It had to have been the thousandth time Nora found herself closing her hand over the iron doorknob, but maybe now it was going to be different, it had to be.
“You have ten minutes before I close the sale Ma’am.” The hurried realtor said, checking her watch.

She had no answer as she was led inside recognizing the blueprint like the back of her hand. It had been years, the house hopping from owner to owner, but Nora still remembered this place of dark wood and high ceilings that were her and her friends  sworn dynasty within four walls. They reaped havoc on the world that they themselves created.

Running her hands in and out of the rearranged rooms like static, Nora peered into life that was embedded in her mind. The living room of leather couches that were once their military bunkers, were now packed with real cardboard boxes strewn into neat and temporary adult piles. Down the same hallway that then seemed to run miles long, rough popcorn walls held the bedrooms together as an inseparable pair; one plastered with Pokémon and Titanic pictures and the other strewn together with horse calendars, “My Little Pony” and the “Polly Pocket Party Pad.” But when she reached them, nothing but barren walls of pristine paint and a few forgotten glow in the dark stars hiding in the corners were left. They had outgrown her.  

Sliding open the door in the back, the lawn was still there, popping up Dandelions erratically without any small hands to pick them. Nora could still see the indents of the sacred ramshackle treehouse imagined as their remaining stone castle, running from the dragons with foam swords ready to fight to the death.
“We finally got someone to throw out that old playset, a complete hazard for children! Can you imagine?” the realtor exclaimed close behind her. Despite all of it, maybe it was the kitchen that she understood best as her own. Closing her hand over the banister, Nora felt the strange cold wood floors under her feet, uninviting and unimaginative underneath her, trying to remember the cushy grey carpet made to break their intentional falls, it always did.
“They just had to tear out that hideous 1980’s carpet… it was so…outdated!” the relator huffed.

Walking closer to the second floor as if in a trance, she could almost smell the sugar and lemonade from the birthday parties the family would host, kids gathered in front of the window for party games, her pink sparkle shoes dancing around the room. Her mind free and unconstrained by temporary fleeting things that had no end. The dark wood cabinets previously filled with rainbow plastic cups were now reconstructed with modern white fixtures not even placed right on the colorless walls. She reached up then to put them back to where they were supposed to be, her hands brushing cold grey brick. It had to be there, just like she remembered it, something permanent.

“Ma’am?” what are you looking for?”
Her ten minutes were up.