Brown Boxes

by Cinthya Guerrero

The emptiness after an older brother or sister leaves to college can affect us all in different ways. In this article, Cinthya Guerrero writes about the experience of her brother’s departure...from a unique perspective.

I was illuminated by a blue and black lantern, making my rough white walls glow like the depths of the deep blue sea. A long, black, wooden bookcase stood in one of my corners with a flat screen that had been disconnected from me earlier. The top shelf of the book case was home to a dusty Xbox and a few controllers. Next to the forgotten game sat a pine scented candle, which stood at half its original size. The silver, metal clock with black Roman numerals hung loosely on me. The wooden bed frame that once rested against one of my corners had been taken out earlier. Now a mattress lays on my soft, brown carpet, a thin, grey blanket had been thrown on, along with two pillows for the night. 

The silver frames that housed black and white photos of downtown had also been taken off my flat body and stored into brown boxes that left me after a short while. Scraps of discarded tape rested on my bare walls where records once hung. Books, journals, and pens that had been scattered on a black desk, were again stuffed in those brown boxes that kept disappearing. The thumb tacks that had been stabbed into my walls, holding a collection of Polaroids from over the years, were taken down and put away. The clothes and shoes that lived in my closet had been stuffed into more of those mysterious boxes. A black and white electric guitar was tucked away in the back, forgotten. So many brown boxes full of what defined me for so many years  disappeared. Where were they all going?

The flatscreen and Xbox were the next to go into those devastating brown boxes that kept leaving. The wooden desk and bookcase were then dragged out of me leaving only the mattress behind. The tall, shattered mirror that once rested on my walls was taken down, never to be seen again. It wasn’t long before they came back for the mattress and dragged it out of me, leaving me bare and empty.