Post #3 - In the early 70s this Big Old House became my home

It couldn’t have been a worse time to attempt a reconciliation with Tatita and Nona. Chile had just recently fallen under a dictatorship, which made it rather difficult for anyone to move freely within Santiago.

Needless to say, given the state of the country, it was a very long bus ride!

However, in all honesty, listening to my mom's constant instructions throughout the trip felt wearier than the bus trip itself.

"Do not touch anything"

"Stay where I can see you"

"Please try to sit still"

"Don't talk too much"

"Be polite"

"Remember to say Thank you and Please"

The more she spoke, the more she set us both up for disappointment. She was a young mother who hadn't been taught by life yet that little kids, especially me, have the attention span of a goldfish.

We got to our bus stop, but still had a few more blocks to walk before arriving at the big house.

She was visibly stressed out, and I was clearly bored out of my mind.

As I walked and looked around, I noticed a drastic change from the places I had seen before. There was no division between houses, no front yards. The streets and sidewalks were quite narrow.

My mom walked silently for the rest of the way and I did too.

She may have wanted some quiet time to recover from that exhausting bus trip and I enjoyed her silence, so I could look around this old neighborhood without distractions.

Suddenly, I noticed she was walking slower as we approached a little park to our left... And just like that! I forgot why we were there and didn't remember a word of her speech from the bus.

Actually, I didn't forget, I just didn't want to think about it... There was a freaking park in front of me!

I broke my silence with a thousand good reasons why we needed to ignore everything else, and go straight on the swings, and the slides, and the merry go spinner, and the monkey bars, and the fountain, and get some ice cream...

My mom fixes my dress and says, "We are here", as we stood in front of two very tall and solid wooden doors.

The door to the right had a creepy hand holding a ball.

"What's that?", I asked, totally fixated on a horrific arthritic-looking hand.

"What's what?", my mom's mind was everywhere but on the question I had just asked.

"That hand!", I asked pointing at it.

She was simply unresponsive to my curiosity - when I seriously needed answers - before going through those doors, I mean:

"Who in their right mind would publicly display a creepy hand like that?

Didn't anyone else wonder where the rest of the body had gone?"

"It's to make a loud noise, so the people inside hear it and know there is someone at the door", she just blurted it out, hoping I'd be quiet for a while.

I stepped aside to give her plenty of room to show me how that weird hand was about to make the loudest noise I'd ever hear in my life, but she took a step forward passing the big wooden doors, and then took two more steps up to ring the doorbell - which was to the right of the second set of doors.

"Why didn't you use the hand on the door?

Wait... Why is there a doorbell?

Doesn't the hand do the same thing but louder?"

It was a hopeless vicious cycle since things kept leading to so many more questions! In my defense, I was only pointing out the obvious.

I wasn't even able to ask one more question when I got interrupted by the woman who opened the door - Whom I quickly judged as an old woman.

Yes, it sounds like a harsh and judgemental observation coming from a child, but at that age, even the 20 year olds seemed old to me.

The old-looking woman stood at the doorway - tightly holding the door with one hand - staring at my mom without uttering a single word. She didn't even notice me standing there, as if I were invisible to her.

The silent interaction, between those 2, sent shivers up and down my spine. A feeling I can only compare to the very first time I watched “The exorcist” .

... But where was I?… Oh! Right!… The old woman didn’t see me…

I know, very self-centered of me…

Looking back, I know she saw me, but wasn't ready to acknowledge me at that very moment… Also, she wasn’t that old - She was only in her early sixties.

Never before in my life did I meet a woman who looked like her. She resembled the American actresses I had seen in black and white movies on TV. She wore a white long sleeve blouse, a long black pencil skirt, high heels, and her dark hair was flawlessly styled right above her shoulders.

Nonetheless, her elegant fashion statement was totally overshadowed by her condescending demeanor standing by that door.

In a blink of an eye, she decided the stare-down game was over, turned around and walked into the house without asking us to come in. My mom followed her, and neither one of them realized that they had left me standing out front with the door still open.

I felt like I ought to stay, so I waited around for someone to come get me or tell me where to go. Meanwhile, I fixed my dress, looked down, checked my shoes, and the floor got my full attention.

I had never ever seen a yellow floor!

It shined so brightly, I could see my own reflection on it. I had to touch it!

After a few minutes, I got the feeling no one was coming back to get me. I took it upon myself to let myself in and close the door.

There was a slight breeze coming from my left... From then on, my curiosity led the way.

I was standing in front of two narrow long doors with little windows on them, and curtains from the inside blocking my view to see the inside of the room.

One of the doors was partially open, so I peaked slowly to make sure nobody was inside.

