Morning all. It is a bit of a slow morning. Still foggy though and still feeling like I am on an alien planet. I wonder what monsters will shamble out of the mist today. Let’s find out with the morning prompt. Timers at the ready and off we go.
Okay maybe not monsters this morning but I still feel that later in the day there could be a monster coming out of the mists. Not sure what story that would be in, but it could be fun to find out. But I do like this set up.
Wednesday, August 16th: She hefted the axe and rested it on her shoulder.
She hefted the axe and rested it on her shoulder. ‘Well,’ she thought. ‘I could use the exercise.’ She left her cabin and walked down the winding drive to the road. She took some time off and headed to her cabin in the woods. The time away was nice. No cell phones, no land lines, no visitors.
And best of all no one else’s problems to solve. Lately it had been on problem after another. None of them were technically hers, but they were all things people thought she had the solution for and so they were placed at her feet. She was very good with solutions, and she didn’t mind helping out, but lately Anna felt as though she was being swallowed whole by the lives of those around her. Anything she did for herself was swept to the side in a wave of assistance.
She loved those who came to her, they were family after all, and family helped each other out. But she couldn’t remember the last time she did something for herself. Or focused on what she wanted instead of what others needed.
There came a point where there was a break between issues, a problem-free plateau, and she took it as an escape and let everyone know she was gone for the week. She knew they still expected to be able to reach her via cell phone and she was certain that if she turned her phone on there would be at least a little reception. She decided to claim the zero reception and left her phone switched off.
Anna hiked down the hill and reached the source of today’s problem. It was a relatively easy one to deal with, only physical labor involved with no emotional trauma, and it was all hers.
In the night a storm came. A heavy older tree, half rotted succumbed. While Anna was all for leaving a tree to fall in the woods where it lay, this particular tree decided that it needed to lay across the road. While she liked the solitude, at some point she knew she would need to leave, and this was the road she would need to use.
Once at the tree, Anna picked a spot and began her chopping. The work was steady but monotonous and it left room for her mind to wander as her body worked.
Something was going to have to change. She knew she could not live her life as she had been for the past two years. It was wearing her out, grinding her down. She felt like nothing. Things she planned for her business were put on hold while she dealt with everyone else. Events she wanted to attend were cancelled. She had not seen friends in months. The family was consuming her.
The first few days of her trip she worried about not answering her phone. She worried that in her absence the world would fall apart. Part of the reason she took the trip was to get away for a bit. Another part was to convince herself that she was not the glue holding everything together, that everyone would survive without her. Another part of her admitted that she hoped the others realized it as well.
She hoped they didn’t need her. She remembered her cousin telling her that she needed to be needed. It had been his justification for calling her and getting her help when she had other plans. He looked smug when he said it, confident and sure of his deductions. ‘Otherwise, you wouldn’t come running when we called,’ he concluded after she complained of her ruined plans.
As Anna worked on clearing the tree from the road she thought about it. Did she need to be needed? She didn’t think so. She was happy in the long stretches where she was left to herself. So why did she come running when they called?
“Maybe I should stop,” she mused. ‘Even when I am in town.’
Ten til Midnight 