Morning all. Oddly enough I got up on time but the computer decided to have a slow start to the morning. But apparently now both of us are ready to face the day, so lets get going. writing implements of choice at the ready? Then lets jump into the last prompt of the week and see what happens.
It is an interesting start. Person who lives surrounded by family and constant interaction now lives at a distance from all people as well as the family. It is an interesting transition. Not sure where the story would go, but I like the thought as a starting point. I also like the fact that alone is not looked as as a bad thing. So many people seem to think it is.
Friday, June 16th: She had never been alone like this.
She had never been alone like this. It was slightly unnerving. “It’s just a new house,” she tried telling herself. “Well new to me anyway.” She knew that no one would call the old farmhouse new, not really. Even as she tried to tell herself that it was the unfamiliarity of the place, she knew that wasn’t it. It was the lack of people.
She grew up in a big family with seven siblings. And if that wasn’t enough both of her parents came from big families all of whom lived in the area.
“Most anyway,” she corrected looking around. “Uncle Carl didn’t. Clearly.”
Her Uncle Carl married into the large family and while he always maintained his family home, with Aunt Cindy he lived in town. They had no children and when she died about ten years back, he moved back into his family home. The rest of the family came out for visits, not wanting him to feel abandoned by the family, but Emma thought he secretly enjoyed his escape from them.
As she often felt exhausted by the constant presence of a crowd she understood that. She was pretty sure that was part of the reason he left her his house when he passed, so she could have an escape.
While Emma appreciated that, she found it slightly daunting on this first night. She lived at home with the family all through college, only moving into an apartment with three friends when she had a full time job of her own. The first roommate married three years ago and left. They found they could make rent without her so never advertised for a replacement. Now her second roommate was married, moving out last month.
Emma hadn’t decided quite what she was going to do when Uncle Carl died and left her the house. She put in her notice there and decided to move here. After all she could work from anywhere so she might as well live in the house she owned and figure out the rest from there.
Emma thought she got used to being alone after Gina, her second roommate, left but this was different. That apartment was in the middle of an apartment building which was located on a busy city block. It wasn’t in the same neighborhood where she grew up, but it was an easy twenty minute drive and she was on the way to a lot of places. Even when people weren’t there to specifically visit her, she was on the way too and from places. She served as a staging area and rest stop along the way for the rest of the family. Someone was always coming and going from her place.
This hose was a good twenty five miles from any other house. There were no houses clustered around and it was a good three hour drive to her parent’s house from here. If she were to look out of the window she would see a strip of lights on the horizon marking out the highway in the dark. The road from her house to the highway had lights on it but they were father apart than she was used to, a wide spaced dotted line leading to the onramp for the highway. To the west was a small glow that delineated the nearest town. After ten pm the glow faded to another strip of dots with all but the streetlights going dark. This was as alone as she had ever been.
Ten til Midnight 