Homecoming

The elevator reached the fourth floor. The doors slid open, but I was tempted to hit "lobby" and push this off for a week. I was returning home from vacation.
It's a good thing suitcases have wheels, because the one right behind me leaned against me and prodded me out the door. I stepped out quickly onto the black and white tiles of my hallway and looked for a light-switch to brighten it up. Oh. The light was on; I guess fluorescent watts just don't compete with the sun's. I glanced out the window at the street down below and imagined that the graffiti inscription on the corner grocery read " welcome back from vacation."
Bracing myself to enter my urban dwelling, I turned the key in the lock. I slowly pushed the carriage into my living room,followed by my husband and a month's load of stuff. There was barely any floor to be seen, and I knew that even when I unpacked the suitcases my son would be able to run about six feet and then have to turn back the other direction. How different this was from vacation.

It wasn't that I wanted to radiate negative energy, I simply felt claustrophobic and and couldn't help noticing the dust balls dancing in all the corners.I knew that the closest I could get to seeing a clear blue sky with a serene landscape would be if i purchased wallpaper.  I felt the walls caving in on me, leaving only a narrow tunnel for me to crawl through, face down.
That's when I noticed it. A kind mailman had slipped a big envelope under my door, saving me the usual trip to the post office for larger sized packages. A bright red sticker read " do not bend, portraits inside." God Bless Sears!! I tore open the perforated line and the pictures landed gracefully on my glass table. Within 30 seconds I had them lying side by side, a collage of memories from my recent vacation.

With crisp white pants and sky-blue argyle shirts, my kids blended right into the scenery. The essence of vacation had been captured in an 8x10, two 5x7's, and a sheet of wallets. I played with the different sizes and poses, rearranging them on a bare wall in the kids' bedroom, and designed their frames in my mind. When the prints were at the right angle and the symmetry  was just so, I actually managed a smile. It was good to be home, in my comfort zone, with with real wooden cribs instead of playpens for the little ones.Home was where I spent the majority of my life, for both function and purpose. And soon to be hanging on my wall, in my own home, I had a glimpse of vacation as well. Enough to uplift me at a glance.

The $5.99 for overnight shipping was worth it.