Chapter 73

Emeralds POV

As we walked up the dock to the islands gate I was surprised it was different than the rest. It was brighter, happier with an old school charm. It had a beautiful wrought iron gate that wasn’t as scary to me as the rest. I thought it would be but it wasn’t. Then when dad unlocked the gate and locked it behind us. We were almost like in an illusion.

There was grass and it was so green. The greenest, softest grass I ever saw. All I wasn’t to do was run barefoot through it. On the other side of the gate there was nothing but hard dirt ground. On this side the opposite. There were rows of flower beds too. The flowers were so pretty and smelled so good. There was zinnias, roses, poppies, hydrangeas, marigolds, orchids, sunflowers etc. The garden had even a couple huge fountains. It was so pretty. The fountains were spewing water peacefully into koi ponds. The one statue was a mermaid and seemed more kid friendly and the other one was just a normal statue.

I was in even in awe at the pathway we walked on. It was a beautiful light gray slate stones with the green grass growing between them. The stones each had lines of different color grays in it. So the stones were all different and unique from one another.

I followed behind seeing maids here or there tending to the gardens. None of them paid us any mind. At first I thought they couldn’t see us but I was wrong. They could. Every once in a while I’d see them glance our way and then glance back almost like they didn’t want to get in trouble for staring at us. I held Jeremy’s hand as we made it up to a beautiful house. It was so normal looking that it shocked me.

It was a two floor house with white siding, black shutters around the windows and a black front door. The porch only went the length of the front of the house. There was two black rocking chairs to the left and two black rocking chairs to the right with white cushions. Surprisingly they looked super comfy to sit on. The front door was tall enough that dad and Jeremy didn’t bump their heads on the way in. I was surprised when we walked in.

“Surprised?” Asked my dad.

“Yeah.” I said.

“Raising you on the island, I did not want you to grow up in a world of darkness. I did not want you to know only darkness. I wanted you know color and to know there was life beyond the dark islands.” Dad said.

“I understand.” I said.

I looked around the inside had white walls, with black hardwood flooring and a statue stood in the middle on a small round table holding some flowers in its hands.

To the left was a huge living room. It had a large tv on one wall, a big white area rug and two black leather couches that sat opposite of each other with white pillows. There was a black rectangular coffee table in the middle with a small vase of flowers on it as well. There were no lamps or chandeliers, only some recessed lighting across the ceiling as little circle lights.

The doorway to the right of the tv led us to a dining room. This room again had black hard wood flooring so he must have it through out the house. It did have a silver chandelier that looked like it held candles above a brown, oak coffee table. It had brown chairs with silver accent pieces and silver cushions. The table was seated for ten people with another vase of flowers in the middle and the plates and everything was set up already. There were old pictures on the walls of landscapes and scenery but what surprised me most was that there was a pink and purple high chair with a diamond design in the corner of the dining room.

“That was your high chair.” Dad said.

“You still have it? Why?” I asked.

“It is a part of your childhood. I would never get rid of it.” He said.

Dad led us through to the kitchen which was decent size. The kitchen had two fridges that were stainless steel which seemed excessive but when I opened them up I found that they had veggies and fresh fruit in one and meat and dairy products in the other. Then he had smaller fridges lower to the ground underneath the white marble counter tops that had drinks in them. The sinks were copper which I thought was cool looking and very different. It was definitely a chefs kitchen. It had all the essentials and different gadgets and gizmos that a chef would need to cook anything that their heart desired lining up the back counter top. The light in here had one black rod with multiple lights facing different directions. The cabinets were white with gold knobs and had recessed lighting that would light up in different colors here or there. There was a big sliding glass door that led to the back yard.

Instead of going out to the back yard right now I wanted to see the rest of the house. I walked to the right that led us back to the long front hallway. The opposite doorway from the kitchen was my dads office. It had a lap top on the dark oak desk. It had a brown leather chair behind the desk and had a wall of books behind the desk. But they looked really old. There were a couple shelves with old scrolls on them. There were art scenery on the walls in this room too.

The next room over to the right was a huge library. There were walls of books, rows upon rows of books. The books sat on dark oak shelves, with the categories in different colors above the rows of shelves. There was every category, classics, mystery, fiction, non-fiction, romance, biographies, children’s, etc. I was thrilled to see so many books in one spot. Also there was comfy chairs that were soft black chairs and soft black pillows, with blankets thrown over the backs of the couch. I so bad wanted to grab a book and curl up on the chairs. But the curiosity of seeing the rest of the house was weighing the odds.

The door to the right of us at the front of the house led us back into the front hall. I looked to see a set of stairs that led down with a runner of white carpet up the stairs. I made my way up the stairs leading to way. I noticed everyone was just as quiet as I was. I don’t know if we were more shocked or just taking everything in but we hardly spoke a word out loud to each other.

The whole bottom floor you really couldn’t tell that a kid had ever lived here besides my highchair was the only thing that gave it away. But the upper floor was the opposite. The hallways had white walls that led to the length of the front hall. I went to the front bedroom to the left first. What I thought was a bedroom wasn’t a bedroom. Above the living room was a huge kids playroom. Memories started rushing back to me of playing in here as a child. The walls were a bright bubblegum pink with white trim. The windows let in a lot of sunlight with soft pink see through sparkly curtains. There was a swing hanging from the ceiling, playhouse that was white with pink shutters and a yellow door, a full white toy bin full of stuffed animals. To the left of that was a play kitchen with a table and chairs that was set up for a tea party. To the left there was bins of pink and purple filled with nothing but art supplies, paper, crayons, markers, paints with a table and chairs in front of it. On the wall there was a bulletin board and it had a lot of my drawings I did as a child. I walked over and looked them over. They weren’t bad for me as a kid. One was the creatures that my dad was talking about. Another was my dad and me holding hands.

“I kept every picture you ever made. This is only a handful of them. I have a ton more in portfolios in my office of every age you were when you did them.” My dad said.

“Wow. I would love to see them one day.” I said.

“Are you remembering here or there?” Asked Jeremy.

“I am. It was an amazing childhood. All the memories are extremely happy ones.” I said smiling softly. I couldn’t believe my brain tried to hide my own memories from me that seem so happy and amazing.

“Well there is more to see if you would like.” Offered my dad.

“I’d love to.” I said making my way back out into the hallway.