Sunshine Cottage

     Once upon a time, a little boy lived in the quaint southern town of Griffin, Georgia, in a little yellow house called Sunshine Cottage.  Sunshine Cottage sat in the center of an acre lot in a well established neighborhood.  It was the only home the little boy had ever known in his five years of life and had been sitting there, home to happy families, for 60 years.  The little boy was named John Charles and he lived in Sunshine Cottage with his Dad and Mama and older brother Zach.

     The cottage was a modest but comfortable home.  The front yard was shaded by a giant old Maple tree that looked like it must have been planted soon after the home was built.  A stone walkway led to a small front porch with two wicker chairs where John Charles liked to sit with Mama or Dad.  When he was sitting there he could look into the double window and see into the big living room.  Mama always liked to have two ferns hanging on the front porch, but she changed the door hangings and flowers on the pedestal, next to the black front door, as the seasons changed.

     Inside Sunshine Cottage there was a living room, dining room, kitchen, playroom, bathroom and two bedrooms.  One bedroom was for Dad and Mama and the other for Zach and John Charles, but John Charles liked to sleep in the room with Dad and Mama.

     On the side of Sunshine Cottage there was a screened porch and on the back there was a porch and wooden deck.  The porch had wooden seats built on and was enclosed with white lattice and it had two big planter boxes.  There were two chairs next to a fountain with flowing water and an outdoor fireplace where John Charles liked to roast marshmallows at night.  The deck had a black floor like the porch.  It had two chairs and a table where Mama liked to sit under the shade of the Japanese Maple and watch John Charles play on his swing set, trampoline or rocking horse.

     When John Charles stepped off the back deck, there was a stone walkway that led to his goldfish pond.  Next to the pond was a covered swing.  Most of the backyard was shaded by the neighbors’ old, old oak tree that had English Ivy growing all the way to the top.  The ivy had started growing on the fence in John Charles’ backyard too and sometimes it would even try to start growing onto Sunshine Cottage, but Dad and Zach would always pull it down.

     John Charles knew that other people had newer and bigger houses than him.  He liked visiting his grandparents’ fine homes, but to him there was no place like home and Sunshine Cottage was his favorite place to be in the whole wide world.