Rock Bottom

Home

When the first man showed up, Alec hadn't really known what was going on. After watching his mother leave the room in tears, Alec was worried. When more men showed up and started taking things away, Alec knew nothing would ever be the same again. Still he protested, trying to take back household items, yelling at the men that those weren't theirs to take. When that failed, Alec looked to his parents. His father only sat and stared, while his mother was sobbing silently in a corner. Neither one of them acknowledged his questions, so all Alec could do was try to comfort his younger sister as they watched helplessly.

His mother's sewing machine, his father's record collection, his sister's makeup kit, and every other household item made their way out the door in the arms of strangers. As he watched, Alec spotted the corner of his favourite blanket sticking out of a box. He remembered once falling asleep as a child when his mother tucked him in with that blanket. The family television followed shortly after the box with his blanket in it. Next went the box that Alec suspected contained the family's physical movie collection, a mix of DVD's and VHS's. The tapes for sure were very old, and could well have been home videos that had never been ditalized. Another stranger walked out the door carrying a laptop, though whether it was his mother's, sister's, father's or his own, Alec didn't know. Just as he had no idea why everything was falling apart before his eyes.

Just as the house was starting to look hollow, Alec heard the tell tale sound of his father's car being started and driven off the lot. As the house emptied out even more, rather than feeling hollow, it began to feel soulless. Very suddenly Alec wanted nothing more than to leave, but he'd lived in this one place for all seventeen years of his life. There was nowhere else to go. So instead, Alec sat against the wall with his arms around his sister, just existing, as they watched everything they'd ever known be taken from them.

As the shock began to wear off, reality sank in, and Alec couldn't help thinking about the cause of this. His parents clearly weren't about to explain why the men had put up a 'For Sale' sign on the lawn. Alec found himself wracking his brain trying to figure it out, but nothing really came to mind. Nevertheless, Alec kept pouring over the events of the last few months, as if looking for an explanation.

Over the last month or so, his parents had started staying up very late working in his dad's office, and yet they'd still be awake before Alec left for school. Alec remembered once asking them if he could help, but his mother had just smiled and said everything was fine, then advised him to do his homework. Last week Alec had overheard them yelling as he'd walked past the office. Now he wished he'd stayed to listen instead of running past. Then again, how could he have known? Even if his parents had been acting weird for a while, there was no way staying to listen at the door could have prevented this, right? Then again, since Alec didn't know the cause, how could he know what could or could not have helped?

Time moved very strangely as the house emptied out. By the time it was over, Alec was somehow sure that nothing he could have possibly done would have prevented him from losing everything. He didn't know why this was happening, but he sensed somehow that he'd had no choices in it, no choice at all.

Alec now stood on the street in front of the house that was the only home he'd ever known. It was a beautiful house if you asked him. Vertical wooden siding stained a rich blue covered every inch of the house, including the two car covered garage that Alec's dad had used for woodworking. The front yard was a testament to his mother's gardening talents, with two large trees for shade, and flower beds of all types around them. Alec had particularly liked the plants that grew on the raised flower bed that ran along the driveway. As it was a two car garage, the driveway fit at least four, though only by blocking the two cars packed in the back.

A wooden gate on the left lead to the backyard where Alec knew there to be a deck off the dining room. And on that deck was his mother's hammock and herb garden. Down the stairs, and into the main backyard, was her raspberry patch. Alec remembered as a kid having raspberry picking parties, since they produced far too many berries for his mother to pick alone. Then there was the fire pit where Alec could remember many evenings spent roasting marshmallows with his sister and her friends. There was a small red shed to the right of the raspberry bushes that Alec knew had once been home to the lawn mower and his father's winter tires. Alec's mind flashed back to when he and his sister had played rock, paper, scissors to see who got stuck mowing the lawn, and who got to go out and have fun. If Alec recalled correctly, he'd lost. The thought made him smile now, even while he was crying.