Splitting The Assets

Like a toadstool, appearing out of
the sodden soil on a bleak, wet day,
there was the sign, surprising the neighbours
with its unsubtle provocation: House for Sale.
Who knew? No one had the merest idea
in this neighbourhood of family-friendly people.
Though they'd been there before, seen similar
dramas take centre stage, no one ever
imagined dissolution of these two.

It became abundantly clear that this
was not merely a house for sale; it was
the only home the three bewildered,
fearful children had ever known. The
warmth of their emotional comfort had
turned abruptly chill. They are torn
between love for their mother
and the same for their father.

The two who had reached toward
maturity within the intimate confines
of their marriage contract. This was the
house where their children were conceived
and lovingly nurtured. This is their familiar
terrain, where the route to their school
sees them daily ambling. It is where their
friends live, with their own, intact families.

Now the house has been mysteriously
transformed into an unfamiliar place
echoing with memories, plangent with
parent-child confidences, but one where
strangers enter to evaluate its potential
for someone else's family. They will leave
their playroom, their backyard and pool;
they will leave behind them the
sweetness of childhood.

The children are too young to
comprehend the vulgarity of abandoning
a relationship meant to outlast childhood's
frank and fundamental needs. They have
no ability to understand the concept of
splitting the family assets en route to
splitting a family. They do not know
that they three are also assets waiting
to be split as vows are broken
and the break can no longer be fixed.