She wandered around her old home absentmindedly. The wee yorkie dogs played around her feet, curled up by her on the couch, just as if she hadn't been gone the last six years. As if she hadn't graduated college, started moving again, and not been back except one visit three years ago. As if the studying she was doing today was college level Spanish instead of grad school level history. Her friends often grumbled about getting older, and she normally laughed at them. Old and young are all about perspective. But today, she felt older too, somehow.

She sat in the same wicker couch by the window, looked out at the same neighborhood... it hadn't changed. So much in her hadn't changed either, and it was so easy to forget time and think she was still that 19 year old, who laughed at little things and kept big things locked inside. It reminded her of the Mirror of Erised- once you start to look inside, you forget how life really is around you and get lost in your thoughts. But being here, today, didn't show her what she most wanted in the world, just the world she had wanted, six years ago. She had been happy, and had a special place in the world, and good friends... she'd had a home.

She looked around at the comfortable, empty kitchen. How many hours had she spent here, studying, reading, keeping up with overseas friends via computer? It hadn't been perfect, but it had been warm and welcoming, a haven of her own in transient teenage years. She gave a wry smile. As if she was more stable now, six years later. She'd been in three countries in the last six months, said goodbye to one home last year and was about to do the same in three weeks. That is, if you could call a place 'home' when you had been there about three months. But this had been home, and she guessed it had only been two or three months. Something about having your own room and having a new life... something about feeling wanted.

She gave a small sigh, letting go of wistful thoughts. Memories were something to hold on to, not trip over. Three more weeks and then she'd be off to a new home. Traveling to a country that had been home before six years ago; looking there for a new house and being welcomed into a new circle of people. Getting married this summer. Maybe not coming back here for a year or two. But remembering this, the peace and welcome, the oasis between treks. Being able to offer an oasis to others.

When she came back, bringing more years of memories, would the house still look the same? Funny how time went on, whether you lived quickly or slowly.