IT MAGAZINE IT MAGAZINE - APRIL ISSUE | Page 11

CLE ' S CREATIVE WRITING CONTEST WINNERS - 1ST PLACE - Same Old Soured Memories A short story by : ONUOHA , Chioma , Gloria The speckled skyline always tasted the same, tasted of grimy streets, of desperation, of a familiar nostalgic scent to this hallway and this familiar door. Anyone else would have told you that this door looked identical to all the other that whizzed in and reminded you of soured memories. It was the taste of it that drew her to this seemingly quiet spot along the building’s rooftop. She doors in the hallway, opened to the same small four-room apartment but she knew this door, remembered the moments she flung it open in excitement dangled the key along the distant backdrop of a desperately dazzling city. The twirling key gleamed in anticipation as each dot along the skyline illuminated it in new colors of yellows, reds, blues. The twine attached to the keyring ran along her fingers as she tipped it and dashed to find him, remembered when she slammed it in frustration as she stormed away in anger, remembered when she studied its grooves, trembling to open it. The key grasped in her jacket pocket felt much colder. With bated breath, she unlocked the door and precariously over the roof’s ledge. One slip and she could forget it all, plummeting into the concrete street below, tumbling silently into the quiet night. It would be so small that bystanders would not care to glance at it. As it teetered along her finger’s edge, her hand sprung forth, clasping it like a silver star trying to slip away in the night sky. Her feet brought her to this unchanged street, the same trees around the corner, yo stepped in and something came loose in her. She quietly placed her shoes aside and gingerly walked along the wooden floor, careful not to disturb the chaotic peace of the living room, his dusty clothes slung along the floor and couch, untouched. She slunk into her spot on the couch, glancing at the peels of the ceiling. It had been two years, or at least that what her family and friends kept telling her, torturing her with his absence. IT Magazine / April Issue 9