Little Stone House On the Corner

"Hi, Aunt Elsa," I say as I reach over to give her a hug as the door opens. "Come in, come in. Let me take your coat," she offers as I step in. We take a short walk through the family room and into the kitchen as Aunt Elsa says, "I know that you have been here before, but I can show you around after we have some tea. Is that okay? How long can you stay?" "Of course, that’s fine. I can stay a couple of hours. Ryan and I have dinner plans, but not until later tonight," I find myself responding even though my plan was to be in and out quickly. Although it is the weekend, I also have a lot of work to catch up on before we go to dinner. "How do you like your tea, Tara?" "A little sugar and milk," I answer, even though I am more of a coffee drinker. I see a couple of painted floral teacups and saucers set out on the dark wood table alongside some mini-sandwiches. It is such a nice display set out for me just coming over for tea. I wish I had more time to entertain like this. Most of the time, Ryan and I eat out or have a quick bite watching TV before falling exhausted into bed each night. When I was a little girl, I imagined a life where I could make a real difference in the world, but most days now, I wonder if what I do even matters. Ryan is a lawyer and works long hours at his job also. We often talk about what our life will be like one day when we have children and have time to live the life we want. I sit down as I hear the blue and white, stripped teapot whistle. I watch as Elsa carefully pours us each a cup of tea. "So, how is Uncle Riyen?" I ask since I don't see him anywhere. "He is wonderful; he went out to a movie so that we could have our little tea party," she explains so sweetly that I can just sense how much she loves him. "I am so glad that you and him met. He is a very kind and thoughtful person." "Me too. Before I met him, I had really given up on being in love. I mean, over the years, I did fall in love, or so I thought, but with no one that I could imagine spending my life with. I always wanted to, though," she says, sort of lost in her memories. "Really? I thought all that you wanted was a life of adventure, seeing new places, and traveling the world." "I did love seeing the world, and I still intend to see more of it, but I always wanted to have that one special person to share it with." "And now you do," I add. "That is right, which leads me to why I wanted you to come here. I know your mother told you that I want you to move to the suburbs, but I need to explain to you, myself, why exactly," she starts. I struggle to stay focused since I only came here to discuss this to appease my mom. My parents, Michael and Sophia, grew up in the suburbs and barely like driving to the city to visit us, so I know they hope we move. Ryan and I have no desire to move to the suburbs, though. We love living in the city. There is so much action with so much to do all of the time. Although I must admit that lately, we are too tired from work that we end up staying in most nights. “Your Uncle Riyen and I talked this over, and we feel that it is time to move out of this house. We want you and Ryan to move in here,” explains my Aunt Elsa. She is my mother’s younger sister and was always described as a free spirit with a strong mind of her own. As I listen to her speak, I notice her wavy blond hair is up in a loose bun, and she is wearing a flowing skirt with some sort of print and a black shirt. When she was younger, she traveled all over the world looking for adventures, so she wasn’t around that much when I was young. Then when her mother, my grandmother, died a couple of years ago, she moved home to help care for her father. When he died shortly after, everyone thought that she would head back out traveling the world again, but instead, she bought this little house and stayed. Then she met my Uncle Riyen, who is the yin to her yang, so to speak. I wondered if both of them want to go traveling or why would they want to sell their home? “That’s sweet, Aunt Elsa, but don’t you and Uncle Riyen want to stay in your own home? You guys haven’t lived here that long; why would you want to move?” “This is more than a home, Tara; this is a special house. It is a little house on the corner made of simple stone where extraordinary things happen to those who live here,” states Aunt Elsa as if she was reading it, but then she quietly adds, “It makes dreams come true.”