Page 2 of A Lifetime of Afters
I never looked back.
Chapter Two - Infinite
I lay back on the couch, where I had a perfect view out the window, and I watched the near-naked branches of the trees dance and wave against a colorless sky.
Twelve weeks A.B. (After Barrett), I finally felt like myself again. A little too much like me.
As a child, I did not make friends easily. The situation worsened in my teens. For a brief spell in my twenties, I lived it up, but that was a knee-jerk reaction to the pain of rejection. And now I found myself almost completely alone for the first time in my life.
Five hours of driving separated me from my family and my best friend since childhood. My only friends here, if I could even call them that, were the few colleagues I occasionally had drinks with on a Thursday night.
No boyfriend.
No best friend.
No girl posse.
I’d been in Bridgewater for well over two years, so I’d had time to make connections and lay down some roots. But, just like the town before, and the town before that, I didn’t.
Bruce kneaded his dainty paws into my thigh as if he could read my thoughts and blinked at me expectantly.
“I know I have you, my handsome little boy.”
Bruce, a faded, scrappy, dilute calico of indeterminate age, joined my tiny household a little over a year ago. We’d been good for each other. Well, he’d been good for me, my catspeak needed improving.
I retrieved the faded satin ribbon I’d carried with me since I left home from beneath him, running the tips of my fingers over his tiny head to distract him as I rescued it. Frayed and faded from my twirling fingers, it would not hold up for long under his sharp claws.
My voice sounded loud in the quiet of the room. It struck me that I hadn't heard any voice other than mine since Friday afternoon. Okay, it was damp and cold outside, but even so, I’d reached a new level of isolation.
Bruce turned his little head and nuzzled into my palm, then unabashedly unsheathed his claws into the tender flesh of my thigh.
“Ouch!” I gasped.
He leaped off my lap and streaked across the floor like his butt caught fire.
“What is wrong with you?” I grumbled. “I’m showing you love! Affection!” I lifted my long skirt to check the damage. One solitary drop of blood beaded on my thigh. Only one this time.
“I suppose this is an improvement,” I nodded to my thigh while I continued to address him where he sat watching from across the room. “I pulled you out of that dumpster. Remember? I got myhandsdirty! A little respect is due at the very least, little man,” I reprimanded.
He stared back at me from his one good eye, dropped his lid in a slow blink, then lifted his front paw to lick his patchy fur back into submission.
I crossed my arms over my knees and sighed. “You’re a misfit just like me.”
Bruce and I had a little too much in common lately. He’d been rejected and left out in the cold. By the time I found him, the infection had destroyed his eye. Which is how I met Barrett, a veterinarian who patched him up and fixed his eye the only way he could.
“You know I thought you were my good luck charm for a little while there,” I mused, licking the tip of my finger and pressing it over the tiny cut.
Perhaps it was time to move on, I mused, weaving the long strip of silk between my fingers. Working in the hotel industry offered me countless opportunities to uproot pretty well any time I wanted.
Not that there was much to uproot. Looking around the kitchen and family room of my rental, there was not one thing that made it feel anything more than a temporary stop.
It was unfortunate in one sense because instead of waiting for a job opportunity that would allow me to move up into a higher-paying position, the constant moves at my request landed me in lateral positions over and over.
And I was bored.
I lay my head back on the couch.
Even the furniture came with the unit.
