The past is never where you think you left it

(inferno room is the red building in the background of picture)

THE PAST IS NEVER WHERE YOU THINK YOU LEFT IT

katherine porter

Up at 2 am, one of those nights that sleep won't have me.

Thoughts are on memories of the young days.

What awakened me as a young girl at 2 am?

The inferno room of course.

You see, I didn't like sleeping in my own room,

C's room was better, mostly because she was in it.

The summer days like today was hot so we slept

with the windows opened.

No screens covered most windows and the ones

that did have screens had holes big enough to

allow mosquito's in. Still, we loved our summers with

the windows opened. C's upstairs room overlooked highway one

and on the other side of highway one was the barroom,

THE INFERNO

an ironic name since it's demise was a fire.

Yet, when we were young, what awakened us

at 2 am was a fight outbreak at the inferno.

You would think this would have upset us as young kids

but it didn't as we would awaken excitedly to crouch

down under the window to hear and see what was going on.

Sometimes it was a man and woman, sometimes it was man and man

and sometimes, the more interesting ones were women against women.

We could hear clearly all that was going on from our

Dursette address. Oh the things we found out about

Golden Meadow happenings from what we heard from

these fights. Some of our own teachers were

seen coming out of those doors at 2 am only

to be at school on the same day.

The thing back then was, you still never

shared the information with anyone at school or even the

parentals. It was like our own secrets to be shared with no one

but each other.

oh it's a funny thing where you find your past sometimes.

This early morning, it is finding me on a night that sleep

just won't come. Not a bad thing, to remember childhood.