|
|
The Caravan
Sometimes they were all inside Jeanne and Marianne's house, next door to their house, exactly like their house, but turned around in the other direction. The staircase went upstairs on the other side of Jeanne and Marianne's house, beside what would be the hedge beside Paul's house. Upstairs were grassy yards of raffia, tap dancing shoes, and a small loom with tiny beads on it.
At the back of the long attic room was a door to a finished room where Jeanne's big sister Margot lived. In their own new house the long room was a finished room,and at the back was a door to an unfinished attic their mother used to hang out clothes to dry.
At the end of the alley at the vacant lot all of them played wilderness under the two or three large evergreens and around the dark wood outbuildings. The lot had dark wooden sheds and large evergreens. And a caravan was pulled up in a tidy right angle beside the sheds, a gypsy caravan made of wood with wooden wheels, painted red and cream.
Once their friend Paul opened the door at the front of the caravan and they had been allowed to go inside. It was a rainy day and they sat on the seats inside and talked. It felt unusual to be inside the little room. Inside, the caravan was a small wooden house with a wooden seat at the back with padded leather cushions. Inside were boxes, inside it was painted cream color and the rounded roof was like a rounded top roof on the outside of the caravan. They were just the younger ones, Jeanne and Laura and Paul. And they were never allowed to step inside the caravan again. |
|