Year Four - The Reed Land, North Carolina
Now playing: Pink Skies - Zach Bryan
My grandfather passed in his sleep.
It wasn't a tragedy, he was ninety, and he was ready, but the aftermath left me reeling in a way I hadn't expected. He left the house to me.
Suddenly, I wasn't just a guest sleeping in the spare room. I was the owner.
I walked through the empty halls at night. The house creaked and settled, the timber groaning under the weight of a century of weather. It sounded like footsteps. I felt like a ghost haunting my own life.
The ghosts of my dad’s childhood were here. The ghosts of my uncle’s demons were in the walls. And now, the ghost of the career I threw away moved in with me.
I sat in his old leather armchair in the living room, staring at the blank wall, waiting for a feeling that never came. I didn't know how to grieve him. I realized, with a jolt of panic, that I didn't know how to grieve anything anymore.
I was just empty space.