(3.15) The Empty House

    The Empty House

 

"Daddy!" screeched Lizzie excitedly as she read the number on the caller ID. Jayme ran to the ringing phone on the wall and pulled the receiver to her ear.

    "Hello?"

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    "Just great, Dad. School has been really tough and was boring today, but that's okay because Courtney came, and we got out early, and…"

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    "Well, no, Dad. She just left."

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    "Well, she didn't exactly run off, I don't think. She was with a friend, and he was on a schedule."

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    "She's here, and Mom's here, and Granna's here." Catching the reference to herself, Lizzie shouted, "I'm here!" She then pulled the phone from her sister and began to tell her father about her day, from eating a homemade breakfast of Granna's finest buttermilk biscuits to the excitement of skipping out on the not-so-homemade elementary school lunch. As she listened to Lizzie ramble her day's details to their father, Donald McGhee, Jayme pulled out a wooden, kitchen chair, took a seat, and watched Granna's bird feeder sway softly in the breeze outside the window.

    The bird feeder hung from a tree branch because it was more difficult for the squirrels to ravish it that way, but they still snuck down to get their fill from time to time. Granna also had a beautiful, blue bird house that was attached to the side of the same tree. Donald, her son, had helped her hang it two years ago. Jayme remembered watching her father with his hammer and nails hanging from his belt as he had climbed the ladder to reach just the right spot on the tree. It was perfect. However, although it was spring already, no birds had moved in this year. Many random birds would fly in throughout the day to peck at the food, but none of them brought their families to live in the empty house.