But I have been writing at least, even if right now it’s very slow going.
And since I can’t think of anything else to post (intend to go and take some photos in the near future) here a bit of something new. Got a bit stuck with one of the sequels, and got the urge to write urban fantasy or something like it. And this is my first try with first person POV, generally I prefer different versions of third person.
Day 1
The moon was setting.
Full moon, round and shiny against the very dark blue of the sky, looking huge next to the treetops it was fast approaching. Its light made the dusty dirt road look silver compared to the dark ditch and forest on one side, and the new growth of the field to the other.
All kinds of moon related songs came to my mind. Blue Moon, Harvest Moon, Bad Moon On The Rise…
Right then I found the idea of the moon setting a lot more ominous than any bad moon rising. I didn’t have a torch. Once the moon was down getting home was going to become even more of a trial than it had been so far.
The car had died nearly half an hour earlier. No obvious reasons why. It was only a few years old, recently serviced, full tank of gas, and it had been working perfectly until the moment it just died. Everything. And I mean everything, not just the motor but also the lights and radio and… well, everything. For a moment I had been scared I would not be able to get out since I thought that I had heard a sound which had kind of reminded me of the locks engaging right at the moment when the motor and everything else died, but when I had tried the door it had opened. But it hadn’t locked. Which meant right now my car was sitting abandoned and unlocked a few miles behind me, on a road which – unlike the one I was walking on now – did have traffic.
Although not so much in the middle of the night. If I got home and managed to call a towing service before sunrise maybe I could save it from vandals and thieves. It was the middle of the week, there should be no late party animals out joyriding in this part of the world this night, the biggest risk would be the early birds going to work. Not all of them were honest, not in this part of the world. Plenty enough who would have no qualms playing a bit with a new Mercedes – both to rip off anything of value, and to destroy what they couldn’t or didn’t care to take, just out of spite – when they found one, and if they had the time.
But I still had enough time to prevent that.
I hoped.
I hadn’t called for help from the car because my cell had turned out to be as dead as the car. Maybe I had, once again, forgotten to charge it. I thought I had done that the previous day, but maybe I was wrong.
All in all, a shitty way to end a shitty day.
I started to step a bit faster in hopes of getting as close to home as possible before I lost the moonlight. The hard backed dirt road felt soft beneath my bare feet, the hard surface covered mostly just by dust, and I hoped it would stay clear of anything sharp or unpleasant. My shoes were in my bag. Ten inch heels are not good for forced four mile hikes so I had taken the risk of going barefoot. I could walk a lot faster that way, for one thing. And maybe even get home while still being able to walk.
Shitty day.
I heard something move in the forest, some distance away, pushing its way through the dead leaves and dry grass covering the ground between the trees.
There were no bears here, nor any other big predators. Or should not be. So probably a deer, or even more likely, something like a skunk. They didn’t much care what noise they made.
Shitty day.
It had started just fine. I had a showing in one of the more prestigious galleries in the city, and since I had been free for the day had decided to visit. And then to surprise my boyfriend by meeting him right after work, maybe have dinner with him in some nice restaurant, maybe spend the night – so it was middle of the week, but his job had very predictable hours, office drone as he was. Very well paid one, on a good career trajectory, mostly likely on his way to CEO in the near future, but he didn’t work overtime often. Had always claimed it was because he was just so good.
Except in reality it was probably because he was sleeping with the lady who owned most of the whole damn company. Older heiress, recently divorced for the umpteenth time.
And my new boyfriend was his boy toy on the side.
Completely surprising your lover can have unpredictable consequences.
The only consolation was that it hadn’t been going on very long – my affair with him, no idea about his other squeeze – and I hadn’t gotten anywhere close to serious about him.
Okay, lying there a bit. I had had hopes. He had seemed so good. I guess I had been projecting like a crazy.
Cinderella complex or something. Now perhaps I didn’t need a prince to save me from poverty anymore, I had been doing quite nice for a couple of years now, thank you, but I had been rather poor at one time and a rich, powerful and influential (I had assumed, anyway), and as an extra plus, quite good looking man getting interested in me had been balm for my still floundering self-esteem. Besides it would have been nice insurance, I was doing well enough for now, and I had a good nest egg, but art is not a secure profession until and unless you manage to get to Picasso level. Here today, forgotten tomorrow. I had sold some designs for fabrics which had become a hit, I had been able to sell several paintings during every showing last couple of years, but they were still not collectors items. I seemed to be on a good trajectory. But things can change fast in my business.
And the nest egg was from a successful lawsuit for a copyright theft. One of those fabric designs.
The noise from the forest came again, this time it sounded closer.
I stopped walking and for a moment stood still to listen, but the sounds had again stopped.
It had sounded bigger than a skunk.
Or maybe I was just imagining things.
Still, right now I had some regrets over having bought the old farm (right now about half mine and half the bank’s). This area might become more valuable in the future, it seemed the city was likely to start spreading this way during the next decade, and if it did the value of land would start to rise soon enough.
But right now this was still very much the back of beyond, in spite of being less than half an hour’s drive from the city. When you had a car.
Walking the distance – or even less than about one third of it – and it didn’t feel close at all. I might as well have been somewhere where the gap toothed natives play banjos.
Hell. For all I knew they did. And resented the city folks who had lately started to move in.
I started walking again and picked up my speed as much as I could.
Shitty end to a shitty day.
The affair with the future CEO was kaput, that was certain. If I lost the Mercedes, or had to pay for extensive repairs for it – well, I could afford it, but it would still be bit of a strain. I hadn’t even paid more than maybe one third of the car yet, but I had been driving it just long enough that the warranty had expired.
Only one painting had sold so far.
I was maybe being stalked by something or somebody.
There had been some rumors of mountain lions. Officially they didn’t exist in this part of the country, but some pets had been disappearing lately, including a few rather large dogs, and a horse had gotten a bit mangled just recently. The official explanation, at least in the local paper, had been feral dogs, but the owner had insisted that it hadn’t looked like something done by a dog.
Except come to think of that, I was fairly sure I would not care to be stalked by a feral dog or dogs either. Completely wild animals might be more likely to be wary of humans. A feral former pet – or a pack of them – might not.
And then the moon finally dropped fully behind the tree line.
****
Northern dreaming 
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