Time Warp

This past week I spent Shabbos at my parents house.
I slept in my bed..the bed and room I grew up in
The last time I slept here was the night before my wedding

The whole Shabbos was like a trip to the past...
Davening in my old Shul...
The old boys...
Same handshakes
Same cologne
A little greyer

Lying in my boyhood bed..
Shabbos morning
On the bookshelves...those old paperback Sidney Sheldon novels
That fueled adolescent hormones
Still there..
My sisters yearbook with my earliest crushes..
My Fathers deep voice resonating through the house
Just as I recall it...
As he learns at the kitchen table..
My mothers delicious cholent..assaulting my remaining sense
My eyes open wide...
Staring at the abstract wallpaper
Finding the same shapes and figures..in the pattern
That I fondly recall
The elephant head...mountain range
Young girl...with uneven eyes...half smile...staring down at me
As if to say wow..where have you been?

I could’ve gotten up earlier but I was waiting
For that moment..when my father softly knocked on my door
And in his deep yet soft voice intoned..
David..it’s time for Shacharis...

I smiled up..at that young girls peculiar smile...

I was home..