Lacresha Berry aka Berry
5 min readSep 10, 2021

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WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG? A Space Reclaimed.

Backyard garden with brothers, grandma, and father at my college graduation party in 2003.

It’s been a whole year of living in this space. This solace. This bliss. It’s difficult to imagine what life was like before this. Before growth. Before plentiful. Before this wonder took me over and healed me. I think my dad knew what he was doing. I wonder what took him so long.

I heard on the news today that the effects of that hurricane was gonna hit my neighborhood soon. I’m not as nervous as the one that happened nearly eight years ago but I should still be prepared, I guess. My dog, Minty, refuses to walk outside when it’s raining but when she has to go, she HAS to go. As we both turn to go back inside, rainwater hits my heels and creeps into the stream flooding into our front lobby. I pick Minty up with the quickness and I’m holding her tight as she’s licking me excessively with anxiety. She loathes baths, the ocean, and apparently this freak of a flash flood. I, also am unamused. The tunnel of water pulls me down the steps as we float into my apartment. Luckily, my first floor apartment is elevated and the water hadn’t seeped into my apartment yet. I rushed into the door quickly as to not mess with mother nature any longer. My heels forgot that I could walk. And now, I am being held up by the sewage water below me with my face and hands barely above it. Like, Ophelia but black and pup in tow. We keep drifting until I reach my living room window and then I sink…

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