Spectacles

It seemed like a simple-enough idea, and I was open to any idea related to exploring. I think I was with some other guys, about my age. We would have been between 8-12 years old. We were walking around in general with no particular goal in mind when it was suggested that we could go look in an old abandoned house. I had passed it before and not really noticed it. Weeds were growing in the yard and the door was unlocked when we went up to it.

It’s funny how hollow a house seems when all its life has escaped. You can smell its history-its occupants always slipping out of sight just around the corners as soon as you move from one room to the other. Only the mute dust remains to speak of times past.

I was thinking that they had really emptied this house out until I opened the drawer. I opened the drawer and inside was a hard, oblong, black case. It was something I thought I had seen before, but I wasn’t sure. I slowly opened the case and found inside an old pair of glasses. The old kind with round lenses and thin, wiry-type things to go over your ears. The old glasses of an old person-Why were they here? Why did they leave this of all things? Why did they no longer need these glasses? Or did they need them? The glasses had no answer-they just looked back at me.

I apologetically closed the case and put the glasses back in the drawer and shut it carefully. I quietly joined my friends in the other room and I told them there was nothing here of interest, so maybe we should go.

We left the house and continued our walk. But the glasses are still in my head.