Ruin

After several days of wandering the wilds of Texas, the sight of an abandoned cabin perched on the edge of the uplands overlooking the Canadian River was too alluring to ignore. We finished our work and decided to take a closer peek. At first, from a distance, I could imagine that this house was just vacant, that soon some family would return. I could see that there were curtains in many of the windows, café-style lovingly made for this home. But as we hiked closer, one plate glass window was seen to be shattered, the first clue that this home was decaying back into the landscape. We gingerly skirted the house, noticing an elaborate outdoor oven and smoker, speaking to our thoughts that this had been used as a hunter’s cabin. I couldn’t help but wonder who had so carefully made the curtains that were still in place, certainly not the hunter! As we got close, the house was obviously in a state of ruin.On one side, a door was missing. Fear kept me from getting too close as hornets had taken up residence and were swarming in territorial fashion at our presence. My final look as we headed back to civilization was at a once beautiful room with a wall of windows, now all broken with only the tattered remnants of the curtains, wind-whipped streamers haunting me with the unsettled memories of bygone habitants.