Things

A second pair of jeans, some t-shirts, some socks and underwear, two pullovers and the jacket. One more pair of sneakers, toothbrush, toothpaste and his laptop.

"I stayed too long this time", he thought, staring at all the other stuff around. He did not bother locking the door. The plane was leaving in two hours. Once again, like too many times before, he was homeless.

Years ago, when he was ten, a three room apartment would have felt like a king's palace. His family lived together then, sharing their small possessions, cherishing every little thing they owned. Everything in its place. Everything and its place. All he knew as a kid was life in an economic crisis. Then he was fourteen and the situation started getting better - there were more things his family could buy. And they did. The apartment was the same, just fuller. And fuller. Filled up with new possessions. Sometimes stuff would fall off when he opened a wardrobe. There was a point when there was no place for the people inside. Somehow that was also the time when his family started to get smaller.

A second pair of jeans, some t-shirts, some socks and underwear, two pullovers and the jacket. One more pair of sneakers, toothbrush, toothpaste and his laptop. Just a backpack and his pockets full of documents and cards. He felt the small key hanging on his chest. Some day. Sometime, maybe, he would go back there, unlock a door well shut and try to look at all those things without fear. Sort them out. Filter out the memories he could not dare take back then.