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I was filled with anticipation as I walked around the corner, It was my first time back here since I moved away all those years ago, I was just a teenager at the time and now I have returned with teenagers of my own. I'm getting closer now. I'll be able to see it in a few minutes. I pause just for a few seconds to take in the familiar smells, everything was how I remembered it; the scent of the flowers was the strongest smell, the sweet, floral smell of the roses in the garden of house number five mingled with the spicy, almost peppery smell of the chrysanthemum wafting towards me from house number eight's garden. The smell bought back so many memories for me, memories of walking down here (as I used to do every weekend) with my friends as we were on our way to the park, we would always be laughing and happy and making jokes as we came down this road in fact the only bad memory I have of here is the day I left, it was at this very spot that I said goodbye to all my friends, this very spot that I told them I would keep in touch, of course I broke contact with many of my friends we were only fifteen and keeping a long distance relationship can be hard work, the letters got fewer and fewer, the phone calls less and less frequent until finally I was only in contact with only one of those people I said goodbye to that day.
I have carried on walking without even realising it, I wonder who will be at the park now, will it still be teenagers? Or will it be younger children with their parents? I can't hear any sounds from the park, when we were there, there would always be a lot of noise, of course it didn't always seem that way to us but we were a group of teenagers in a park, we would be laughing at each other, shouting at each other when we were on the swings to see who could go higher than the other and the sound of the girls screaming when we trapped them on the roundabout and spun it as fast as we could so they couldn't get off.
I am literally two steps away from getting my first glimpse of the park again, I'm stood by the oak tree, leaning against its broad trunk, I glance upwards, the tree seems to grow above me, almost swallowing me in, the deep glossy leaves stretch out it seems to me as if they are reaching for the sunlight that trickles in between the leaves, dancing this way and that in its attempt to reach my face, taking a deep breath I pull myself back to normality all I have to do is walk around this tree and the park will be in front of me. Taking a deep breath I walk around the tree I look up at the park and stop dead. How did the park my heart filling with dread. The park, my park what's happened? And who would let such a thing happen? I can't believe it. I walk towards where I have so many happy memories is nothing more than a wreak, the gate is rusty and falling off its hinges, it is bent towards me almost as though it wants to be away from the park and it doesn't want to be part of the ruin it has become. The bright colours of the roundabout have faded and one of the bars that we would hold on to are missing, why would anyone take one of them? The benches we would sit on when we just wanted to chat are covered in graffiti and one of them has been tipped over into the mud. There aren't any monkey bars left and the seesaw is broken with one of the springs from the bottom carelessly thrown by the slide. I make my way to the set of swings at the back of the park three of the seats are missing off them, I shakily walk towards the fourth and sit down, taking in the devastation of the view around me. What happened? And why did this happen? Did none of my childhood friends try and save the destruction of the park? This park was so special to me, when we moved back here this was the very first thing I came to see and now it's like this.
I don't know how long I've been sat here looking at the park but it's getting dark now, I should be getting back to my family, As I walk towards the gate I pick up the spring and put it by the seesaw I pick the fallen bench up and walk through the gate. As I walk away from the park I look back once but I don't see it as it is, its almost like a flashback I see me and my friends in the park having the time of our lives, as I turn around again I'm smiling as I think through all them memories, I know that they will never leave me.