Morning all. I hope you are doing well. I ended up circling back to yesterday’s prompt after I finished everything for the day and now it is turning into a fun little story. It was a nice way to start the week. So let’s see what today comes up with. Timers set and off we go.
I like the set up but I don’t think it grabs me the way yesterdays did. I’ll still use it at some point. Actually i can see a story it would work with but it is in the middle and not the beginning. Bit for now, it was a good mental clearing that got me in a headspace to do more writing. Which is sort of the point of these. So woo hoo.
Tuesday, January 13th: The suitcase waited by the door.
The suitcase was by the door. Emily made one more pass through her room. There was nothing left behind. She had in truth been ferrying most of her personal belongings to a storage unit across town for weeks. She may only be leaving for a weekend away with one suitcase in her car, but she wasn’t coming back.
She finished checking the drawers and closet. She closed each one and finally closed the closet doors. The bed was straightened, the freshly washed sheets beneath the coverlet. It was time to go.
She turned out the light and stepped into the hall, pulling the bedroom door shut behind her. Emily then went down stairs. Her steps were silent on the plush carpet runner on the stair case only clicking the few steps between the final step and the mat placed just inside the door. Her purse was still strung crosswise across her body and all she needed to do was pick up her bag. She did and continued out of the door.
She walked down the sidewalk and to her car. A press of a button had the trunk opening and soon the suitcase was safely stowed inside. She walked around and slid into the driver’s seat. The engine started. She would never claim her engine purred or even rumbled. Purring was something expensive sports cars did and rumbling seemed to be reserved for muscle cars.
Her late model pre owned sedan fell into neither category. She did keep it scrupulously maintained and it rewarded her with reliability. As she pulled out of the drive she wondered if her engine could be described as the sound of reliability.
The thought she turned over and twisted around as she drove out of the neighborhood. It was easier to think such thoughts than it was to focus on the leaving. She planned this and was executing this. No one noticed when she started moving her things out. No one noticed much of anything about her. They saw the suitcase and she told them it was a weekend trip with friends.
Curiosity about the suitcase assuaged, she was no longer of interest.
As she made the final turn, leaving the neighborhood behind, she wondered how long it would take for anyone to actually notice she was gone. She knew they might wonder where she was over the weekend, finally someone recalling her trip. She expected that when she wasn’t scene on Monday someone might think her trip was longer than a weekend.
“Monday is soccer practice,” she reminded herself. The twins both played and Monday was a huge rush so she doubted anyone would notice her absence. “Tuesday is Hockey,” she added.
Emily turned her blinker on and looked both ways before making her left at the stop sign. Mentally she scrolled through the list of activities her step-brothers were involved in. It was a long one. Between their schedule, her step mother’s charities and her father’s business trips, she suspected it would be a while before anyone wondered where she went.
“After all they didn’t even remember my birthday,” she said. Emily turned eighteen six months prior and there hadn’t even been a whisper. A month later she graduated and began work. Everyone thought it was a summer job and when the summer ended her step mother arranged for a new school uniform to appear in her room as she did every year prior.
Ten til Midnight 