“The Elegant White House”

At a tender age, I used to walk through the countryside with my cousins. All of the homes in that part of the country were wooden, but there was one concrete house. It was huge, painted white and it stood there looking very elegant against the green. I saw the owner of the house twice, but from a distance. The area was beautiful with many trees. In the yard of the house there was a cocoa house. It was about three feet from the ground. On my first day of walking through the countryside, I felt peaceful. As we got near to the elegant white concrete house, I saw a woman coming out from under the cocoa house. This woman was petite, brown complexion, dressed in a stained white sleeveless top and a khaki long skirt. She had long flowing white hair, her toenails and fingernails were very long and she was bare footed. Her feet looked as hard as stone. I thought she was a witch and I was getting set to run, but my cousins said hello to her. She answered then smiled. Her teeth were yellow and her eyes looked sad. She told us to wait then she went under the cocoa house, came back with a hand of ripe figs and gave it to us. We said thanks, continued walking then started to eat the figs. My cousins told me that she was sister to the owner of the elegant white house, but she lives under the cocoa house. I asked why, but they didn’t know. I knew I could not ask any of the adults at home, or in the neighborhood… After all these years I am still wondering why. As you walk through life, there are some things that you see, and you wonder why it was done, but you dare not ask, “WHY?”