A pair of 16-year-old twin girls are roaming the old house that their father had brought them to see. It was the very house that their father had been born and raised in, and he had brought the girls along with him to visit it. The father's plan had been to share the memories he'd made in the house of his childhood while visiting the actual place. The house would add tangibility to the stories of the father's past, giving more dimension to the memories he would share with his girls. The house was full of old stuff. Some stuff the girls find cool and interesting, other stuff just looks gross. The twins find a box of letters. They browse through all of the letters in excitement. Every letter in the box's contents was written by their Grandpa and addressed to be sent to their Grandma. There is only one letter that was from her to him that had never been mailed out. The girls decide to grab a couple of the letters to take with them. They want to show their Grandpa what they had found, and hoped to hear the story behind the letters. The girls are sure not to forget to take the unopened one as well. They stuff a few of the letters in their pockets just as they hear their father calling for them. They run from the room they are in all the way to the house's front door. They exit the house and approach the car at a more reasonable pace. They get situated into their seats as they ask their father if they could pay a visit their Grandpa soon; they try to hide any suspicion in their voices. Their father chuckles a "yes" with a matter-of-fact tone. He continues his answer by explaining that Grandpa's house is actually where they were headed to next because he has some things that he would like to show Grandpa.
They pull up to the large hospital-like building where their Grandpa lives with a bunch of other older people. From the inside of the car, the girls gaze through the windows. They gawk at the natural beauty that the seasonal change has brought on the area. The girls have always found that the wooded areas surrounding the building, becomes unquestionably breathtaking this time of year. They have often tried to find the appropriate word to describe the scenic beauty, currently surrounding them. They would use words such as mystical, magical, and several more like they'd heard in story books. They would always agree that any word they'd used so far lacked justice in the over-all description. This is a wonderland. Take away the building, and add a cozy little cottage and you have just found the setting to a fairytale. The cottage could have a tiny chimney that kept a modest trail of smoke continuously feeding into the air, bringing the seasonal scent of wood burning into the mystical woodland's ambiance. The smells would be carried through the trees by the cool breeze rushing in ever-changing directions. The gusts of cool wind would carry back through the tops of the trees rustling the vibrant multicolored leaves. The oranges, yellows and reds shaking loose the browns. Some falling to the ground to rustle around and wilt away, some become one with the cool, rustling, wood-burnt breeze. Yes, some will hitch a ride with the patternless wind and aimlessly float amongst the seasonal refuge as everything slowly becomes colder.
The weather being as pleasant as it is, allows Grandpa to comfortably meet his three visitors in the courtyard flanking the building's entrance. The twins run ahead of their father to greet Grandpa with huge hugs and smiles that seem to spread ear to ear. The girls whisper to him that they needed to talk to him about something. Grandpa nods secretly to acknowledge the girls. He looks up at his grown son, who now stands eye to eye in front of him, and shares an endearing father-son hug. Grandpa tells the girls' father that the amount of firewood remaining next to the fireplace inside the building has depleted to almost nothing, and asks if he would do all the residents a favor and restock the firewood inside. Grandpa says that they're just a bunch of old farts who wouldn't be able to manage the use of a wheelbarrow. The girls laugh at Grandpa's latter comment. The father smiles and tells his dad that it would be no problem. He sets his sites on the old rusted wheelbarrow resting out by the shed next to where the lawnmower is kept and begins the trek toward the shed. Grandpa and the girls shuffle their way inside. They plop down on an overstuffed antique couch and sit close to one another. Grandpa in the middle, and a twin girl on each side of him. Grandpa asks the girls what all the secrecy had been about. The girls begin pulling out the letters and handing them to their Grandpa. They ask him what they were about. The old man looks at the letters and his face fills with several different emotions- hurt, love, sorrow, grief and nostalgia. He takes a deep breath and places the stack of letters on his knee. He leans back into the couch and stretches his arms around the twins. He takes a deep breath and exhales.
