Tuesday, April 12, 2016

The Unwelcome Nightlight



Sophia Artichoke was terrified. It was her first night alone in her new house in a new city far from home. For all she could remember, never in her life had she slept even a full hour in a house with no other person.

Her best friend, Beatrice, came for the long drive across so many flat and lifeless states, but took the most inexpensive flight home the next morning. Now Sophia felt as though she could be in a Martian outpost.

Her new job started tomorrow, selling "Eel Slime Dish Detergent," which was not named for any component, but for its ability to wash all the  slime off an eel. Sophia felt a little moral twinge at the thought of the soap being tested on animals, but she was assured that the soap was organic, biodegradable, non-caustic, and the eels were twice a day fed a fish that normally swam too quickly for an eel to catch in the wild. Also, SpectraCom was willing to pick up the tab for her move. Reimbursing for services already rendered, of course.

Sophia found a house in the country on a street with only one neighbor. The couple was cordial and old. They offered the use of their weed-whackers and hoses to help Sophia manage her yard. Sophia was ready for this brand new adventure.

At midnight, Sophia turned off the lights and dragged herself to bed. She noticed first a single flash, sharp and fast, easily dismissed as her imagination. She may not have noticed, if not for the second flash. By the third flash, Sophia was wondering what was happening.

Sophia pulled the curtain closed, got under the covers and lay tense with wide eyes. The corner of the curtain  bunched around a chair piled high with possibly dirty clothes that had been shoved in a sack and squeezed between two chairs on the moving truck. Through the sliver of exposed glass the blue flash continued every few seconds.

Was it unreasonable for Sophia to immediately assume it was probably Swayze that found her? Was he lurking in her back yard popping camera flashes? The last she saw her not-so-distant ex-boyfriend,  she'd invited some friends to her apartment for a small goodbye party. Swayze had been prank calling for hours. She unplugged the phone. He had been doing this for days.

Few of her friends knew how far Swayze was going, but Sophia was humiliated to let this be public knowledge. She let him prank as much as he liked, because that meant he was home. If Sophia ever felt nervous he may have left the phone off the hook to pay her a visit, she could answer and he’d be there, ready to screech obscenities.

Continued Thursday

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