I remember the first day we moved in. I was so excited to experience a new home with so much space to run around and play. There was a ton of land and I knew what I wanted to do with it. I wanted a horse stable and room for the horses to roam. Sadly, this just wasn’t going to happen. We built a dirt bike track instead. I guess this would be okay, because it would give me the chance to try new things. I don’t mean riding dirt bikes; although Nick made me pick up big stones; but I was able to take pictures of my brother, ride the snowmobiles around, and just take walks through the nature. We even had a treehouse built so we could watch them ride. Trees were in the way so we couldn’t really see much. The track allowed for me to have a pathway to my best friend’s house, but we discovered it too late. In the winter, the swamp would freeze over and we could “ice skate”.

Not only did we have a dirt bike track in the back yard, but we had a pool and a trampoline. The pool had a waterslide and a diving board which wasn’t common amongst my friends, so they were always over to swim. The trampoline was perfect for us. Nick and I would go out there to jump in the middle of hail storms and embrace the pain that would come. Bella and I would have wrestling matches that Nick regulated for us. When the cousins came over we played 1,2,3 or would have stunt-offs. Nick would take the wheels off bicycles and put deflated soccer balls in their place to take it on the trampoline. He said he did this so he could practice tricks for the dirt bike, but he just ended up tearing a hole in the center of the trampoline.

This was the perfect house for gatherings. We had a pool, so pool parties were a must. I have had mostly all pool party birthday parties and there was nothing wrong with that. We had Cancer family parties too. I remember it rained that day which meant that the track would turn to mud. Mud means a mud war and that is exactly what happened.

The yard was perfect for our family especially when we got our dog Leuk. We ran around the front yard with him. We played catch even though he never brought the ball back, and I took him for walks up on the track. There were many wild blackberry bushes all over the edge of the track and Leuk would come with us to pick them. He was the best dog a girl could ask for. There was one day that I came home off the bus and no one was home, so I climbed into Leuk’s cage with him so I wouldn’t be scared. I sat there for at least 15 minutes.

When we first moved into the house, the basement floor wasn’t carpeted. It was something like concrete or cement. There was a hole under the stairs that led into the back room. This made for the perfect place to roller skate around, and that is what we did until it was carpeted. Then the bar was put in down there. Whenever we had a party; New Year’s Eve, family gathering, or a “Nick” party, I would stand behind the bar serving snacks and drinks hoping to make a dollar or two.

The front room was made into a playroom where my sister and I spent a lot of our time when we weren’t outside. There were dozens of books, a play kitchen where the cat liked to sleep, Legos, Barbie’s, all the toys you could think of. There were huge windows that looked out onto the front lawn. At night, these were the scariest windows to look out of. Nick, Claire, Emily and I would all watch our scary movies in there and try to scare each other.

In the office, my dad would always be playing Solitaire or Word Womp and I would try to help as best as I could. There would always be dozens of papers to shred and we would argue over who got to shred them. I could sit in that office for hours playing Sims, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, or just coloring and making crafts. There was always something for us to do.

My sister and I shared a bedroom which meant late nights of chatter or arguing. We turned the closet into a hiding space or a quiet place to hide away. It was in that room where my cat would lay in bed with me till I fell asleep and is also the place where she would take her last breath.

This house was the best place for someone to grow up. I am glad that I could grow up there. Sadly, I was unable to grow up some more while being in that house.. See, the thing about a house, is that it isn’t a home without family, memories, and life experiences. Every little scratch, dent, and hole in the wall had some sort of meaning, some sort of story behind it that no one else could ever understand.