Photo by Gina Neri on Unsplash

Behind Closed Doors

What Meandering Through the Long Halls Have Taught Me

“When the truth is ugly, people try to keep it hidden, because they know if revealed, the damage it will do. So they conceal it within sturdy walls or they place it behind closed doors or they obscure it with clever disguises but truth, no matter how ugly, always emerges. And someone we care about always ends up getting hurt. And someone else will revel in their pain and that’s the ugliest truth of all.”
— Mary Alice

I walk the empty hallways now, feeling a foreigner in my own apartment complex — something I’m still working through understanding.

I used to never be home during normal business hours, having work, yoga, and other various errands to tend to, nearly from dusk until dawn. I therefore, was never given the proper chance to really know my neighbors, on a deeper level beyond the shallows. We’d say a polite “hello,” passing by on our way in and out of the building, even passing along a contagious smile once in a while. We’d on occasion hold the door open for one another, should our paths become so close as to interweaving. We’d nod if the distance was too far away for a “hello,” maybe even waving if we should feel so inclined. We’d sit by the fireplace, me with book in one hand and wine in the other, while they contemplated life through the electric flames…