Morning all. Last night I had a dram that was narrated. I would do something like leave the house and then I would hear, little did she know, she would never see home again. But it wasn’t like a narration from nowhere. There was a man in a top hat following me. He had a microphone and a script. When I tried to tackle him he yelled something about professionalism and how he hated working with civilians. I’m going to be thinking about that little man all day, so I thought I’d share. Now on with the prompt.
Not where I thought this would go…
Thursday, April 11th: We need to leave now.
“We need to leave now,” He said. He had to resist the urge to tap his foot. He knew any sign of impatience would make her slow down, annoyed that he was rushing her. The fact that they were almost an hour behind schedule didn’t really matter.
He hadn’t wanted to pick her up and had emphatically told his step brother that he would not pick up his girlfriend, and yet somehow, here he was. Tom had never gotten along with Stephanie. They didn’t hit it off when Dan started dating her and it didn’t get any better as time went on.
‘At least it didn’t get worse,’ he thought. He and Stephanie just weren’t the same sort of people. They didn’t hate each there, they just didn’t have anything in common and had no reason to be more than just polite to each other. There were ways that she rubbed him the wrong way, and over the years she dated Dan he became adept at knowing when those were likely to appear and avoiding them.
This was one of those annoyance times. The two of them had very different concepts of time. ‘And apparently the concept of ready to leave.’
He waited as Stephanie made one more pass through the apartment, making sure there was nothing else she might have forgotten to pack. The fact that she was not even packed when he arrived, was something Tom was going to try hard to put out of his mind until after the weekend.
She was finally ready to go and they headed out to the car. The luggage was loaded, and after dipping back into the apartment because she wanted to change out her sunglasses for a pair that was more complementary to her outfit, they were finally on their way.
Once the car was on the road, Stephanie turned on the radio and played with the channels until she found something she liked. Normally that would irk him but as long as there was noise filling the car and he didn’t have to talk to her, Tom was fine with whatever she wanted to play. He would reset the radio later.
She settled back against the seat and turned to look out the window. She seemed to be ignoring him which he was just fine with. Tom piloted his care from the surface streets to the on ramp and then to the highway. They were soon speeding along and Tom found his annoyance settling with the silence.
‘Well not complete silence,’ the bubbly music Stephanie chose filled the spaces. While it wasn’t his favorite it provided a good cushion so he was grateful. As she was smiling and tapping her foot along with the tune, he suspected she would arrive in a good mood so Tom would not spend the entire weekend hearing how he needed to be nicer to her. He had already had more than enough lectures regarding Stephanie’s mood.
He knew what this weekend was abut even if no one told him. He knew that Dan was planning a big proposal in front of the gathered family. He knew Stephanie knew it as well and that she planned it to more or less hijack the weekend. As Dan relished being the center of attention, Tom knew he didn’t mind.
‘Doesn’t matter,’ Tom thought. ‘Once the weekend is through I am gone.’ Already his apartment had been backed up and shipped out. Once this weekend was through he would follow his belongings to a new town and his new job. With luck, this might be the last time he had to deal with Stephane for a while.
Ten til Midnight 