Inherit the Place

Death that passed upon all

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He had been gone for a long time before I came home. The new house is a liquid blue, infant blue, Earth-sky blue. It beams above stone shoulders, a mesa perched in God’s neighborhood. The shutters look like they were painted with stray sun beams, a yellow smoother than butter. How thoughtful, he left a key under the mat, even here, even now. I grasp the knob like his hand and take a moment to breathe, inhale the fresh laundry smell of untamed universe. What cosmos is he cultivating in the back? I don’t realize until I enter just how large the house is—the family house has grown up and had kids of its own. The kitchen could feed every face I’ve ever seen on Earth, a sink you could swim in, a table you could hike across, windows that span the length of the galaxies scientists tried to find back home. And as I stretch to replace the key and tiptoe across the threshold, he’s there, embracing me like he was part of me. Trailing behind, clinging to his worn work jeans, the daughter I lost. The friend who grew weary of the weight of the planet and slipped away. Grandma, who fought like an army general on the battlefields of sterile white steel. The neighbor who kindled fire and banished the twitching fingers of cold with a match and a mouth quick to smile. My sweetheart, beloved husband, hair still curling behind his ears, his eyes still betraying his tender softness, reaching out to me with hands I could kiss, the couple of freckles splayed across his face another constellation in the universe. A woman with eyes greener than the bottom of the ocean, throwing her arms around me as we both chuckle at the tears that spark such dizzy understanding. A man I only knew by face, now an ally and fellow warrior. The quiet homeowner grins, caught in the middle of the universe making up, a flash and flare of electrifying connections that could power the worlds. We will inherit this place, this swift galaxy and its bold and bright brothers, sweet and strong sisters.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.