I wait there, still the same as before but something just doesn’t seem right. I am still the same average sized room with walls painted lavender and mint green. The furniture is still placed within my walls but something about me just doesn’t feel the same. The girl, the human girl with the brown skin and free flowing hair that was always here stirring in my space, she rarely visits anymore; the hinges on the door are collecting dust along with the blinds and dressers. It has become so lonely and dark, and I feel unwanted, the only activity I have now is the occasional calico cat that she loves, her parents, and those pesky boys Brandon and the dog…buddy. It is hard to remember where this girl goes all the time running in and out of my door with nothing but a breeze of wind behind her from always moving; but whenever she comes back, she always brings a black suitcase that looks like it is about to burst, and then leaves again to return months later. I miss her entering my doors-- such energy, emotion and determination, when will she come back?

As far back as I can remember when I was first built, there were so many humans coming through my doors. Though this one human, this little girl had something special about her. She had this spark and we had a connection like no other human had with me. She came in and out of my doors daily and came to sleep on that bed every night. Things were being changed inside of me as time went along, like the wall color, furniture and décor. As she grew up, she was still the same but I could tell she was different, she definitely wasn’t little anymore and had so many more emotions! It seemed that she would cry more often, yell and slam my door whether she was upset or playing around with that little boy that she calls Brandon… I think that’s her brother. As time went on though, she wasn’t in my space as often. It became worn; she had clothes everywhere, mail, and a lot of junk. Once summer of the eighth year she lived here rolled around, she started packing things. Though this didn’t seem to be one of her occasional trips she’d go on only with her suitcase but she had boxes being packed with her belongings, some new and some old and I started to become empty.

A few weeks had gone, and I was relieved that she was still with me, and then suddenly she took this stuffed dog that she has had since the very beginning. I’ve seen that dog go through a lot with her; tears, sleep, talks and comfort; I knew that dog meant a lot to her which is why she never took it on those trips. That day was different though. This time she packed him along with the other things, and that was all I saw of her for months. She would come back periodically, but it just wasn’t the same. I started loosing hope after the first couple of times that she came and went but she only stayed for a few weeks during that time.

Then one summer, on the ninth year, she was back! She brought all the things that once filled me and more! I was completely ecstatic and I knew she was here to stay because she had brought everything back with her. The summer went how it used to back in the good old days, but then something strangely familiar happened. She started packing again, and then she was gone with that old stuffed dog. Just like before, she would occasionally come back with her suitcase and then leave again. This happened for three more years. One summer, she never came back; the only people that visited, where her family and pets but not her. However, I still see her on rare occasions like the holidays, or birthdays. Strangers, but her family calls them guests, stay in what was once her bed and it is not the same; even though my door hinges are not dusty anymore from the coming and going of “guests,” I wish they were, because whenever I wait and see who comes through those doors it is almost never her and I get so disappointed. I sometimes hear her mother and father talking about what I believe would be her and this thing called an apartment, but I don’t know what that means…it kind of sounds like a sickness, I hope she is okay. But anyway, she is talked about, but not with me. So I will just keep waiting here, wondering when she will return, so I will no longer be this waiting room.