Cremated

Reunion

I was nine when I first received Arabella, my beloved teddy bear. She was brown in colour and had beady black eyes, her body was soft and huggable and she was my best friend, she always said 'Do you want a hug?' when you pressed against her belly and I'd give her one every time, she also had teeth that always put me off, a perfect line of pearly whites hid underneath the mouth flaps and when I'd opened it, I felt like she suddenly became someone else. I'd always wondered why she had such a human name, not Sparkles or Cuddles but Arabella.

       I never noticed it though, I was nine and didn't care much, I just played with it for hours and hours as if it was a real person. But as I got older, I started to forget her. I didn't bring her with me, obviously, I was in college, and I didn't play with her anymore. I just left her on my shelf before forgetting about her altogether.

       It was only a few years later that I'd remembered Arabella's existence. I was alone in my dorm doing a long project about the royals of Britain when I came across Lady Arbella Stuart. Arbella. Arbella. The name stuck with me for the rest of my studies before I had to find out why it kept ringing a bell. I stopped and closed the books then took out my phone to search up the name in my camera roll.

        The first photo was of me and the teddy bear sitting in the middle of my local park on the soft grass and the second was of the bear in my basement with it's pearly whites shining against the dark background. Arabella! That's where! I forgot all about her. I kinda miss her too, I wonder if she's still there.

        I finished as much of the assignment as I could and headed for bed before my cacophonous roommate could arrive back.

       The following morning, I got up early and quickly to change and check my schedule for the rest of the month. I didn't have anything due for the next two weeks, which was lucky, and I'd had holidays in a week so I decided to call my mother, whom I didn't talk to for a year now. We talked about how I was doing and little personal things, and most importantly, how she was willing to pay for the plane tickets to return home for a few days.

       It was set, the tickets were paid for and my three day leave was granted. I was already on my way, reuniting with the people of my childhood. The trip back home wasn't too stressful either, it took a mere four hours to get everything done, from getting up in the morning to landing in Sioux City, Iowa. I rode the bus around town until I reached my lakeside home.

       The weather was decent, a few white clouds scattered across the baby blue sky with the sun, a blinding fireball over me, accompanied by a light breeze, balancing the heat of the sun. I strolled through the neighbourhood, after I was dropped off at a deserted bus stop, in search of a dark blue crafts man style house with a bubbly golden retriever puppy waiting for me at the gates.

        But what I found was the opposite of my expectations, my house wasn't dark blue anymore, it was a murky complexion of lake green, there was no dog of any kind and the once thriving apple tree was now a dead, dried up wooden stump in the front yard.

        I was shocked but felt like my expectations were a bit too good to be true, of course the neighbourhood wasn't going to look the same. Even Mr. Parker's newsagents down the road closed down, and he'd been open for twenty three years before I left.

       The place felt the same but wasn't the same. 44 West Lake Drive was where I stopped at. I had to jam the key into the gate to make it open, I could've just jumped it but I wasn't a kid anymore and surely that would've caused some suspicion in this ghost town, especially since I probably wasn't recognised for the kid I was anymore. I slowly walked past the dead garden and up to the front door.

       The house inside was equally dead as the neighbourhood outside. It was as if there was a zombie apocalypse or nuclear evacuation because the house was virtually empty and so poorly maintained. I wandered through the home and set my bags in what used to be my old playroom, it was then turned into a library.