Morning all. I hope everyone is ready to have a fabulous Friday. The weather is a little cooler than it was which means I might actually be able to have my coffee on the back porch without sizzling before I start work for the day. Before then, we have the morning prompt. So timers set and let’s get into it.
I think I was just starting to see where the idea was taking me when the timer went off. I may take a few minutes and add a bit more before I let this go. All in all, not a bad thing for the final prompt of the week.
Friday, July 19th: The glass of the skyscraper glimmered in the sun.
The glass of the skyscraper glimmered in the sun. It looked so strange after seeing the smaller houses of the village for so long. As the taxi drew nearer I tried to remember the last time I had come into a city, let alone this city. I couldn’t.
‘I can’t even remember seeing a building over three stories in the last five years,’ I realized as the taxi maneuvered its way to the curb. It was a strange thought. Once this was my home. I shook the thought away as we came to a stop. I finished my transaction and he popped the trunk so I could get the bags I brought with me from the airport.
He helped me unload and once confident I could carry them on my own, he closed the trunk and left. It was a time when there were few on the sidewalk, everyone in the area already having arrived where they needed to be and not yet ready to leave for someplace else. A few people passed me. Even though I caught a few eye flicks of interest, the gazes quickly flicked away.
It wasn’t personal. It was an urban defense. The quick flick to see if something concerned you and then the flick away when it didn’t. Such things allowed the possibility of personal space in such a densely populated environment. I always thought of it as a basic curtesy even though some of those I knew thought it cold indifference.
I took a deep breath. I knew I couldn’t stay on the sidewalk forever. I walked to the door. Alerted to my arrival and no doubt given an updated photo for identification purposes, the doorman opened the door with a pleasant, “Welcome home Ms. Allison.”
I nodded and smiled as I walked past. The doorman was not the one I remembered, new since my last time here. ‘And yet still knows me as Ms. Allison.’ After years of being Dr. Harper, it felt as strange as the once familiar building. The front desk offered the same acknowledgement from another unfamiliar face.
‘Staff changes,’ I thought as I got into the elevator. I knew I shouldn’t be surprised. I had been gone a while. The strange staff aided in the general feeling of oddness I felt as the elevator took me up to my apartment. Keeping it had been the one family concession. I would keep the apartment, the family would make sure a cleaning crew came through periodically and attend to any emergencies that arose.
In the time I was gone, no emergencies arose. At least not any that were shared with me. I took out my keys and unlocked the door letting myself in. I stepped inside and for a moment the sight of the apartment knocked me back a step. I had to lean against the closed door for support.
The apartment was spotlessly clean, the air smelling of some strange but pleasantly astringent cleaner. It was herbal in nature rather than citrus or pine and I liked it. The apartment was exactly how I left it. It hadn’t changed and in fact felt more like a shrine to my former self than it did a place where I lived. Seeing it made old arguments rise, old pain resurface. “I needed to come back,” I reminded myself. “It will soon look more like me,” I promised myself. This was not a return to old ways, but a restart.
Ten til Midnight 