.

"The dogs wanted to be touched so I'm sitting on the couch with them." Immediately my mom and I ran to the living room to see my dad sitting on the couch, our dogs laid up on him as he lovingly petted them.

"What in God's name is this? Don't move Steven, I'm going to get my phone!" My mother ran into the kitchen, my dad lightly chuckled as he quickly got off the couch. I shook my head and began laughing as my mom came to stand next to me, her arms crossed as she pouted.

"You always do that," her pout got larger and I rolled my eyes, pushing my way to the couch so I could sit down and cuddle my dogs. It was always very refreshing to just be able to be at my childhood home, I threw away every responsibility I could have when I visited, just to get that childlike feeling back.

My parents had changed some things since the last time I was gone–a week max–and they did well. My mom had FaceTimed me at the hardware store while her and my dad were trying to decide on what color to choose for the living room, we'd settled on a nice shade of beige to accent their new olive green couches. As always there were picture frames littered on the walls, filled with photos of our little family and the grandkids. My mom kept a large trunk full of photo albums that my sisters and I always teased her about, but we loved looking through them when we got a chance.