Trapped in the Past

Ethan Smalls pulled up to his late grandparents’ house. He was coming to live here from now on. He didn’t have much going on in his life anyway. His fiancée died of a clot in her brain and he had just lost his job. Ethan didn’t even have enough to pitch in for the funeral expensive of his fiancée and his grandparents.

“Come down to the funeral,” his mother said over the phone.

“Alright,” he said, sighing. Ethan loved his grandparents, but he was just overwhelmed. It didn’t help when he was there during the reading of the will. He hadn’t expected to get the grand house. Ethan drove up to the iron gates. This didn’t feel right to him. The young man turned off the car and pulled out the key. He unlocked the gate and got back into the car. Ethan drove through the opening gates. His new life started here.

Nothing felt right when he got out of the car again. He had never had any use for big places. His apartment before moving was small. He and his fiancée didn’t mind it. They were going to make this their happy home. This house looked like it came out of the roaring 20’s. His mother suggested that he renovate the house.

“But I don’t have the money,” Ethan said before he left his old apartment.

“That won’t be a problem,” his mother insisted. “Your father and I will help with the cost.” Ethan didn’t enjoy turning to his parents for money. It made him feel more desperate than he already was. He shook those thoughts from his head and unlocked the door.

Most of the house felt empty. Ethan could see his own breath. He rubbed his hands together despite it being the middle of July. The young man felt around for a light switch. The wallpaper felt like the dried pages in a book. When he turned on the light, Ethan felt like he had stepped back into the roaring 20’s again. Nothing looked like it had been touched in decades. Ethan didn’t know how to take looking at the living room. He walked through the house like a wandering ghost. It still smelt like his grandmother’s perfume in the air and drapes. Standing in the dining hall alone made choke.

“I can’t do this,” Ethan said to himself. Tears blurred his vision so badly that he ended up walking out the wrong door. The summer heat hit him in the face. The young man opened his eyes and looked around. The singing birds became clue to where he was.

“When did I get outside?” he asked. Ethan looked around at the trimmed hedges on either side of him. He remembered that his grandparents had a large garden behind the house. However, he couldn’t recall the last time he was in this place. Maybe he was back here when he was about two or three years old. The air felt much softer around here. Ethan took in a slow breath. His head began to feel better as his vision cleared.

Around him, this garden felt more alive than the house. Nothing looked like it hadn’t been cared for in a while. He heard that his grandmother died in this garden moments after his grandfather died in the hospital. Ethan shuddered as he tried to think of something else. Since he was here, he might as well take a look around.

Ethan shoved his hands into his pockets and began walking. With each step, he began thinking about his grandmother. She raised when he was only a baby. Ethan lived with his grandparents until he was six years old. His grandmother provided him the love and nurture that his mother couldn’t. She was the only who taught him how to dance, be a gentleman, and garden When he was upset, he always turned to her. Ethan first told her about his fiancée when they got engaged. She was the first one to wish him well.

His grandfather was there when his birth father abandoned the family. He became the glue to hold the rest of the family together. It amazed Ethan that the man managed to keep it together around him. That old man always had a smile on his face. Just before his grandson left to live with his mother, he gave the little boy his father’s pocket watch.

“Take good care of this for me, okay?” he said. Ethan nodded before bidding him a tearful goodbye.

Back in present day, the young man stopped in his tracks. His ears caught something as he looked around.

“Is that music?” he asked himself. Ethan narrowed his eyes as he took a listen. A faint jazz tune floated through the summer morning. As if in a trance, the young man followed the sound. He was supposed to be the only person on the property. Plus, only he had the key to the front gate. Maybe it was coming from next door? Not possible because this garden and the house was in the middle of nowhere. Still, Ethan had to follow the music.

The further he walked, the rest of the sounds in the world started to disappear. Ethan didn’t notice anything changing around him. That jazz music rose in volume the further he walked. The young man only snapped out of it when he heard giggling. He turned to see a woman about his age sitting on a stone bench. She looked so elegant in her ivory dress and white pearls. Her dark brown hair came to the top of her ears. Something seemed familiar about her when Ethan looked into her deep green eyes.

“Hello,” he said. “Who are you?” The woman’s teeth looked whiter with her red lipstick.

“Tell me who you are,” she said.

“Ethan Smalls,” the young man answered. “Now who are you?”

“Victoria,” the woman said. She tried to sound like she was royalty or something. Ethan tried to place who this woman was and where he had seen her.

“What are you doing in my garden?” he asked. The woman raised an eyebrow at him.

“Your garden?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

The woman stretched her arms above her head. “I’m waiting for my boyfriend.” Her accent sound like she came from the fancier side of New York.

“Your boyfriend?”

“That’s what I said.”

“How did you even here?”

“I walked here.”

“You walked here?”

“That’s what I said.”

Ethan tried to understand what was going on here. He rubbed his forehead and sighed. The young man raised into his pockets and dug around for a little bit. The young woman raised an eyebrow at him.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Looking for my cell phone,” Ethan said.

“What’s a cell phone?” the woman asked. The young man stared at her with a blankly. She didn’t sound like he was joking.

“Sorry, I was late, daring,” another man’s voice spoke up. Ethan and the woman looked up. This young man was dressed in a fancy white suit. His date rose to her feet.

“Hello, darling,” she said. The man in the suit walked past Ethan and greeted his date with a kiss on the cheeks.

“Waiting long?” he asked.

“No, this gentleman has been keeping me company,” the woman said, point over at Ethan. The couple stared at the other man.

“Is that right?” he asked.

“Yes,” his date said. “He talks funny too.” Ethan raised an eyebrow at her. You talk funny yourself, he thought. It was then he noticed the pocket watch chain in the newcomer’s breast pocket. Ethan reached into his own pocket and pulled out the pocket watch. The fancy man looked at said watch in his hand.

“Why do you have my watch?” he asked. He took out his own watch and looked at it. Ethan’s jaw dropped.

“Grandma? Grandpa?” he asked. The young couple eyed him like it didn’t faze him.

“Welcome home, my grandson,” the man in the fancy suit greeted him.

“My boy,” his date said. She stepped forward and kissed him on the forehead. The pocket watch slid out of his hand and landed on the ground.