The
balcony was solid and large, built to Hank’s specifications years earlier. He
looked out over the backyard from his cantilevered vantage point, across the
pressure-treated bench and safety railing. Memories sputtered for air as they
raced to the bubbling surface of his new perspective. The swimming pool was
gone.
He
remembered assembling treads and risers on a hand cut wooden frame, lifting
completed stairs into place with the help of friends. Anchored between the
balcony and a lower deck, the stairway was firmly shoehorned between the other
wooden structures. Each step he took toward ground level accompanied a change
in elevation that renewed his perspective of the changed yard and the missing
pool.
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