Watching Time (Novel): Chapter 2 (Odd Encounters)

Myra woke up at around six in the morning, and tiptoed out of her room. She noticed many of the doors closed, and at one, she heard a man snoring loudly, and instinctively knew it was Earl.

          She moved back to her room and opened the closet. Brushing away a tear, she looked through the dresses. Many were sparkly and bright, but she settled on a plain black sundress. She moved into her private bathroom and quickly combed her hair. She slipped on a pair of black sandals and looked at herself in a mirror that reached from the ceiling to the floor. She looked pitiful, but at least she didn’t look like she crawled out of a garbage can.

          She made her way to the grand entry doors and cringed as a voice rang out.

          “Where are you going?”

          Myra turned and found Naomi staring at her with wide eyes. “For a walk,” Myra told her. It was true, and it was exactly what she thought she needed to say to get away. “Is that alright?”

          Naomi nodded. “I was just curious.” Myra looked closer and noticed that Naomi was hiding a small box behind her. She couldn’t tell if it was a board game box or something else.

          “Okay,” Myra sighed. She left the house and began her walk.

Ethan hurriedly rushed down the sidewalk, rapidly pushing buttons on his smartphone. He was supposed to be at work in ten minutes, and work for an hour, and then be at school until four, and fifteen minutes later had to go back to work. It was busier than he had ever been in the past, and he was not happy. His phone buzzed, and he focused on the new text from Fia.

          Busy all day, again?

          Ethan kept back a laugh. She was super serious about getting punctuation, grammar, and spelling, even in text messages.  He smiled and sent a quick reply, although he figured she would be less happy about his confirmation. As he suspected, she didn’t reply even though his phone reported that she had seen the message.

          Ethan sighed and continued down the sidewalk, but in only a matter of seconds, bumped into someone else. “Oh, sorry!” Ethan instinctively muttered. He picked his fallen phone off the ground and saw a reply from Fia.

          At least you’re not bored like me.

Myra’s stomach twisted as she fell to the ground. That’s why you always pay attention to where you’re walking.

          She had been so lost in thought she hadn’t seen the boy who had been rushing down the sidewalk. “I’m sorry!” she told him, right as he was basically saying the same thing. The boy picked up his phone, looked at it, and smiled.

          He turned to Myra. “I’m Ethan,” he introduced himself.

          “Myra.”

          “Nice to meet you, Myra,” Ethan told her. “Look, I’ve gotta go, but could you visit my friend Fia, if you get a moment? She lives down the road that way. You’ll recognize the house because it has a red door.”

          “You expect a strange to meet with a friend?” Myra asked incredulously. She began to wonder what kind of city this was.

          “Mark texted me about you,” Ethan shrugged. “You’re Naomi’s new sister? I trust you.” Without waiting for a reply, he took off.

          “I’m so going to regret this,” Myra moaned, and began on her journey to Fia’s house.

Fia opened the door and found a strange girl standing there. The girl stared at her with a grumpy expression on her face. “I’m Myra,” she introduced herself. “Ethan sent me, and I didn’t have time to argue.”

          Fia’s face cleared. “Oh, Myra, I’ve heard so much about you! Come in!” She mentally went through a list of what she was wearing. Striped red and blue dress, no shoes, OH MY WORD, did I forget to brush my hair this morning?!

          She really hoped she made a good impression. Good friends were hard to find, and even harder to keep. Even more was the fact that, if she could cheer up Myra, who was apparently grumpy twenty-four-seven, then she would make a huge score with Ethan. He might even come to visit, although she wasn’t going to pin her hopes on it.

          Myra entered and followed Fia into the living room, and then Fia dashed off to grab several board games. Oh, Candy Land, Sequence, Risk, I have definitely gotta bring Life and Apples to Apples, too. Those are two awesome games!

          She carried the huge stack into the living room. “Want to play something? Oh, we also have a Wii system!”

          Myra seemed overwhelmed by all of this, and Fia immediately felt bad. Myra opened her mouth to speak, but then Fia’s mother entered. “Who’s this?” she asked curiously, but a worried expression crossed her face. Fia didn’t blame her. A stranger in the house wasn’t cool.

          “This is Myra, Naomi’s new sister!” Fia announced. “And Myra, this is my mom, Penelope.”

          “Nice to meet you, Mrs…uh…” Myra stammered.

          “Call me Mrs. Robinson,” Fia’s mom replied with a smile. “Well, don’t let me keep you, play away!” She sniffed the air. “Oh, goodness, I hope I’m not burning breakfast! Be right back, girls!”

          Fia giggled. “She prides herself with being an excellent chef,” Fia explained to Myra. “She hates burning food, though.”

          She immediately scolded herself. Your non-stop talking is going to scare her away!

Is this girl crazy? That was the first thought that came to Myra’s mind when she met Fia, and throughout the encounter, she kept thinking it over and over. An awkward silence eventually fell over the two. Finally, Fia shrugged. “So, do you want to play something?” She talked slower, and seemed more timid, as if she had been disciplined about her non-stop talking right after she made her comment on her mom’s cooking skills.

          “Um, sure,” Myra shrugged, reminding herself that she didn’t have to do this for Fia. It could be for Ethan. Is that any better? He’s still a stranger. “What game do you like to play the most?”

          “Apples to Apples!” Fia immediately exclaimed, as her face brightened.

          “Could we do that with only two players?” Myra asked critically.

          Fia’s face fell. “Oh. Yeah. My mom might join after breakfast, but you’re right. How about Life?”

          Myra had played the game once a week with her mother, as they completed to see who could be the champion of the game. Its simplistic rules and straightforward gameplay had appealed to her at the time, and she hoped it’d appeal to her, today. Fia had a newer version, however, and found that complicated gambling rules, a longer board, and more split paths had made the game a maze of difficult-to-understand concepts.

          Fia’s end score was nearly ten times as big as Myra’s.

          “Let’s play something else,” Fia suggested. “Oh, I know, what about Uno? That’s a really simple game and very easy to play.”

          Before Myra could comment on how everyone plays Uno differently, Mrs. Robinson called from the kitchen. Fia gave Myra a glance. “Come on, you’re in for a treat! My mom’s cooking is killer!”

          Killer. Myra glimpsed a fraction of a flashback of the unwanted memories. She heard an echo of her mother’s scream ring through her ears. Suddenly, the tears she had held back while playing Life came spilling out, but she made no sound with her life, except to say, “I’ve got to go. Thanks for having me.” She bolted out the door and ran back to Naomi’s house as fast as she could. She may not have been willing to accept it as home, yet, but she was willing to call it a refuge. A sanctuary.

          She fell onto her bed, and her body shook as she wept once again.