Jesper Garneij and the House
Jesper, the thirty year old fellow with as many haircuts in his photo album as hats on his hat rack. Somewhere in Sweden he resides in a large, rustic old school - A red, 100 year old wooden house that is a never ending project for the handy, and once were the place of study for his grandparents and many others of their generation, full of the children who would mould the world into what it is today. This story is about that house. A house, named by its current masters, as Alaborg.
In the foundation of the house, in a crawl space adjacent to the basement, you will find a child's stroller. Left there at the rising of the house, weary and pale from dust and time passed. Full of secrets never to be heard by man, it sends chills down your spine thinking of what it could entail. "Why is it there?" "Is there something inside it?" "What if…"
Inside the walls filled with insulating sawdust are nicknacks, left behind by souls unknown - Children's toys, a wooden sword made of a single stick, hand made kitchen tools and superstitious charms to keep out… whatever needed kept out of the house in the early 1900's. All best kept intact and as they were, one might consider.
In the attic, dark and cold, there is no floor. Only single planks, scattered about on top of more sawdust, creating little walkways to navigate on. In the far corner, there is an old school bench, patinated by the elements forcing its way inside through the nooks and crannies of the house. Surrounding the little wooden bench are a number of small cardboard boxes, wrapped up as though they were thoughtful gifts made out to someone special. Halfway across to the other side of the attic, there are lamps from yesteryear, half sunk into the sawdust. Some now restored and hung in the ceiling of rooms across the house, as though claiming their rightful throne once more.
A big yard surrounded by woods. A picturesque little pond a stones throw away, pouring its hard earned water into the ocean another stones throw away from it. A yard filled with snow in the wintertime, fruit trees, berry plants and bushes in the summer and an ever shifting foliage in between. And slightly off center stands the house, once more filled with children who will form the world of tomorrow. It is the perfect place for Jesper and his family to grow, make memories and share moments with their friends and family. It is the perfect place for Jesper's rock band to jam as loud as they want. It is the perfect place to come back to after travelling the corners of the globe, and it is the perfect place for a man of many hats to focus on what he does best - Front-end web development.