Dear Resident of 1602 Wildwood,

"Lord if I could touch this place or feel it, this brokenness inside me might start healing. Out here it's like I'm someone else, I thought that maybe I could find myself. If I could just come in I swear I'll leave. I wont take nothin' but a memory, from the house that built me." <span style="color: #993366">Those are the lyrics that repeat non stop through my head when I grab sight of that old brick house sitting on the corner of Wildwood Rd. and Cable St.</span>

I turn off the switch. The switch that I used to turn on at least five times a day. My heart melts. My eyes are watering. Suddenly, tears are streaming down my face faster than the speed of light. The room that was once all mine is now just a fading memory. <span style="color: #ff6600">It had creamy white walls, green and yellow flower designs lining the top of the walls just before the ceiling, a hard wooden floor that creaked with every step you took, the two windows with a clear view of the neighbors house, and the backyard where my moms red and pink tulips grew peacefully.</span> I pause, wondering where the time has gone.

It feels like just yesterday I had my best friend over for the first time. <span style="color: #0000ff">The clock had just struck noon as I heard the doorbell ring. I rushed to the door as if I were trying to beat the ball to the base in the middle of a softball game. The hinges screech when I open the door to find a small brunette. She had light brown eyes with crystal blue glasses to hide them. The white blouse she wore had a yellowish colored stain on the bottom left side where she carried a zebra patterned satchel. I look up to meet her gazing at me with the same smirk on her face as I wore. Just before I could open my mouth to speak she blurts out, "Hi! I'm Mackenzie! Your new neighbor!" We both laughed and from that moment on I knew we would become the best of friends.</span>

I miss my best friend.<span style="color: #ff00ff"> I miss the warm feeling of stepping through the slider door and being welcomed by my cheerful black lab - Max - who now lays buried in the backyard.</span> Most of all, I miss driving past Oakley everyday on my way to school. Oakley was the large tree in the middle of the road across from my house. <span style="color: #99cc00">It stood around sixty to eighty feet tall with dark green leaves almost year round. Acorns would fall to the ground while the deranged squirrels would chase them carelessly.</span> Oakley was derived from a young man and his wife down the street who were planting oak seeds one day and didn't realize that it would grow so large in that matter of time, yet they didn't bother tearing it down, so it has been there ever since. At least that's what my mom tells me.

Oakley was once the only known tree in the middle of the road in Toledo, but it no longer exists. It breaks my heart to have to say that it is just a memory. One day I wish to revisit that house one last time and give it it's deserving goodbyes. So please, resident of 1604 Wildwood, take care of that old brick house for me and make new memories with your own children that last a lifetime.

Sincerely,

Kayla