365 Days- Book I

27. Closed Doors

July 27, 2018

"What's behind the door? Why is it closed?"   

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"What's behind the door? Why is it closed?" 

Little Alina could never get an answer to that question and it only increased her fascination with the house and it closed door. She was five years old when they had bought the small and quaint house, with red shingles and a tiny garden. There was a house that was opposite hers and she could see it from the windows of their house that faced the road. All the other houses on their street were occupied, by different families and the quiet silent house with its locked door fired her imagination.

By the time Alina was eight years old she stopped asking that question, for she realised that there was no one who would give her answers; but she did not care anymore, she realised that imagining the reasons was far more fun.

And imagine she did.

She had just discovered reading and books and the adventures that the written words took her, fuelled her imagination. When she read the Faraway Tree Series, the house was a modern day portal to the magical land; the Three Investigators series had her convinced that the house could be a hangout for illegal activities.

As she grew older and switched over to romantic books, the reasons took over a romantic hue; a house where the lady love a of a very rich old man had lived and he was unwilling to sell it because even though she died, it was a shrine to her memories, that also being the reason why nobody stayed there.

Or it could be a house purchased by the poor paper boy, once he had become rich through his hard work, but could not marry the young girl he loved, for he was poor when they were young. Her family had fallen on hard times, and he, like the dashing young romantic hero out of the books had purchased it to save her family but never lived in it for its walls screamed about the love he had lost.

There were no dearth of stories that Alina made up about the house and its closed door. Her forays into mystery and paranormal convinced her that the house was haunted, which would explain why it was not sold or occupied for the past eleven years. This latest theory would cause her to hurry down the street at night, without glancing at that house, fearful that she would catch sight of a vengeful or mischievous spirit.

Even as the years passed and Alina grew up, the house haunted her, or rather the why of it haunted her. She would not ask the question to anyone, but kept her eyes and ears peeled for any hint of an answer. It did not despair her that none had answers and none seemed interested either.

She finished school, graduated, took up a job and after a few dating mishaps, found a man she could talk to, one who did not laugh at her questions or her imagined answers. She realised she loved him when he joined her in conjuring up possible answers and after a year when he asked her to marry him, she did not hesitate.

Her wedding was held in the local church; and she stood for a few seconds on the porch of her home, dressed in white lace and pearls, looking beautiful as she glowed with joy. She stared at the closed door, knowing that she would not be seeing it for a long time, after the wedding they would be moving to another part of the town. She felt a strange wistfulness, but brushed it away, maybe some questions do not have an answer.

Six years later, perched on the swing in the porch, three year old Sam clutched his grandmother's hand, pointed at the house in front of theirs and lisped, "Glandma, why is that dool closed always?"

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Word count 646