The coast was clear to step into the room. As soon I walked in, I heard my mom's voice in my head, "Stay where my eyes can see you," but since she had forgotten about me, my excuse to go into the room was simple,

"I was lost and looking for you"

That sounded legit, in case someone asked me to explain why I wandered off when I wasn't supposed to.

It was a huge bedroom!

OMG! The ceiling in that room!

So freaking high!

To give you an idea, I'm using this photo from the outside of the house.

From the entrance of the room, I could see 4 windows:

**One was to my left

**The second window was all the way in the back to the left - With a perfect view of the park

**The third and fourth windows were at the far end of the room.

To my right - The wall on the other side from this hallway...

There was a walnut colored dresser, and above it, a mirror with a silver frame. On the dresser, there were many photographs perfectly displayed to be seen from every angle in the room- each one in its own silver frame.

To the left of the dresser, there was a pair of twin beds separated by a nightstand. Behind the two beds was a shelf built into the wall, inside of which were more shiny silver frames holding pictures, but these ones were larger than the ones on the dresser, and mostly photos of the woman who I had met at the door.

I slowly walked towards the pictures to get a closer view... I was right, the lady at the door and the lady in those pictures were the same person.

Every single picture of her showed her smiling, definitely not the same greeting face from a few minutes ago.

I couldn't get over how different she looked with a smile on her face and spent a few long seconds studying her face, and noticed her eyebrows... I looked into the mirror above the dresser - to my right - to compare her eyebrows with mine... My eyebrows looked nothing like hers.

Her lip shape was different than I had ever seen in other women. I turned once more to look into the mirror. My lips looked nothing like hers.

First mystery solved... This was definitely her room, everything was just as elegant and glamourous as she was.

I lost track of time looking at her pictures and forgot I wasn't supposed to be there. So, I sprinted toward the window overlooking the park... And I got distracted again... Facing the two beds (against the wall) there was a sequence of long and wide wooden armoires with leaves and flowers painted on them. The wood was polished so well that the decorations on it seemed almost real. I touched all the leaves and flowers I could reach.

Finally, as planned! I made it to the window! And saw so many little kids just like me, playing on the swings and running on the grass. They seemed to be having so much fun. I wanted nothing more than to be at the park with them...

"Ahem..."

... I heard a man behind me. My heart started beating so loud I could no longer hear the kids from the park. My face started feeling hotter and hotter, I could no longer feel the cool breeze coming through the window.

I knew I was in trouble!

"Ahem...", yep, there was a man trying to get my attention.

I didn't want to around, but had no choice...

The person trying to get my attention was an old man wearing glasses, a black beret, a tie, and a dark coat. He looked like Larry David, from a past century, mixed with a dash of Walter Matthau, and clearly showed zero interest in becoming my new BFF.

This old man was a stranger to me. I wasn't allowed to talk to strangers.

On the other hand, I wasn't anywhere near "where my mom's eyes could see me" and this man had me cornered like a mouse.

He stood by the door staring at me without saying a word, which was a definite pattern between the two people I had met from the big house so far. So, I went along silently as well.

He took a step back and his left hand motioned for me to get out of the room.

I could have walked faster, but I had to account for my actions in the next few minutes and needed time to gather my thoughts and the right words...

After a very slow walk to exit the room, the old man closed the door after me and pointed straight ahead, directing me where to go.

I walked down the hallway, keeping my eyes on the ground, hoping that somehow staring at the floor would magically solve my little conundrum.

When I reached the end of the yellow shiny floor and looked up to see where I was going, I could not believe my eyes!

The entire patio was covered in ivy with gazillion of grapes hanging from it!

Life can change in a matter of minutes. That was the day not only I met my Great-Grandparents, I also learned grapes grow on vines, not in supermarkets.

I came to a complete halt at the end of the hallway, with my mouth hanging wide open, staring at the grapes. The old man became impatient and walked in front of me to better guide me to where I needed to go, but quickly realized that I wasn't paying attention to anything but the vine and the grapes in front of me.

He walked up to me, looked at the grapes I was staring at, looked at me again, and picked me up to be right beneath the grapes.

I understood his gesture as an invitation to have some grapes, which led me right to my next dilemma... I wasn't allowed to take anything from strangers, especially food... What a predicament for a child!

I really wanted to take a few grapes. So, I chose to trust my instincts. I stared hard into his eyes - to get a better feel for the situation - before making a decision.

He was also staring into my eyes, probably wondering how long he had to wait before I picked a few freaking grapes!

I took one grape and put it in my mouth. It was better than candy!

A miracle happened!

I got a smile from someone in that house!

I picked a second grape and fed it to him.

We shared a few smiles and ate grapes without a word being spoken between us.

And that was the day I met "Tatita" and "Nona".

I don't remember anything else about that day, but I do remember moving into the big old house shortly after...