It was a cold dreary winter's night; it had been raining, sleeting, and snowing for two days. It was so treacherous that only a blooming idiot would be traveling with the roads in the shape they were, but I had to get to where I was going. I was headed to the house, no, not the house, the castle which was my home. It had been years since I had found the time to go home because I had been working overseas as a contractor and my employer had been erecting a building on the French mainland near the town of Le Havre, a little town that was booming. The population had grown from a few thousand to over two hundred thousand in a matter of a few years thanks to the discovery of some rare mineral.
Well I was hoping when I got home it wouldn't be so quiet; I was hoping she was still there. It had been years since I had gotten to see her and neither of us was very good at writing letters. I was excited but afraid at the same time. I didn't know what I would do if the house was empty of her laughter and smiling face; that big house would be so empty and so lonely. The closer I got, the more nervous I became and the more excited I was until finally my home came into view. I could see it from a ways off. First all I could see was the turrets standing above the trees, then as I moved closer I could start to see the roofline.
When I got to the gate - it was a wrought iron gate about eight feet tall - it was locked.
My heart sank as I thought, 'She was supposed to know I was coming home. Why would she have locked the gate if she knew?'
The only emotion that came to my mind was sadness. I got out of my car and unlocked the gate, then returned to my car and continued the drive to the house. As I got to the house I was not as excited about the prospect of being home, knowing she wasn't there.