Ana Turrubiates

                                                        The Door

 On a lonely night, when everyone is doing something by and for themselves, a tall, slim woman who hardly looked like she cared was in the kitchen cutting carrots, the noise was unmistakably loud enough to wake the entire neighborhood up "CHOP. CHOP. CHOP" but that night it was only loud enough to wake her baby up "whaa, whaa" yelled the baby. The mom went upstairs to calm the baby, she enters the room, a pink-walled room with a queen size bed, very calming and roomy. Next to the queen-size bed, was a baby crib. A pale, chubby baby was found inside that crib. The daughter was too young to speak, but no kid needs words when they have their imagination…

The daughter kept her emotions to herself, thus hard for her to understand her feelings, at times it even felt like she was about to explode. She wanted a hug and to be told that everything would be okay, the daughter would go look for her mom in their shared bedroom, she would never be there. But c'mon, the whole neighborhood knew she was in the kitchen, that's why they couldn't sleep! "CHOP. CHOP... CHOP." The daughter went to the kitchen, she started to cry so the mom could comfort her, but the mom was so busy cutting carrots that she didn't notice the daughter’s tears flooding the kitchen floor. In despair, the daughter stood still, there was nowhere else to go. While standing there, looking at the mom cutting carrots, she noticed something rather odd. a door, a white, 2 oddly normal-looking door that wasn't there a few minutes ago. Was the distress finally getting to the daughter's head? well, as curious as a kid can get, she went to go open the door with her soft, pale arms, she reached out for the door handle, and the mom jumped out of place to stop the daughter from opening the door. "NO! you CAN’T open this door" the mom yelled at the daughter. with the daughter almost opening the door, the mom couldn't risk it. The mom had to be extra careful about letting the daughter near that door. So as time went on, no matter where the door appeared, the mom made sure she was there to say no and snatch the daughter away from the door.

The mom grew old and tired of protecting the daughter from the door, so tired she could no longer stand up. She laid on the queen-size bed in the pink-walled bedroom, the same room she shared with her daughter, except this time, the daughter didn't need a crib anymore, and this time the daughter could speak, and oh man did she speak. she talked about music, the stars, and the reasons she loves rain! No matter how loud she was, or how many times she repeated herself, her very, very loving mother would not listen. The mom didn't care about music or the stars or reasons the daughter loves the rain, she only cared about the door, the white, oddly normal-looking door not being opened by her daughter. The daughter not having anything to do decided to go downstairs to the kitchen. She started cutting carrots, "CHOP. CHOP... CHOP" at that moment, it felt like the world was falling apart. She started to cry, but all she wanted was for her tears to matter to her mother, she wanted her mom to know how she felt. "SMASH" a loud noise came from upstairs, in fear of what that noise could’ve been, the daughter ran upstairs. She entered the room at the sight of a glass of water broken on the floor, the daughter began to clean it up. As the daughter started to clean up the mess the mom said "You should’ve placed it in the middle of the nightstand so this wouldn't have been possible" In shock at the mother’s ignorance, the daughter decided to ask her the question she had been wondering for years "Why did you never let me open that door? it was just a door right, you just simply wanted to control me. am I right?" the daughter exclaimed "No, it’s just, I wanted you to be safe, okay," the mom responded. "Can we just talk about this later, I don't feel too well right now" the mom loudly mumbled. The daughter stood still in the corner of the room, she saw the life slowly be taken out of her mother’s eyes. Not knowing what to do, she simply stood there as she started to flood the bedroom floor.

Once she had no more tears to shed she went to the park, maybe nature could help her heal. The trees were green, then the leaves started to become orange, and slowly the trees no longer had leaves. When she stopped looking at the trees she looked straight ahead only to find a door, a white, normal-looking door, at that specific moment the world stopped spinning. The daughter knew that this was the door her mother protected her from, the one she couldn't open, only this time, this time no one was going to stop her. She reached her pale hand out to touch the handle, but standing there felt oddly wrong. She wanted this, she wanted to open it, but she didn't. Oh no she didn't, she took her hand off of the handle and kept walking. The trees were green again, she decided that it was time for her to go and live.

Now that the door was gone forever, nothing could stop her. She went on to live with her husband, they had a small house and all of their doors were light pink to match their garden. She would sometimes have breakfast outside and just staring at the trees would make her wonder what happened to the door, not wanting it to come back she would snap out of it. One time while she was in the kitchen cutting carrots, her kids came up to her. "Mom! why are all of our doors light pink?" the kids questioned. "It’s to match the flowers that bloom in our garden" the mom explained. "well then, why is that one white" the eldest pointed out. The mom caught up in worry, quickly turned around and saw a door, a white, oddly normal-looking door that wasn't supposed to be there.