Day 269: On the Corner of C and S Part 2

I explored the cabinets more as Sandy went on to tell how she had raised her kids in this house but had moved out with her husband to a smaller house a few miles away.  The conversation started to turn as my parents asked question after question.  I stood still off to the side from them.  I had been taught to wait quickly and patiently while adults were talking, but this had put me to the test.

     “That is actually a burn,” Sandy was saying to Momma about the glaring scorched linoleum patch at the foot of the stove.  The edges were peeling up, and the center was dark brown.  “I spilled some oil on it several years ago.  I always covered it with a throw rug.”

     The solution seemed to ease Momma’s countenance.  Her desire for a tidy, unblemished house would never have allowed that mark to stay out in the open. 

     My parents finally decided to move on when I thought I couldn’t take staring at the blue checked wallpaper with birdhouses much longer.  Sandy led us to the staircase, located behind the stove, to look at the bedrooms.  There was a door in the middle of the stairwell, another vintage feature, and at the top of the fifteen linoleum steps, I thought the house was stuck in a time machine that had two different settings on it.  The hallway had all its original deep chestnut red brown floors and intricately carved bedroom doors with oval dark metal doorknobs.  The bedroom floors however were still covered with ‘70s carpeting.  One floor had red and black zigzags, another had deep aqua and black, and another had puce green and brown.  The master bedroom had cream shag carpeting.  There were a total of five bedrooms.

     “You mean if we lived here, I’d have my own room?” I whispered to Momma.  I had to share a room with my little sister at our last house, and I wasn’t looking forward to sitting in front of the door to keep her out again.

     “That’s right,” she replied.

     Well, that was good enough for me.