She walked up the old pathway holding her grandmother’s hand. Five feet away from the front porch her grandmother stopped suddenly. The girl turned and looked at her grandma. The grandmother just returned the gaze, smiled, and then continued walking. The house looked to be the skeleton of what it once could have been. The shrubs were overgrown and the paint was chipping. The once grand wrap-around porch was sunken in and saggy. The girl carefully lead her grandmother up the front porch and to the front door.
“Are you sure you want to do this grandma? We don’t know what it looks like inside.”
The grandma smiled and squeezed the girls hand. “Don’t worry about me, dear… Don’t worry about me.”
The girl sighed and released her hand just long enough to unlock the front door. The duo entered the house to be greeted with the smell of an old musty house. The girl gasped as they were greeted with what once was a grand entryway. The grandmother released her granddaughter’s hand and took a step into the middle of the room. The girl was silent as her grandmother closed her eyes and stood very still. In the old woman's mind, she was remembering. Every little thing that took place in her childhood home. The parties her father the rich banker through. The night the bank closed. And finally… having to say goodbye. The family had left the house fully furnished, the old woman opened her eyes and looked around at the empty room. She started towards the upstairs when she remembered her granddaughter.
“ Do you mind if I look on my own at first?”
“No grandma, you go ahead.” The granddaughter went out and sat on the porch as the grandma headed upstairs. She went in and out of every room. All were empty, But some still had the beautiful wallpaper and cloth covered light fixtures. She could almost hear the sounds of the parties that had gone on downstairs. She descended the stairs just as gracefully as she had on her sixteenth birthday in 1924. Now in 1988, at 80 years old she was reliving every moment in her childhood home. She wandered through her father’s office and down the hall through her mother's sitting room. She walked through the kitchen and formal dining room. And she finally ended up in what had once been her favorite room in the house. To her surprise, she found it to be not empty. Her heart skipped a beat as the walked over to the one cloth draped piece of furniture. She carefully lifted the cloth to reveal her once pride and joy. Her piano.
The girl on the front porch was called back into the house by the lively sound of a slightly out of tune piano and her grandmother singing. She peeked around the corner and smiled at her grandmother who was sitting at the piano singing one of the songs from her childhood “Ain’t We Got Fun.”
She looked up as her granddaughter entered the room and felt the tears running down her face.
“Thank you, thank you so much!”
The granddaughter walked over to the piano and sat down. She slowly began to pick up where grandma had left off.
“In the winter in the summer, ain’t we got fun!”
