Someone should have told them, warned them
that the family home was in jeopardy.
It was the house of Mr. Thomas Dream and family.
Thomas thought himself head of the house,
though to keep peace with his wife, Amanda,
he pretended that the house-hold operations
were shared responsibilities. I feel it’s reasonable
to wonder if Thomas knew the severity
of the threat against his home?
Could the possibility of eviction
be one of the many secrets he kept from the rest of the family?
Is he to blame, and if not, who?
Thomas and Amanda have three children.
William, Grace, and Joy now stand at the curb
with suitcases in hand but no place to go.
A homeless fellow passes, ringing a shine bell.
Little Joy reaches out to grab the bell,
but the homeless fellow pulls away,
making the children confused.
Their parents told them they could do or have anything.
William had surrounded his life around this concept,
Grace found liberty in it, and Joy could only be made happy
with material possessions. Now they had nothing.
On one prior occasion, a long time ago, the family budget
had collided with the family motto, but the children’s father
fixed that situation. He noticed one day
that the neighbor’s roof was in need of repair,
and offered to help fix it. The price he quoted
for his services was extremely exasperated
for the amount of work he would actually provide,
but he assured them that he would pay most of it back soon.
He promised them “If I don’t pay back the money in a few years,
you can start taking pieces of my own roof.”
Thomas Dream never though that he would not be able to pay,
though the neighbors had their doubts.
The neighbors saw how the Dream family lived,
constantly wanting more, never satisfied.
So they lent Thomas the money, while measuring his roof
for sections that fit their own homes.
What the family never knew, because Thomas
failed to mention it, was that this was not the only time
he went the neighbors for money.
In the years that he meant to pay them back,
he instead asked for more, until most of his home
was promised to the neighbors.
On one occasion Amanda became suspicious.
She was about to re-paint her kitchen when Mrs. Jones,
the neighbor lady from across the street, intervened.
“You can only paint the walls green.” Said Mrs. Jones.
“That’s my favorite color, and really those walls do belong to me.”
Amanda was infuriated by this and demanded
explanation from her husband. “That’s silly.”
He assured her. “Of course the kitchen belongs to us,
well most of it anyway, but perhaps we should
paint the walls green, if only to keep peace with the neighbors.”
Is was strange for the Dream family to be at odds with their neighbors.
Until recently they had been known for their hospitality.
Amanda had often invited neighbors to dinner parties,
and was the first to welcome newcomers to the block.
Perhaps this is why the neighbors did not begin collecting
pieces of her house. Something changed in Amanda, however,
when Thomas acted suspicious of those around them.
So Amanda stopped inviting the neighbors to dinner.
She built a fence around the front lawn and had the phone line
disconnected. Feeling snubbed by the Dream family,
the folks next door appeared on their front stoop one morning,
expecting to collect the bedroom furniture.
Desperately, Thomas and Amanda scraped together
enough money to pay them, and send them away.
Next the family from across the street came for the kitchen appliances.
Again, the money was collected, and paid.
Grandfather Dream was the next person to appear on Thomas’s stoop.
He was much more welcomed at first. He sat in an old
rocking chair to rest his tired old legs.
Amanda was feeling safe in her home.
She thought that there was only one neighbor that they still
owed money to, and she already had this money saved up,
until Grandfather Dream made an unexpected request over brunch.
“I came for my money” He said nonchalantly.
“I’ve been giving you a little bit of money for the last fifty years,
and now in my old age I can’t work anymore, and need to
collect all the money I’ve give you to hold.”
Thomas had not held this money, he’d spent it all.
On frivolous thing’s, on house hold need’s, and on
paying back the family’s debts.
Thomas though at first that he would simply not pay the old man,
but Amanda insisted. Grandfather Dream took all they she had saved,
just before the neighbors came for the roof.
Then more neighbors came for the floors,
the walls, kitchen cabinets, everything.
The parents got old and one at a time began to die
as the house was taken apart, but the children never grew up.
They kept their youthful ignorance, spent money that
wasn’t theirs to spend, until they found themselves on
the curb without a home. Somehow their life, liberty,
and happiness had been taken away, but they couldn’t figure out how.
Now you know how this storey goes,
from beginning to bitter end.
I hope someone can decide who is to blame.
The silent head of a falling house?
Children always wanting more?
Fearing friends and closing doors?
Or a sick old man in a rocking chair?
It is such a shame to lose the home of dreams,
and worse still if it all end’s up being blameless and unexplainable.
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