fathers | Today, You Will Write

She awoke with a gasp, and found herself in her own bed. She turned, kissed her pillow gleefully as the alarm clock sounded, reminding her that Monday was just another school day. She shook her head. Groaned. She didn’t need reminding. Pushing the covers aside, she dashed out of bed and stretched. There was an ache in her side. Lurch in her chest, she took a breath and waited for the sensations to subside.

Then Brandi opened the bedroom door and listened for movement, wondering if her mother had already left. Hearing nothing, she ran back to her bedroom window and peered down. But her mother’s car was nowhere to be found. So, she rushed to the closet and threw some clothes out onto the bed – a pair of blue jeans, grey t-shirt and loafers.

She dashed into the bathroom, trying her best not to think of the homework she should have done as the Nameless One’s words, about making a decision, came back to her. “You will have to choose.” Brandi nodded, feeling dazed as the water changed from cold to warm. She lathered up, not sure, if she could ride her bike on a morning like this, as she rinsed off the soapsuds and then wrapped herself into a towel.

Drying her hair and the rest of her body, she changed quickly into her clothes and then dropped onto the bed to put on her socks and shoes.

Something squished under her shoes and she leaned over the bed to retrieve it. She saw a crumpled, white object. She unflattened it. It was the paper. Contract, she corrected herself as she held it at arm’s length; no longer certain about what she wanted. Thinking, that she might need to discuss a few things with her mother.

She moved towards the door and shoved it into her bag, without another thought. Dismissing the idea of the school bus, which she had seen at the top of the hill, she gravitated towards her bike, which was outside on the lawn. It lay there, deflated.

As if she could kick it back to life, like she could bang on the cable-less tv to make the antenna work, she issued two swift kicks before rendering such action useless and she strolled towards the bus stop on the corner.

There, she waited for the bus to stop before getting on. What else could happened? she wondered, thinking that there was nothing she could do to circumvent the future. Nothing she could do to find out more about her father.