For some reason I have always related to H.G. Maybe I can just understand the feelings of anger and futility better than I'd care to dwell on. Either way, here's a short one.
Enjoy!
Helena G. Wells has been driving for hours. After leaving Boone, she had pointed her car northeast and just drove. Releasing a heavy sigh, her hands gripped the steering wheel harder. Rolling her shoulders she tries to work a kink out of the rhomboid of her left shoulder. It wouldn't do to have her body tense up any further. As she changes lanes to pass an 18-wheeler, her mind drifts back to Boone.
After months of trying to make herself believe she was happy. After convincing herself that all she needed was to lead a "normal" life, reality had come crashing in. Reality in the form of a devoted man and a beautiful daughter. Helena let out a mirthless chuckle. After decades of plotting and fighting for a way to bring her daughter back to her, she had found Adelaide. Now, here she was voluntarily driving away from a girl who had filled a place in her heart that had been long vacant. Leaving Adelaide had been the second hardest thing she had done in her long, long life. She didn't want to think about the first one.
One of green eyes full of tears, lips pulled up in an caricature of a smile. A smile that never went further than those full lips. A wave goodbye and of disappearing into the night.
No.
Stop.
It would do no good to dwell on the past. Doing that had been one of the reasons she had stumbled down that dark path. A path that had nearly spelled the end of the world. There was no room left in her to allow that darkness to return. She had come too far, allowed herself to start healing and grow. And she HAD grown. She couldn't let things change.
Looking at the clock on the console, she let out another sigh as the red numbers stared at her mockingly, their eight p.m. like a billboard advertising her failings. Her stomach let out a growl, seeming prompted by the lateness of the hour. Thinking back, she tried to recall when she had last eaten. It must have been sometime after she had crossed into Canada. Giving a mental shrug, she decides it doesn't really matter. She needs to stop. Gas, food, and lodging. What she wouldn't give to sleep in a bed! Catching a wink here and there in the backseat of the car wasn't what she called restful.
Looking at the GPS, what a marvelous invention, she notices she is at the most southeastern part of Canada, just above New York. The only thing around here were the Falls. Of all the things she has seen in her life- of all the adventures, of all the endless wonder- feats of nature always astounded her. Yes, she would play tourist. She would, for a moment, pretend she was like everyone else. This could not end as badly as Nate. It couldn't possibly.