The Upper Porch
With a thud, Charlie is on the porch she used to have so many of her meals on, sitting beneath the sun cover of the umbrella, surrounded by trees and deer and squirrels that looked more red than brown. Charlie is suddenly taken with her personal history of this exact location. Of the extensive meals her Grandma would make for everyone; the salmon and vingagery salad, the sauerkraut and sausage, the wine. The trees seem to echo the sounds she hears in her heart deep at night, in the moments between falling asleep and trying desperately to. Reminiscing on the periods where she was young and the only care she had in the world was sleeping over at her Grandparents’ house. The fog of the house cleared, and Charlie at once stopped feeling like she was trespassing on a house that was no longer hers. She knew it was hers.
Turning in a circle — a direction she seems to only ever be able to travel from the moment she stepped into the house — she takes in her surroundings. Looking out into the woods, she sees movement so far away she can’t quite grasp but instead senses. A chill across her arm in the form of a goosebump at the realization that she could be watched and never know. The isolation of this house used to feel mystical, but now just feels like a joke. As if someone is laughing at her, a punch in the face.
Charlie feels the creak of the wooden boards under her feet and jumps before she realizes it was from her pacing back and forth. She is still alone. Looking back now to the empty dining room, Charlie sees her reflection looking back at her, 30 years older than the last time she was in this exact location. Not something she is entirely sure about is when she was last on this porch, last with her family doing the only thing that ever really mattered.
She zones back in on the dining room, and notices that the Agent and Bill are actually in the mirrored living room. What feels like miles in between them is surely only 25 feet, but Charlie can’t help but feel as if the distance needed to travel back to civilization would take all her remaining energy.
Go Back In
With gathered strength, Charlie slides the door back open, not even realizing she had closed it in the first place. Taking a step in before she can back back out of the door, she puts one foot in front of the other. Before she knows it, Charlie is standing in front of Bill.
Stay Outside
Charlie doesn’t wait to see if Bill and the Agent notice she is on the porch. Realizing the door is already closed — an action Charlie doesn’t even remember doing — She turns to her right and makes her way to the stairs that lead her around to the back of the house.