towards the front door that she could now
The stairs were no longer covered in
see matched the color of the garage.
carpet, but were exposed wood. The small
There was a doorbell, but she reached for
table and mirror from the foyer were gone
the metal knocker and banged on the door
and replaced by a line of metal hooks
three times. She heard the sound of a dog
where jackets and bags hung. The
barking, which caught her by surprise.
patterned wallpaper had been torn down
A few moments later, she heard the lock shift inside the door. It was silent
and the walls were painted light blue. The woman asked if she could
for a moment, and then the door swung
help her, so she explained that she was
open revealing a middle aged woman in
looking for her parents who lived there.
flared jeans and a rust-colored sweater, a
The woman said that she must have the
woman she did not recognize. A chocolate
wrong address and kindly explained that
lab with a purple collar stood at her feet,
she lived in the house with her husband,
wagging his tail. Now the door was wide
and they had been here since their kids
open and she could see inside the house.
were in middle school, almost ten years.
There was very little that she recognized.
Unspoken by Ashely Picard IT WAS A COOL MARCH DAY -slightly overcast with an occasional drizzle, but still bright. The kind of day where you
the technique of shifting gears while driving. He had picked her up earlier in
aren't sure whether or not you should wear
the morning. She told him she wanted to
sunglasses. They drove in his stick shift car.
go on an adventure, but she needed
She never understood how he could drive
breakfast. They went to a small diner, just
that thing. He tried to teach her once, but
off a main road, tucked away in a series of
her lack of ability to multitask made it hard
new local business buildings. It was a
for her to grasp
yellow building and she wondered if it had once been a house. The aesthetic of the
Fiction 7
