Paul (Fiction)

"Click," a deadbolt retreated into the front door. "squeak," replied the door hinges as Paul stepped up from the porch of his house into the entryway. "I ought to fix that," he remarked while looking up at the top bracket.

The front door squeaked again as Paul closed and locked it. He doffed his cap and opened the coat closet door. Aside from the singular light fixture hanging from the ceiling above the entryway, the house was dark. It was a typical December evening in Colorado after all, and the days were as short as they would be this year. Placing the hat on the shelf of the closet, he proceeded to remove his jacket and shoes. Paul's brown hair glistened in the light, while his face remained flush from the cold outside. Closing the door to the closet, Paul shuffled into the kitchen in his socks. As he reached for the light switch in the kitchen a small spark jumped from Paul's finger to the screw below the switch. With a flick of the switch, the lights went on and spilled out into the split level living room. It was a small kitchen, closed on three sides, with a hanging lamp overhead, a fridge and cabinets to the left, a sink and cabinets to the right and a stove and cabinets in the back. On the right side of the sink was a dishwasher, and to the right of the dishwasher there was a sliding glass door that lead out to the back porch. On the left side of the fridge was the open doorway to the living room, and above the stove there was an ordinary sized microwave. Opposite the stove, there were stairs leading down into a sunken level. This level was separated from the kitchen by a three foot high wooden railing, with 4 inch gaps between each of the rods. The sunken level's 8' ceiling sat no more than a foot above the railing. To the right of the stairs leading down, were another set of stairs leading up to the second floor. The only bathroom in the house as well as two bedrooms were up there. All of this was semi visible from the light in the kitchen and the light in the entryway, for the light from the kitchen not only spilled out through the open side of the kitchen, but also filled the gap between the 3/4 left wall of the kitchen and the gap between this wall and the vaulted ceiling.

With the kitchen lit, Paul moved back into the living room. It was sparsely decorated, but contained a Christmas tree in the window and a couple of wing-backed armchairs facing the tree. Paul bent beside the tree, found the chord beneath it and drew the plug over to a nearby outlet. With a flash, the lights on the tree turned on, filling both the front window of the house and the living room with a gentle glow. Paul moved from the living room back to the kitchen, and opened a cabinet beside the fridge. In the cabinet were a few snacks and dry baking ingredients, as well as a box of hot chocolate packets. Paul pulled two packets from the box, closed the cabinet and moved to the fridge in search of milk.

With all these items in hand, Paul turned towards the sink side and opened a cabinet above the dishwasher. There were mugs and glasses in the cabinet, none of which seemed to have come from the same store or from the same era. Paul took the one he was most interested in the moment (a large green one that looked more like a small bowl than a mug) and proceeded to fill it with milk and the contents of the two hot chocolate packets. He moved from there to the microwave and set the cook time to a minute and a half.

Once the hot chocolate was hot, Paul moved back into the living room and sat down across from his tree. In between sips, Paul looked longingly at the tree. The tree was full of lights, ribbon, and ornaments of various sorts. It brought tears to his eyes as he remembered all that had come before this moment, and realized all that would never be the same hereafter.

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Thanks for reading my story! If you liked it, bookmark this page and keep your eyes out for future stories. In addition to working as an Associate Broker at Keller William's Client's Choice Realty and in addition to working on advertisement projects, I write stories and create interesting projects whenever I can.