For A Moment... She Was All Alone In The World
By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee
Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee... 2013
Standing in the middle of the floor... she looked about her. Her gaze was drawn outside through the glass doors. She was surrounded by beauty... both inside, outside.
Their home was surrounded by trees, flowering bushes. This time of year, everything was coming alive. It was springtime up on the little-big mountain. Lacy,big pink flowers filled each bush. It was a wonder to look at... like a frilly, pink skirt!
The trees were bright green, new leaves ... the birds sang constantly there... up on Fairchild's Mountain. There were even woodpeckers who 'knocked' all the time, going from tree to tree.
There was one big woodpecker that amazed her... he had a big red 'cap' on his head. She would watch him fly... he flew slower than the other kind of woodpeckers. She was awed by him... he was special.
She didn't use the fireplace... she didn't know how. She had an idea of what to do... but, she didn't. She was afraid of fire, they'd lost their home to a fire... just months ago.
What she did do... to create a wonderful glow inside the fireplace was... place huge, round candles inside on top of the logs inside. She lit them with matches, until all three were burning cheerfully... closed the doors. It gave the room a wonderful, cozy atmosphere... one would think the fireplace was burning as it was meant to.
While she sat at her computer, she could keep the glow in sight, as she wrote. It comforted her to see the soft, orange-red light.... she was alone, with the exception of their three Pups. Two Basset Hounds, and a huge Rottweiler named Garraway, Chadwick... and Fairchild. Fairchild's Mountain was named after their big, shiny Rottweiler.
All three Pups laid at her feet as she sat to write her stories. They comforted her always... when she was alone. Her husband worked away from home... coming home once every eleven-twelve days. She had a lot of time to write her imagination.
She looked down at the carpet, so clean... fluffy. It was gold- colored... when freshly vacuumed... it not only looked nice... it felt so good to walk on it.
Looking into the formal dining room, she saw a big table... china hutch with beautiful, interesting dishes to look at through the clean, shiny glass. She had polished the old wood on both the table, hutch. Each of the six chairs were polished... each had a pretty blue, upholstered seat. Hanging over the table was a nice light... underneath, a big floral arrangement in a gold, ornate metal container.
She looked into the den area... a big, over-stuffed loveseat sat in front of the fireplace. One could sit there anytime, watch the flames burn in the fireplace.... dream away while looking out the glass doors, out onto the deck... at all the pretty trees.
Over the loveseat .... draped several golden, curved rods. On each hung beautiful globes of light, all reflecting over tubes of frosted glass. One could dim the lights, making a magical mood in the room to go with the soft glow in the fireplace. This was a beautiful, tall brass lamp... taller than she was. Her husband had bought it for her, when they bought the couch, loveseat, ottoman.
She turned to looked into the living room. Everything was in place, arranged nicely. A big, overstuffed couch sat where one could see out all the windows... out at the many trees that surrounded the home. One could sit, watch the squirrels run, play on the rails of the porch that sat high in the air. Birds would perch there, to look inside the glass...
There was a bigscreen, floor model tv. It was very fancy, on wheels... that never touched the floor as it sat up on a nice table to make viewing better from many places in the open rooms.
There were two glass walls that surrounded the dining room... with fancy designs in the glass. One could stand in the center, turn in a circle.... see the den, living room dining area.... and formal dining area.
How beautiful, she thought. She was most grateful for all. These were things that had been treasured by others... given to them when they lost everything to a fire. The big-screen tv, couch, loveseat.... golden-globe lamp were the only new things in the room. They treasured everything given... everything bought. They were fortunate to have anything after the fire.
There were three bedrooms... two bedrooms were made into special rooms. One was an office/study for her husband... the other made into an art room .... for her. They used the biggest bedroom for their master bedroom; it had a huge bathroom in it. She loved the huge, oval- shaped tub.... the garden tub. This was her bathroom.
There was another bathroom, complete with shower, tub, commode. This was on the end of the house with the art room, and study... this was her husband's bathroom.
Their closets were big, walk-in closets. Shelves held their shoes, folded clothes. There was lots of room to hang their clothes... as time went by... they began to fill the rods with hanging clothes.
As she walked through the house, she looked all about. She felt a sadness... it was so beautiful here, today. She had no one to show it to... to share the beauty with.
She stood there, thought about how it would feel .... to be one of the many people she knew who were lonely. Her husband was gone on a trip.... she wished to share this beauty with him... being grateful to have such a nice home. She did have her husband... she wasn't really alone. Her heart felt for... lonely people.
How fortunate they were .... people lifted them up to keep them from falling... after the fire. How fortunate they were to have each other... best friends, soul-mates.... her husband was her hero.
They both had been in a shock.... they got out of the burning house with only their three dogs. Her husband almost became trapped in the fire... he ran inside to find his wallet. The neighbor kept calling to him... he followed the sound of his voice... made it out with several burns.
