Cannonball

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After eight hours of being airborne and going through customs Raine finally had time to breathe. It’s now 10 am and sitting inside the family van, she’s listening to the excited chatter of her siblings and her aunt and uncle who came to fetch them at the airport. She’s just glad she’s finally out of the deathtrap called an airplane. The headache she had made it the flight from hell, she kept throwing up, dry heaving and spending half the flight in the airplane bathroom. She felt a lot better after she’s had some fresh air but she cannot seem to get rid of the feeling of being suffocated.

Must be the humidity. She thought.

So to keep her mind off things she decided to include herself in everyone’s discussion. A series of laughter and embarrassing stories after and they arrived at their childhood house. The van pulled up the rustic gate and the conversation inside the van dies down as they prepared to get out. The place where Raine grew up in isn’t grand but in their town they’re considered upper class. It was a simple house and very traditional on the outside with the bench swing still in place. Nothing has changed much except a few additions of potted plants and the new paint job, Raine noticed, it was nice to look at.

She quickly got out of the van carrying as much baggage as she can and set them down the porch to check on the cement handprints her and her siblings did at New Year’s a few years ago. To her surprise it was still there.  Their hand and feet prints on the cement. She remember when their parents where redecorating the house, Raine had instigated to get cement and mix them by the side of the front porch, she called her siblings and they put their hands and feet on the putty like cement. When their mother found out she was fuming and gave them a few smacks on their bare asses, lecturing them about how renovating the house means making it look better, and better doesn’t include handprints by the front porch. Raine didn’t cry while getting spanked because she thought it was a genius idea, but she did feel guilty because she dragged her siblings into her mischief. But her parents never did anything about the prints they just left it there.

Raine put her had against the cool cement into her own hand print, reveling in how much time has passed and how she’s grown. The spanking now just a distant memory and thinking that is was still well worth it.

“Still there,” Aunt Shannon said. “Never gotten rid of it. I thought it was cute. I look at it whenever I miss you kids.”

“Ha! Mama didn’t think so, she gave us the worst hiding of our lives that day. I’m pretty sure-”

“You three sometimes needed a good hiding by your mama.” Aunt Shannon said while chuckling and walking away.

Raine got up and started inside the house, taking in the familiar yet different surroundings. When her aunt told her about the differences made with the house she didn’t expect it to change so much. It used to be so plain and simple. The walls used to be just a plain shade of cream, neutral and classic, now it’s a soft shade of pastel green. The furniture is still the same, big, soft and plush neutral sofas. More of the walls have been covered with pieces of art that Raine can’t even understand, from her mother’s flower paintings to a hanging ornament with more tentacles than an octopus. She also noticed that there are more photos hanged and displayed in bright coloured frames. It warmed her heart to know that her aunt missed them so much that she decided to cover most of the house with photos of them. Her Aunt Shannon really took over the house. It still had its rustic, classic feel but now with an added eccentricity.