Chapter One: Hello

It is quiet, finally, and she has a few moments to think. It has finally started cooling off outside, the first real cold front of the fall came through last night. The storm was swift and severe. She remembered laying there, listening to the thunder and rain tapping on the windows of the bedroom, wondering if there was going to be any hail. That was the last thing she remembered from that night; a truly fitting finish to a very tumultuous day. She looked around at the small apartment she had been living in for the last two months. It was much smaller than the other places currently listed on various documents under her name, but it was also, currently, her favorite. She preferred small places. They seemed easier to decorate and felt more like home. There was one bedroom and a study along with the kitchen and breakfast nook. It was new and modern and she felt very sophistacated here. There were plenty of windows and two of them, just past the kitchen, looked out over a small playground. Outside there were several small children playing some sort of chase game. Or possibly, it was the beginning of a fight. She hoped it was the former though, as she turned away to look at the phone on the table in front of the couch. The call should have come already. What was taking so long? She sat down on the soft red couch and looked through a couple of magazines that she had gotten from a friend with little interest. It was difficult to focus on such things with what had been happening over the last week. She grabbed a brush from the drawer in the end table to her left to pass the time. Her hair was longer now than ever before and black for the third time. She thought briefly about dying it again. Maybe something lighter this time. It had been awhile.

Again she looked down at the phone, sitting there, cold, not giving away any of the information for which she longed to hear. She looked at the car keys and the blue purse next to it and thought about cleaning it out. It was becoming very cluttered, lately. So many receipts and gum wrappers. It was not worth fooling with so she let the thought pass. It seemed unimportant to think about such things but she had to keep reminding herself that these distractions kept her from thinking about what happened, and why she was sitting here, glancing at the clock over the fireplace every few minutes, in spite of herself. Suddenly a panicked thought came over her.

“It’s not on!” she said aloud, exasperated, even afraid.

In the same instant, she reached for the phone; her hand inches away when suddenly it rang, and caused her to jump up so suddenly that she banged her shin on the low table. The flash of pain it caused was overcome by the chill that ran down her spine at the sight of the ringing cell phone, flashing and vibrating itself towards the edge of the table. She reached down again, picked up the phone and said,

“Hello, this is Penelope.”