Morning all. I hope you are having a fantastic day. I started by watching a herd of feral cats run through the my back yard in mass as I was filling the carafe of my coffeepot. It looked like they were running from some rampaging beast, yet no beast could be found. I saw no reason for the stampede. Can eight cats be called a stampede? I think they can. It is going to bother me why they were all running at the same time thought. For now, timers set because we have writing to do.
I have to say this is not where I thought this would go. I was expecting the stampeding cats to make an appearance.
Wednesday, January 22nd: It looked as though he was sleeping.
It looked as though he was sleeping. Christine stared at him a moment, wondering if he was faking. If he was then he was doing a good job. His breath was steady and even, his eyes even shifted about under his eyelids as though he was in a dream state. She backed out of the room and closed the door softly.
Part of her wasn’t surprised he was asleep. She told him that she wanted to talk to him when she got home. He knew what about and that it would not be a conversation he wanted. He was very good at avoiding conversations he didn’t want to have.
Christine moved silently through the apartment. She wondered if he had noticed her closet was empty and that everything had been taken from her drawers. She somehow doubted it. She asked him to stay up so they could talk, he went to bed. He would expect her to be angry and sleep on the couch. In the morning there might be some attempt at making her less angry, pancakes, eggs or simply coffee made before she awoke. Then again there might not be. He might feel justified in avoiding her and race out of the door as soon as he woke. That had been happening more often lately.
Christine took one more look around the living room. All of her things had been removed. She knew that in the guest room his parents had taken up more or less permanent residence. All of her things had been slowly filtered out of the apartment after their arrival. She moved them to a storage unit so his mother could have her things around her. It was important to all of them and she was outvoted.
She shook her head, it hardly mattered any more. She placed the envelope on the counter and wondered how long it would take any of them to actually read it.
Christine unthreaded her apartment keys from the ring and placed them on the counter next to the letter. She did so silently so as not to risk waking anyone. She moved to the door, pucked up the briefcase she left there and opened it. She twisted the inside lock before pulling the door shut. It would keep the door locked for those still sleeping and prevent her from changing her mind.
‘Not that I am going to,’ Christine thought.
She had been offered a job in the main branch of the company and she took it. It meant relocating. She secured an apartment for herself and had her belongings transferred. There were a few things she would be taking with her in the car, but this past week had been tidying up loose ends. She made several attempts to talk to the others but they were all avoiding her. She knew it was because rent would soon be due. Each month just before it was due she tried to round them up and get them to pay at least a part of their share. They never did, she paid it all.
‘But the apartment isn’t in my name,’ Christine reminded herself as she walked to the elevator and took it down to the parking garage. Jermy insisted he be the one listed on the lease agreement. She knew it was so that he could say what happened in the apartment. She had however been paying the rent for a while now, Jeremy always running short.
Christine shook her head. There was always an excuse as to why his parents couldn’t help out with rent or groceries as well. ‘Not any more,’ she reminded herself. She told the landlord she was leaving and took her name off the mail box. He shrugged as she wasn’t the person on the lease. She dropped a change of address with the post office and her mail had already started going to her new place. Christine also changed all the passwords on any account she held. She and Jeremy never shared accounts, but she liked to be careful.
The elevator took her to the garage. She smiled as she moved to the car. It was good to leave. It would be good to place several hundred miles between herself and Jeremy. ‘And to be far away from his rude awakening.’
Ten til Midnight 