Loneliness. It
was a heavy stone inside of her that
weighed her down more day by
day. She wondered how her
life had become what it had. When she
was younger she
always had friends and things to do. The older
she
got, the more quiet she became. Always afraid
to saying the
wrong thing, she said nothing. Then,
when she was nineteen, her
parents had died. She was
an only child and had no other family.
Wanting to
block everything and everyone out was her defense
to
the pain she felt. And now, everyone was off and
married,
living their own lives, while she had none to
live.
"Sadie!"
She jerked at hearing her name yelled. "Yes,
Don?" "Will
you come in here and file this for me?"
Sadie walked into her
boss's office, took the papers
to be filed, and mentally 'rolling
her eyes' walked
the five feet to the filing cabinet and filed
the
papers for him.
After returning home, she made herself
dinner and
turned on the tv. Her favorites were always saved
on
the DVR. The only time she really enjoyed herself was
when
she imagined what it might be like to be living
life like in one
of her favorite shows or movies.
Doing something other than going
to work and sitting
at home. She was too timid a person to meet
people on
her own. She didn't talk well with people she
didn't
know. Yet again, Sadie found herself thinking about
her
sad existense. Sighing, she went to get ready for
bed. Looking in
the mirror, she sighed again. Her
rusty brown hair was a mess.
Taking it down from the
ponytail, it fell to her shoulders. She
made a mental
note to get it cut. Her green eyes stared back at
her.
The older she got, the more she saw her mother in
herself.
The same slender nose, the same full lips,
the same hair. She had
her fathers eyes though. Then
she thought about the crash and
having to identify her
parents. Quickly turning out the light, she
got into
bed.
Another week had passed of sameness. Sadie
sat staring
out her window at work with the urge to simply get
up,
get in her car, and drive somewhere completely new.
Start
over. She brushed it off. The idea of doing
something that rash.
Getting a new job, having to
interact with new people made her
heart almost stop,
thinking of how she would look like a fool
to
everyone, and yet at the same time, there was just a
glimmer
of hope that maybe she could pull off having
normal conversation
without tripping over herself and
just start over. The idea hung
over her for days and
days. And then she decided, I'm done. I'm
going to
leave. She gave Don her two weeks notice, packed
what
things would fit in her car, and sold the rest.
Sitting
behind the wheel, she felt the urge to be
sick. Seriously
considering getting back out of the
car and begging for her job
back, she put the car in
drive and left.
Sadie drove for
days, not really knowing where she was
going, stopping at night in
various hotels. On her
fourth day on the road, she found herself
driving on
an unbelievably long road with walls along both
sides.
All it seemed to do was block the view of forest. On
coming
out the other side, she saw a sign that said
she had passed
through the Walker Wildlife Reserve.
But it was what she saw next,
that really caught her
eye. A little town of about 20,000 people
she'd guess,
and it just seemed to call to her. After
looking
around and having lunch at a little cafe, Sadie
decided
that she was done driving. She moved into a
loft apartment above
the cafe and started working there the next day.