Memories

Sierra looked around at her NYC apartment for the last time before she went to visit her parents in her home town, Nashville Tennessee. She didn't really want to go, she didnt want to leave her beautiful apartment and wonderful boyfriend and not her amazing friends either. But she hadn't seen her parents in a few months, her visit was long overdue. She sighed and put her luggage into the elevator. This was going to be a LONG trip.

"Oh Sierra, darling, you're beautiful!" Sierra's mother Patty exclamied. "Shes right sweet pea, how much you have grown!" Her father, Matt said. Sierra had a long flight, she really wasn't in the mood for flattery. "Im going up to my room, to rest." Sierra said, and she marched up the wooden staircase up to her small but cozy bedroom. She opened the blinds and gasped. She had forgotten about the spectacular view. She would spend hours and hours looking out when she was little. There was the beautiful lake that she called her backyard, the sunlight making it sparkle. Then there was the chicken farm, the chickens happily prancing around. Then the sight of it making her dizzy, she saw the oak tree. Its green leaves beaming under the early July sun. She had her first kiss under that oak tree, and she would read, cry, laugh under that amazing tree and basically do anything there. She had to see it. Slowly, she crept downstairs, and outside into the yard. From there, she sprinted to the tree. Even being near it brought back so many memories. A salty tear rolled down her cheeks and she quickly brushed it away. "Sierra?" She spun around until she was face first with her first love. "Oh my god. Charles?" Sierra gasped. What would he be doing here? "What are you doing here ?" They both said at the same time. "Visting parents." They once again said together. Sierra giggled and looked up into Charles' golden amber eyes. "No Sierra, you have a boyfriend." She said to herself in her mind. But he brought back so many memories, she couldnt help but start to have a little crush on him. "Charles?" A female voice called out. Charles turned around to his old house's porch. There was standing a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. "Charles it's time for dinner." She called out again. "Well it was nice seeing you again, Sierra." And he turned around and walked back to the house. Time for dinner? It was only 2:30pm!

Over the trip, Sierra kept having dreams about the Oak tree. She had dreams, and flashbacks of when she was little. How she broke her arm swinging from the tallest branch, sitting under the stars with Charles until they would fall asleep, and then she would also remember saying goodbye to the tree. When she got a job to be a fashion magazine editor in NYC she jumped at the chance. She never once said goodbye to all the little things in Nashville, she didn't realize those things would be the ones she would miss the most. When it was time to go she said goodbye to her parents, gave a little wave to charles and then sat by the oak tree crying for a bit. She wasn't crying because she was sad, or because she missed Nashville (she really did love New York.) she was crying because of the memories. And on the plane ride back home, she wrote a short story on her life in Nashville. She never did publish it, but when she got sad or lonely, she would read it, and suddenly feel all better.
"Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose." ~From the television show The Wonder Years

WORD COUNT: 644