The Most Beautiful Place on Earth posted 5/12/2008 7:58:31 PM | 12 kudos what's this?     report abuse

LaughTillYaPuke

We had a cellar. A proper cellar. One in which you could find baby frogs in just about any time of year. And in the high grass in the way back of the property there was also 2 lone tombstones. A pair of sentries to guard what remained of a previous family. And careful digging with my baby fingers, and eventually daddy's broad back chiseling with a shovel....more of these lost peoples cement testaments were found.

And I learned about death. And about how "back in the day' you could be chucked in your own back yard. I liked that thought. Being able to see the ones you love whenever you want. And I found that when one of those stones was laid flat in the sun, it was warm like the boards in the barn. And I loved these too. And I buried all of the baby frogs that I forgot to take out of my pockets. And even the ones I put in the car to keep warm. And I found that they were harder to love in death. That when something became ugly and smelled, you didn't mind so much putting it in the earth and turning your back.

And I remember how momma got so angry that the people across the street had a gravel pit. She didn't like that nasty dust in her house. How it made everything cloudy in our world. And we took them to court. (a tennis court?) and we won. (a trophy?) And they had to move their entrance to their business. And how a short while later....their sun died. Ran over by a big dump truck that slid down a pile of gravel. And I remember momma putting us in pretty dresses and making us go look at that shiny box, and how an old woman pinched my shoulder and hissed for us to just "get out".

And as a momma myself now, I realized how very wrong it was for us to pretend to grieve over the end of her world when we were the anti christ that had brought the devastation. It was my first glimpse at hatred and it made me inordinately sad. My momma said that the "end justifies the means" but I thought that nothing made it alright to be so mean.

But way, way in the back. Attached to my great mother barn was a lone section. Roof gone away. Windows ran away too. And all that was left was a great stone shell. Field stone in fact. Warm outside where the sun stayed and cold as winter on the inside where the sun couldn't sneak. And just about smack dab in the middle of that lone room grew a tree.

And this was my magical place. And if I asked her, I think Becky would remember it to. I don't ever remember momma going out there, and I always thought it was my secret. You could see the two old man tombstones leaning into the wind through the doorway. And these were my friends. But someone knew I loved it out there, laying under that tree. And one day when I went to my secret place, there was a swing. And it was there that I found my freedom.

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Blogs by LaughTillYaPuke: The Age of Reason Felonies and other Petty Crimes What are You Looking for Rattling the Bones Spit In the Eye of the Devil The Best Damn Wayside EVER Coming into My Own Daddy's Girl Enough Already Trees Around My Heart The Mother Tree Colors The Most Beautiful Place on Earth Mother Barn In The Beginning TESTIFY!!! She's a Real Mother Alright..... Sharp Dead Toe Nails Melee Come to Life The Game....Part III The Game....Part II The Game....Part I Portrait........Portrayal Cold Puke in Blog Land