Random Short Stories

The Visit

When I knocked on the front door, I was greeted warmly by my daughter. This was no surprise to me. She had invited me over to her new place to show me what she had been up to. I hadn't seen her in over a year, let alone heard from her. She kind of just left out of the blue. I was worried, sure. But the only thing I could do was assume she was okay. She still sent her car insurance payments every month and had cleaned out her entire room, leaving nothing behind. Her greeting me at the door seemed to be the only thing I could expect.

The first thing that surprised me was that she was living in my ex husband's old house. It was a nice ranch style house, featuring 3 bedrooms and a sizable bathroom. It sat in a lovely cul-de-sac where everyone knew everyone, and everyone was friendly. In a way, I thought this was nice, exactly what my daughter needed. As I approached the house, I noticed that the outside had been updated since I had last been there. The siding was different, as was the driveway and landscaping. There was even one of the fancy doorbells with the camera inside. When my daughter opened the door, I tried not to show my shock. She looked... different. I should have seen it coming, really, but I guess in the back of my mind I hoped it wouldn't happen. The most noticeable thing was the thick beard she sported. It grew in full with a reddish hint, as it does for most blondes. It made her look like a younger version of my brother. Her hair was freshly cut, although still somewhat scruffy looking, and thick as always. Her smile was perfectly whitened and straightened. Her build was considerably different. She was slightly taller, finally taller than me. Broader shoulders. Well toned, slightly muscular arms. She had thinned out significantly, considering her belly was gone, thighs actually featured a "thigh gap" and calves were toned down. Her hips were narrow and tapered off, giving her a very masculine shape. Hardly any curves. Even her boobs looked... gone.

Her girlfriend looked different as well. Her hair was still short, but she had curled it, which looked really good for her. She had also dyed it a brilliant purple with lovely highlights. It looked like it was professionally done, although I later found out my daughter had done it herself, which was very impressive. She smiled, and had a whole new air of confidence that I had never seen in her before. She was wearing an adorable black button down shirt with white pizza outlines, and cute blue jeans. She had done an amazing job on her makeup as well, although that wasn't really something new, just something I noticed. She looked happy, really truly happy.

The next thing that got me was when my daughter started to speak. She didn't even sound like herself anymore...

"Hey mom! You're here!"

Maybe she could tell that her voice caught me off guard because blush instantly seeped into her cheeks.

"Yep! I made  it!" I said, trying to sound cheerful.

This was the first time I had seen my daughter in over a year. I didn't want to screw things up.

"Well, should we give you a tour of the place?" She asked, her smile faltering slightly.

"Sure!" I said "I can't believe you managed to get this place. You haven't lived here in years." I said.

She walked me to the right, where the kitchen and dining area was. It looked like I walked straight into the IKEA store. It was likely that she had gotten everything from there. She always liked stealing those catalogs when we got them in the mail. Especially before I got to read them. She showed me the fancy lighting under the cabinets, the fancy soft locking doors and all the cool jars and organizational bins they had in the kitchen. Funny how her love for organization hadn't changed a bit. She offered to make me a cup of coffee in their fancy Keurig, which I accepted. While it was brewing, she showed me the small laundry room and the patio that they had redone together over the spring. She lead me into the family room which was on the other side of the front hallway. She explained how she had gotten the fireplace fixed, and showed their little console gaming setup. Then she showed me the bathroom, guest bedroom, their room and the office. Again, all of it looking like it came right out of the catalog. Despite that there were some little bits of charm that I knew would pop up. The office was more of a gaming room, considering it was filled with monitors and bright, colorful LED strips. There were also tons of posters on the walls, as well as shelves filled with collectibles. While it looked like a bunch of little worthless toys to me, I understood that to them it was something more different.