The Old Building

As she stares across the road, she sees the rubble — remnants of the rundown building that stood there on the now empty lot. She wonders what had become of the people who lived in it.

Out of habit, she takes her nightly coffee and cigarette on her front porch where she could witness, without meaning to, the lives of the building’s tenants.

Memories of an old couple coming down the street, burdened by bags of groceries, obviously had come from the supermarket a couple of blocks away.

A group of kids on their bikes. And a few others playing on the curb.

A single-mom going out on dates with a different man every couple of months, which seems to validate her initial thought about the woman — that she can’t hold on to a guy long enough or perhaps has been choosing the wrong men.

There was also this lady, who she hasn’t figured out whether if she was a spinster or a widow. She would often see her sitting quietly by the window, reading or watering her geraniums, always with Frank Sinatra or Judy Garland playing in the background.

Hearing the shouting matches coming from a middle-aged couple’s unit had become a normal thing. Rumor has it that the husband was cheating on the wife.

And the blaring music from the countless parties thrown by the 3 guys who were rooming with each other. They worked odd jobs, if they worked at all, that it actually amazed her how they could afford paying the rent and throwing those parties.

Tonight, she is left with silence that seem to echo in the empty lot.

She weighs if she misses everything or not. She finds it a bit unsettling since she had grown accustomed to all the noise and the goings on. All she sees now is the sign that says that a private company is building fancy townhouses on the lot.

New neighbours. A whole new set of stories to witness.

However, for the next few months, she’ll be discovering a different scene. The empty lot and a clearing, which allows her to just stare at the night sky. She’s discovering a story that’s been there all along. Her own.

The recent changes makes her wonder if they were all for her benefit. Finding herself alone with her thoughts — yes, thoughts that are her own — gave her the opportunity to re-examine what was missing in her life. Realising that she was so caught up with what’s been going on around her — with other people’s lives — that she forgot how it is to really experience a moment such as this.

Alone. Silence. Seeing the beauty behind all the ugliness that the old building had stood for.

She had felt it wasn’t right for it to be torn down at first but now having had time to really think and experience not having it there anymore, she’s now free to consider the possibilities of what the future can and will bring. There was no stopping it now. She’s letting it happen. She’s starting to believe that once the townhouses are built, her own house will finally feel like her home.