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