[aesop_chapter title=”Chapter One: The Visitor” bgtype=”img” full=”off” img=”http://jolineblais.net/nmd343/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/69016933_2827405087273643_3016435040415383552_n.jpg” video_autoplay=”play_scroll” bgcolor=”#888888″ revealfx=”frombelow” overlay_revealfx=”frombelow”]
There once lived a little family, nestled in a cozy apartment on the 10th floor of a sky-high building in Taipei, Taiwan. A lofty apartment home with long deep hallways that were always echoing with bellowing kiddish laughter, pizza night every Friday and classic American movies that the family would watch right after. The family lived a very joyous life. Hallways were always bellowing with childish laughter. Tickles, bear hugs, forehead kisses, tackles, galore. The apartment was always warm. It was always yellow, always a happy place. That is, until the visit of an unwanted guest.
[aesop_chapter title=”Chapter Two: The Stay” bgtype=”img” full=”off” img=”http://jolineblais.net/nmd343/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/26195549_1922206147793546_4184245030247082932_n.jpg” video_autoplay=”play_scroll” bgcolor=”#888888″ revealfx=”frombelow” overlay_revealfx=”frombelow”]
This guest was dark. It silenced the house upon its entrance and darkened the yellow house to a deep, gloomy blue. The children stopped running around the house with stomping, happy feet. Instead, they would tip toe carefully around the house to make sure not to disturb or awaken the unwanted visitor. The visitor stayed in the house and suddenly the hallways seemed to stop echoing with laughter and reverberated gloomier sounds. For the children, it felt like a dark force had put a shadow over her cheerful pizza nights and her exuberant home that was always filled with laughs and smiles and sunshine.
[aesop_parallax img=”http://jolineblais.net/nmd343/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/25289630_1903731642974330_8925871687324688469_n.jpg” parallaxbg=”on” parallaxspeed=”1″ captionposition=”bottom-left” lightbox=”off” floater=”off” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”none” overlay_revealfx=”off”]
The mom and the dad would do whatever they could to please the visitor. Sometimes, that meant no more playing. Sometimes, that meant angry conversations and dissatisfied emotions. Sometimes, that meant exhaustion. Utter exhaustion. This visitor—and remember, it was an unwanted one—sat in the house for years and years. It lived in the hallways of the house like a little monstrous being that ate at every happy spirit that tried to come back in. Mom and dad would come home from work every day, exhausted and tired, and head straight to bed after dinner. The girl and her brother would try their best to nudge, poke, shove, thrust this visitor away so that their old, happy home could come back to life again and stop hiding away in the shadows, but nothing worked.
[aesop_chapter title=”The Push” bgtype=”img” full=”off” img=”http://jolineblais.net/nmd343/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/26229348_1922204397793721_5727633194535158961_n.jpg” video_autoplay=”play_scroll” bgcolor=”#888888″ revealfx=”frombelow” overlay_revealfx=”frombelow”]
The visitor had taken a toll on everyone in the house. It had sucked all the joy out of the house. All the color, gone. All the laughter, gone. All the smiles, gone.
One day, the family decided they missed the colors that had once flourished throughout their home. They missed, so sorely, the happiness that bonded them together. They missed the overwhelming love that used to fill their home to the brim. Together, they pushed the visitor away, and oh my, was it a battle. It took many days and many nights. Slowly, pizza nights came back. The house slowly returned its glow. The girl and the boy and the mom and dad felt an alleviation of a dark force that was squashing their every buoyant spirit. Finally, it left. The visitor left the house and moved onto the next one. And soon enough, the hallways became cheerful again, bellowing with laughter and happy, comforting voices of home.
You must be logged in to post a comment.