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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Home for Christmas (11/20/08)
Seventeen seems a lot older than it actually is when you are there. Life was easy when I was seventeen, but I had to go and make it so much harder for myself. I chose to disagree with my parents and I fought with them over everything.

Just thirty-five days after I turned seventeen I stood in this same spot with two duffel bags and a backpack. I walked away with out saying goodbye to anyone. How selfish could I be? Looking back I see how easy life was. My comfortable suburban home, both parents together, my own car, even my dog loved me.

When I left a “nice” guy named reality met me. But my stubbornness kept me from asking for help. Everything had a price and strings attached. And now after eight lonely Christmases I am back at what used to be my home. As I pay the cab fare and take my two duffels and backpack out of the trunk I fight that old demon of stubbornness. To bad the house is not picturesque with a large tree in the window and snow lightly falling. Instead the lawn needs mowing and the Santa Ana winds have tipped our trash cans over. But it is still my home if the hearts inside will take me back.
Will they take me back? Fear seizes me and I turn to flee but the cab has already gone. I am alone and I do not want to be alone anymore. I take my bags and with swollen belly and determination I walk up the front steps. I finger the cross around my neck, the symbol of my newfound faith. I hope it is enough to connect me back to my family.

Holding back tears I ring the bell. The familiar bark of my dog, Buster, greets me. When my mom opens the door it is all I can do to keep from crying or running away. She has a few more pounds, like me, and a few more grey hairs, but she is the same woman who loved me once before.

“Alice?” Her voice is laced with surprise, not anger.

“Hi mom, I am home for Christmas.”
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Marlene Austin
11/29/08
Sad the lessons youth think they MUST experience for themselves even though they almost always end up understanding -"You were right all along, mom/dad." :]
Dee Yoder
12/01/08
Lovely story and the ending is good--just leaves enough hint at Mom's good will to let the reader guess might what happen without telling us every little detail.
Lisa Keck
12/02/08
This was a good story. A slightly distracting typo, using to instead of too with "too bad" but overall well-written. Thanks for leaving us hoping at the end that Mom welcomes her daughter.