Shades of Blue

She moved to this neighborhood to start over, after an unhappy time in her life. She found a modest house to rent, which suited her just fine. This new space, it was a blank canvas, a place she could make her own. A cocoon that she could curl up inside and reemerge as who she was meant to be.

It was an early evening, quickly fading to night, the first time she took a walk around her block. She hadn’t noticed the house at the shady end of the street at first as it was hidden behind the green veil of several weeping willows, but when the wind stirred and the branches parted she was startled by its presence. It seemed to be lurking there, protected behind a hedgerow, and she was overcome with the feeling of being watched. She hated to admit it, since the neighborhood had so far seemed so pleasant, but she felt suddenly uneasy and continued past by quickly.

Now she was almost certain that the house had been light blue, in fact she felt sure of it because she made note of how hideous the color was, a faded periwinkle, which didn’t suit its gothic architecture at all. But a few days later, when she was combing the block with her neighbors in search of old Misses Meriwether’s cat, she ventured to the far side of the street again and could have sworn the house that lurked behind the willows was now much brighter in color, like it had just been repainted. But how could that be? She surely would have noticed a crew working on the place.

Several weeks later the cool spring weather was edging towards summer and she was sitting on her porch, trying to enjoy a nice book, but the kids were playing at the end of the block, making all kinds of ruckus and disturbing her peace. Just as she was about to retreat inside for some quiet there was a sudden silence. She looked up, but the kids were gone. How can that be, she thought, because there was no way they could have all left so quickly without her noticing. At that moment she saw through a parting in the trees the big old house… it was now dark blue, almost black.

“Okay, something is definitely not right here” she muttered to herself as she rose from her perch.

Slowly she made her way down the street, creeping silently, because she was afraid of what she would find there. She reached the fence that surrounded the house and carefully opened the gate. Quietly she crept through the yard, peered through the hedges, and couldn’t believe what she saw. There, in the backyard were the children, playing in a pool, and all her neighbors, having a BBQ. Old Misses Meriwether spotted her first, and waved her over “come my dear, and celebrate with us, Bob Peabody is throwing a party since he has finally finished painting his house!”