The first place I called home, a short story by Lee. Date added: 2007-08-26. Times viewed: 1000.
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- Intro: Childhood memories
- I don't remember a lot about my childhood. Sometimes a familiar smell wafts up my nostrils, or I have vague flashes of events that happened when I was a child. There is one thing that I do remember though and that's my house. In fact my street where I used to live. To me, this wasn't just a house, it was home. A place that when I think about it is the only place I can or have ever been able to call home.
In a quiet friendly neighbourhood, where the streets were lined with vibrant oak trees whistling in the wind and all the front gardens pristine, housing flowers clearly planted with love, stood our house. A paved walk way leading up to the garage and a small patch of grass with colourful flowers surrounding it, sat in front of the freshly painted white two bedroom house that if it could talk would have many tales to tell.
When we first moved there after packing up our worldly goods for another adventure, Mum and I didn't expect to fall in love with it so much and more so be able to call it home. Mum had got a really good financial consultants job in town and I had got into the local primary school just a few minutes walk away. I wasn't worried about making new friends, I always did wherever I went, and I liked writing letters so I always had pen pals. I remember thinking as Mum put the key into the lock of the front door and we stepped into the hallway that there was something different about this place. It felt warm and inviting as if the house had been waiting for us. Mum had put her arm around me as we stood looking out of the kitchen window into the back garden, and told me everything was going to be all right and that we would love it here. I believed her, this was definitely going to be a good place to live, I could feel it.
After I had put all of my clothes in my wardrobe and put my favourite teddy on my bed I ran down the stairs two at a time (already an expert) and went into the garden. You had to go through the kitchen to get to the garden and the door leading to it had a cat flap. Excellent. We had a cat called Penny, she would fit perfectly through that flap.
The garden was enormous! It seemed to keep going and going. The first section was just grass with flower beds down the sides. They were in desperate need of flowers. There was a path down the middle leading further back, past the fencing in the middle to a rhubarb patch. Mountains and mountains of it. I hate rhubarb! As I looked around the garden I spotted another door, curiously I lifted the latch. Could this lead to a secret garden or another world full of wonders?
Slowly I opened the door and stepped out. In front of me was a huge field with houses surrounding it. In the middle of the field was a small playground with two swings a slide and a roundabout. There were a few children playing in the park and some were whizzing around the field on their bikes. Not a secret garden but hey, it looked like a great place to go and play.
As I walked back towards my house I glanced over to the house next door and saw someone looking at me from one of the upstairs rooms. It was a young boy, about my age. He smiled then disappeared from view. I ran inside to help Mum unpack. I wondered who the boy was and if he might be the first friend I made there.
The first night in a new place is usually a little scary, with new sounds to get used to and new shadows on the walls. I usually stayed with Mum in her bed, but this time I didn't. I snuggled under my duvet with my teddy and fell sound asleep. I was happy and excited about the first place I called home.
I settled in quite quickly. I liked my school and made lots of friends, especially the boy in the window next door. His name was Joe. We became best friends. All of my time was spent with him. The field became our kingdom. We had so many adventures out there. Traipsing through the jungle in search of the lost treasure, secret agents on the run from baddies and on a quiet day we would speed through the forests on our bikes escaping the killer forest monsters. It was great! Mum often had to scream at me to come in for dinner. At least 5 times.
That house shared a lot of memories with us. I remember having a birthday party there with endless amounts of party food, a my little pony cake and all of my friends around me. I felt like Alice in Wonderland at the mad hatters tea party. The laughter spread around the house and soaked into the walls. It felt like it laughed with us.
After we had been in the house about 6 months, my cat Penny had her kittens and it seemed like the house alerted us that something was going on. Early one morning I went downstairs and saw that she hadn't come in for breakfast. This was very unusual for Penny. Something made me open the back door and look in the garden shed opposite. Sure enough, there she was curled up on some boxes surrounded by six gorgeous kittens. I was so excited I screamed. Mum came rushing out thinking something bad had happened. I could hardly speak, I just jumped up and down and pointed towards the shed. The kittens stayed with us for quite a while until we sold all but one. They were safe with us in the comforting arms of our house.
A few years past and I grew older and even closer to our home. Then disaster struck, we had to leave. I refused to believe it. "Why did we have to leave?" This is our home, no one else's, ours. Mum tried to make me understand that it was time to move on, but I didn't want to. I loved it there, I loved that house.
As boxes were packed and labelled, and furniture was carried out to the removal van, I sat on the floor of my now empty room and cried. I was sad and I knew the house was too. It wasn't just bricks and mortar, it was our friend, protector, our home.
I went out back to take one last look at the field of adventures. It looked dull and grey, no children running around and having fun, just the squeaky rusty swings swinging in the wind. As I walked up the path for the last time I glanced up at the window next door. There was Joe, not smiling this time. His face was as sad as mine. We waved good bye and I ran inside.
We had a lot of good times in that town, in that field, in that garden. In the first place I called Home.
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