The House

The water began to slowly trickle down the side of the decrepit house, falling from a broken gutter. It traced its way over rotted siding and into shattered windows. A young man stood on the porch in front of the door. A drop of water fell through the eroded shingles and landed on his head. The cool sensation made him look up and observe the decay of the house. Had it been only a year since he last visited? 

The house was new last time he was here. The paint shone in the noonday sun and yard was perfectly landscaped. However, for the young man that was only a distant memory now faced with the condemned building in front of him. What had happened? The young man continued in disbelief as he circled the premises of the house. 

In the backyard he saw the once beautiful garden reduced to shambles, filled with weeds and empty beer cans. The gazebo had collapsed upon itself and was now home to raccoons. A distant memory flickered through the young man's head as he tried to picture what it was like before. But that thought was gone before he could even register he had it. 

The young man knew there was something important about this house, that it carried something inside of it that meant his life would be what it used to be before last year. He decided he was going to repair the house and recover his previous life. 

Over the next five years the man worked tirelessly and finally restored the house to its former glory. He spent a large amount of money and lost a lot of friends because all he cared about was finding what he had before and returning to it. 

One night the man was sitting in the remodeled house and soaking in the beautiful feeling of restoring something that used to mean so much to him. At that instant, he heard a creaking noise coming from the basement. He got up and headed down the stairs. He reached the basement and heard the noise much louder this time coming from the main support beam of the house. He ran over to it and saw that it was almost chewed in half by some zealous termites. 

Then with one final squeal the beam split in two as the house collapsed upon the man. The very thing he had spent time, money and his life on returning to had been his ultimate demise. At his funeral, there were only a few people that showed up, and they lamented the fact that he had spent so much time on regaining the past when he had such a productive future to look forward to living.