The Houses

Once upon a time, when Grammy was a little girl, before she ever was a Grammy, and everyone still called her Paula Jean, she lived in a little yellow house with her mama and daddy.

Sometimes, on Saturday, Paula Jean’s daddy would go to work, and she and her mama would walk downtown. They walked because her daddy took their car to work, and anyway, her mama didn’t know how to drive.

Paula Jean didn’t mind walking because it really wasn’t very far, and she liked looking at all the houses that they passed on their way to downtown. Each house was different and they all looked interesting. Paula Jean wondered what they were like on the inside, and she wondered who lived in each one.

One of the houses had large white columns on the wide front porch that went all the way across the front of the house. There was the one that looked like a house that fairies would live in because it had a front door that curved in a half circle at the top, while another of the houses had two front doors side by side.

A tall, fat, perfectly shaped Blue Spruce–sort of a blue Christmas tree– grew in front of one of the houses and was so big, Paula Jean couldn’t really see the front door to that house because it was hidden by the blue tree. On the front porch of another house, was a porch swing. It looked all comfortable and inviting with pillows and cushions piled in it. Paula Jean was sure it was the kind of swing you could sit in and read your favorite books or just daydream while swinging back and forth. Then there was the house that had a large round window right in front that acted more like a mirror than a window because it reflected the trees and sky and everything outside the house so that you could never really see through it. And of course, there was the house that had a little wooden bridge that led from the sidewalk, across a tiny creek, over to the yard that surrounded the house. It seemed the house lived on its very own island.

Paula Jean always tried to decide which house was her favorite, but there was something special about each one, so she could never decide which one she liked the best. She liked all of them the best.

About paulajwray

I am a writer and I live in the Rocky Mountains of southwest Colorado with my husband and a balding black cat. I write humor, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, inspirational essays, and poetry. When I'm not writing, making lists, or forcing a family member to listen to something I've written, I'm reading, gardening, or laughing with my friends. I also, occasionally, sit and stare.

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