He ran in the front door of the big, two-story house while at the back of it.... she was grabbing each dog... physically carrying each one to put in her Expedition. She then, backed the vehicle up until it was out on the side of the street... safely away from the burning house. She backed her husband's pickup truck into the street, parked it near her own vehicle.
Later, she couldn't believe she had physically picked each Pup up, carried them... lifted them into her truck. She'd had two thoracotomy surgeries that affected her every move. Fear.... can make one do many things... that are impossible when one isn't... afraid.
She never knew until later that her husband almost lost his life by becoming trapped inside. He was trying to find his wallet in the dense smoke... the only money they had, was in it.... and his cards, drivers license.
When she had seen the hot, red glow of fire... as she was leaving to go exercise... she already had her purse. She tossed it inside her truck, along with her Pups. No one had time to grab anything else... the house went up quickly. It was a two-hundred old house... with old wiring.
The owner had placed a new electrical box on the outside, to make it appear all the old wiring had been replaced. He told them sometime after they moved there... that he hadn't replaced the wiring... too expensive.
That was why... some of the electrical sockets didn't work when they tried to use them. One could see the old wiring going up the walls inside the house. They'd been painted over, the same color as the walls.
He had a man who was unlicensed to come to do the electrical work... and carpentry when needed. The man had just put up an outside light on the little porch where the house-fire began...
Just after the fire.... she had driven there to look through the piles of rubble to find anything that survived the fire. The man was standing there in front of where the fire began... he never noticed, nor heard her slow down almost to a stop... to watch him.
She 'felt' him standing there... she knew he wondered about ... his work. She never forgot that day... the vision of the man standing there... she knew it was something he was responsible for.
The man moved to Florida, soon after. He was never seen again. He did call them several times.... to talk. They knew he had unintentionally caused what happened... his work. They never held it against him. The man was very sick, he was diabetic...
The man who owned the house, came to them to talk. He told them he would make it up to them when the insurance money came. The strange thing is... he became very sick, died a few months later. He never got to make that promise come true. His son, and wife ... moved away.
The wife, son... never honored his promise. They said they were going to... She and her husband forgave them over time. They learned that the wife, son had built a beautiful, new house of their own....
Her mind was wandering. She wished her husband was home right at that very moment. Thoughts, more thoughts... sometimes, it was hard to just be alone with one's own thoughts.
At the moment... she understood how it felt to 'be completely alone', have no one to share all the beauty she was seeing, being grateful for. She was also, in grieving....
Her first cousin, who had just been there... as they moved into their new home... was killed in a crash within several days of the house-fire. She was helping them to recover from the fire... a log truck crashed into her on a hill... she had begun to pass a car... it was head-on.
She never knew when they grew up... they'd have their names in the newspaper at the same time... one losing all in a house-fire... the other killed in a horrible wreck within several days. They were like sisters... as little girls.
Not only did the horrible wreck put her into another shock... what she saw afterwards... wasn't what anyone should see... hear, or even know. That will have to be written into a 'fiction story'... it was so surreal... so... not believable. She wouldn't want anyone to know... how 'true' it was... that night... under the nightlight.
She had lost her mother... strange, her death. She lost her brother... he'd spent the night with a friend, he was found sitting on the couch... dead the next morning.
Her father... then, step-mother had died. Her Grandmother Lola had died... the list went on... the very people she'd loved .... had all died within months... of each other. There were nineteen loved ones... yes, she had even loved her stepmother... she'd forgiven her, too.
She had no way of knowing soon... that her husband would be in a terrible crash on Interstate 40 on a tractor-trailer in Moriarty, New Mexico... and within weeks... be in another crash, his pickup a total loss... and within weeks... he was almost t-boned by a robber at the stoplight, as the robber was being chased by the law.
The tractor-trailer wreck was caused by a little car... two young girls began hydroplaning on the wet highway.... spinning until it hit the steering axle of his tractor-trailer.... causing it to go airborne through the air.... across oncoming traffic on Interstate 40... out into the desert.
He had fractures... his collarbone, wrist. The injury on his leg almost broke it.. it had a slight fracture. He was found.... hanging upside down in the big cab of the truck.
The second wreck was late one evening, soon after. He was taking his father-in-law home.... a woman ran the stop sign .... he hit her.... almost turning over. The woman's van landed on its top.
The third time (remember 'three'?).... the robber almost t-boned him at a high rate of speed as he barreled through the stop light... as her husband began to drive through on the green light.
Her attention came back to inside... how pretty all looked. Everything was in place... all very clean, shiny. She looked toward the fireplace where she watched the glow inside the glass doors. So, many stories she could tell... so many stories in one life story... the colors of her life.
At that very moment, she became aware of how it felt if one were all alone in the world with nobody... to share the soft happiness, the beauty all around her... with. At that very moment... there wasn't anyone in the world she could speak to... to feel what she felt, see what she saw. For a moment... she was all alone in the world.
