{"id":219,"date":"2023-03-13T15:33:14","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T15:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/?p=219"},"modified":"2023-03-13T15:33:14","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T15:33:14","slug":"walking-down-kitchen-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/?p=219","title":{"rendered":"Walking down kitchen lane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul stood in his grandparents\u2019 kitchen as memories of his fulfilling childhood flooded over his brain like acid rain on a metallic surface. He stood behind the counter with his hands on the marble surface, amused as he imagined his child self running around the counter to prove to his grandmother that he can go around a hundred times without feeling out of breath. Meemaw, he used to call her, would always react cheerfully whenever an attempt from her dear Paul to make her laugh was made. She would laugh out of fondness for her grandson who always had a desire to make his grandmother stretch her thin lips into a heartwarming smile. This moment was only one of many that are now nothing but memories in Paul\u2019s mind. Series of still images that would stack upon each other, one on top of the other, to form one body of souvenirs that would make Paul either stifle a laugh, as if he had just seen two cats bicker, or flop his head down like a defeated dog.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As he regained his posture and was about to leave the counter, Paul turned his head rightward and gazed at the rustic wooden table with three different chairs. Paul took a few steps and sat down on his favorite seat, a three-legged green chair with multiple suns drawn on the backrest. As he lowered himself down on his seat, \u201cUptown Girl\u201d by Billy Joel immediately rang in his ears as if he had sat down on a play button. Visions of Paul\u2019s grandfather making him breakfast while tapping his foot and bobbing his head to the music filled the kitchen\u2019s space with imaginary sunshine, smells of food, and uplifting melodies.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul decided he would stay inside his grandparent\u2019s now-empty apartment for a few more days before selling it to strangers. Strangers who might have never had the slightest taste of a loving home. Strangers who will give away a couple of thousands of dollars to claim this apartment as their own and strip away the good memories it contained.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul stood in his grandparents\u2019 kitchen as memories of his fulfilling childhood flooded over his brain like acid rain on a metallic surface. He stood behind the counter with his hands on the marble surface, amused as he imagined his child self running around the counter to prove to his grandmother that he can go … Continue reading “Walking down kitchen lane”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[37],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-short-stories"],"authors":[{"term_id":37,"user_id":24,"is_guest":0,"slug":"hiba-dami","display_name":"Hiba Dami","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ee32edc947385765c3ed601d91589819d831931cf05258be78e615f35925274?s=96&d=mm&r=g","avatar_alt":"","avatar_decorative":"","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Dami","first_name":"Hiba","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=219"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}