Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Waking Up


When Heather is at home his coughing and the smell of his first morning cigarette wake her. He'll be in the kitchen, but in their bedroom across the house she can hear him coughing. In their bedroom that seems to have a film of nicotine on every surface, even thought she got him to stop smoking there a year ago. Her brain won’t register the headache she had when she went to sleep, and still has when she gets up.

In The Aunts House, Heather wakes up without the headache. This is when she recalls it, in its absence. She pushes her hair from her eyes and blinks at the sun filtering through the curtains. She can hear The Aunts downstairs, clinking dishes, murmured conversation. A teakettle whistles.

She stretches herself long, until she hears little cracking sounds, then curls into a ball. She pulls the quilt over her head, and lets the light shining through make her a hazy lavender world. Where everything smells good and is natural and pleasant.

This is why she comes here every summer. To "take care" of her old Aunts, who are doing just fine on their own. She comes for the feeling of lightness and simple happiness. She comes for the way she feels when she wakes up.

1 comment:

Mella said...

Lovely descriptions ~ I can hear tea kettle and clinking dishes and see the the hazy lavender world.