EMPTINESS

by Danna Shirley

The following story was an assignment in my writing class from a picture of a white refrigerator.

            Is there anything more bleak than a bare, white wall? Is there anything more lonely and uninviting than an empty white refrigerator on a bare, white wall? 

            I had just returned to my childhood home after many years absence. The little house on the corner of Fourth and Hilltop had been locked up and vacant. The furniture, however, was still in place except for a few of my mother’s mementos which I had taken home after her death. The perpetual calendar that hung on the wall to the left of the refrigerator was cheery and colorful and I wanted it in my home for my own children to enjoy. The flower arrangement that was perched atop the refrigerator had become faded and dusty and I had thrown it away. All of mom’s refrigerator magnets and the artwork that held them had been boxed up as keepsakes.

            To the right of the refrigerator had stood an old display cabinet which my brother had found thrown out on the side of the road. He had brought it home and sanded off the peeling green paint which revealed the beautiful cherry wood beneath. Then he replaced the glass in the front doors and stained and varnished it back to its original beauty. It stood in our kitchen for several years holding mother’s precious collectibles of milk glass and weeping gold pieces. My brother’s wife was too progressive to have this antique in her home; it held no value to her, but I treasured it as a sweet memory and so he gave it and its contents to me.

            Now the house was being sold and I had returned to sign the papers. There was such a sadness in my steps as I made one last walk through the house but when I entered the kitchen and looked at this colorless wall with the refrigerator door set ajar, the small freezer compartment empty of its two ice trays, and the shelves bare of mom’s wonderful recipes, I broke into tears.

            This house was not only empty, but the wall was empty, the refrigerator was empty, and now my heart was empty, for I knew I would never again experience the love and laughter, the smells and tastes of my wonderful life that had begun in this home.

            I hoped and prayed the new owners would bring it back to life . . . with lots of love!