Forgotten Pieces

Känguru

by Känguru

Story

As so often, she is cleaning the house. It is a monotonous work, but she has always liked it. She likes the hard work for her whole body as much as she likes the clear mind afterwards. Most of the people in her circle would not dream of cleaning their houses themselves, but for her cleaning has something liberating and to her it is something private. The only thing she does not like about tidying and scrubbing the whole house from head to toe is cleaning and entering one certain room. In the past, she would have loved entering and being in that room. A warm feeling would spread out in her every time she entered. It was a small and cosy space with a tiny bed in the left corner and a cuddly carpet that filled out most of the floor. In the right corner small shelves stood there filled with books and toys. Every day she would go into this room with a joyful feeling in her heart. Every day until the incident. – As she stands in front of the door to the abandoned room, she knows that there is no use putting it off. While her heart is beating faster and faster, she musters her courage and touches the doorhandle. Like being electrified she recoils and takes a step back. Should she really do it today? There is no use in it, it has to be done at some point. So, she tries again, this time even braver than before. The wooden door squeaks as it slowly opens. The sun illuminates the room so brightly that she has to cover her eyes for a moment. As her eyes get used to the radiant room, she slowly looks across the sunlit space. The small bed is still there as well as the carpet and the shelves, but a thick layer of dust covers it all. Attracted by the sunlight, she steps into the room, slowly plugs in the vacuum cleaner, and starts cleaning all the surfaces. As she reaches the bed, she steps on something hard. She switches the device off, bends down and picks the piece up. As soon as she sees what lies in her palm, she sinks onto the floor next to the bed and buries her head in her hands. So much time had passed, how could she have forgotten this? She puts her left arm out and picks some more of the pieces up. They feel smooth but slippery on the one side, but on the other side she always feels two cylinders in a row, eight in total. As she picks up another piece, she realises that it has only four of the circular solids. Just as the outcome of the story of this room and her life, every piece is different and yet there are some which are the same. – How could she have forgotten about this favourite toy? There were times when they would be hours together in this room, placing piece after piece together to create buildings and devices. Yellow ones, blue ones, red ones. Only the green ones they would never use because they had to be saved for harder times they said. She would spend hours reading the beginning of books aloud and making up different endings so they could always dream about a better world as they fell asleep. No matter how young, they would always turn up the music and dance while cleaning the house. It never felt like a chore or something cumbrous to do because of the amount of fun they had. Suddenly she shivers and as she looks up, she sees that clouds build up in front of the sun. She gets up quickly and hastes to the door. The memories are just too intense to stay any longer in this room. As she whizzes out of the area, she feels a beam of sunlight in her back. She slowly stops, turns around and re-enters. Tentatively she takes a green piece and puts it in her hand. Maybe she can take one day by day as she tidies the rooms until she can build something new on her own with all the green pieces.

© Känguru 2023-08-09

Genres
Novels & Stories
Moods
Emotional, Sad
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