-S-
Sara opened and closed her eyes. Her bed felt so comfortable; she had no desire to get up. It had been a long time since she slept comfortably. The house was very quiet. For now, she did not have to worry about going to college; instead of an annoying roommate, she lived with her best friend Michelle, and since she had saved up some money, she could just rest. More importantly, she did not need to worry about running into Keith here. Sara sighed with relief. She felt peaceful and decided to sleep for another 30 minutes.
When she woke up, she kept to her schedule. Sara did her stretching and went outside to run. She put a yellow hair band in her hair and put on her arm band with her cell phone attached. She put her house key under one of the vases for Michelle. The air was crisp. Unlike yesterday, the weather was pretty good. She looked around; everything was green. As she ran, she couldn’t help but notice the pretty trees all alongside the road. There were many interesting houses, and she enjoyed watching them.
While she was running, she remembered when she used to run this road with a bicycle and her brother. Twenty minutes later, she arrived at a place where she’d never been to. She kept running. Running was one of her favorite things to do. Around the 20 minute mark she would always get into the zone; she would reach the point where the endorphins helped her transcend all of the pain and physical exertion felt by moving her legs for so long. She could take all of the negative feelings, ungrateful memories, and the pain from past experiences that clogged her chest, and filter them through her breath. It made her felt clean, like water that had been cleansed of impurities. She believed that somehow through running she could purify her soul.
I am free here. I can forget the last two months. This is great! She wanted to shout to the world. She remembered that downtown was not far from where she was. She decided to run to the city. She started seeing buildings and stores. There were many people on the street. When she was passing them, she felt like she was in a different world from them. Cold Play's “Clock’s” was on her Cell phone. She ran and ran. When the traffic light was red, she jogged in place. She found a small park, and she ran toward the park. Some people were running, some were walking and some were talking. Every time she made eye contact with someone, she said hello, or smiled at them. She realized that people in Washington were more relaxed than in Nevada. I guess I better head back. As she looked for the exit, she saw an old man eating a sandwich on a bench. He looked familiar to her. "Hello!" she said cheerfully. The old man was taken aback a little bit, but waved at her. This is a nice park, I should come here often. She ran home without stopping.
When she got home, Michelle was back from work, and was eating.
"How was work?" Sara asked. Since it had been awhile since she ran like that, she felt tired.
"It was the same as usual. Did you run?"
"Yeah, I wanted to get familiar with the area." Sara stretched her leg behind her.
"How long did you run?"
Sara checked the time.
"I guess...it was a little more than two hours..."
"What? That’s like running a marathon."
"No it's not. I ran slowly. I'm fine. Well, actually, I’m a little tired." Sara leaned on the wall in the kitchen.
"So you don't work today anymore." Sara asked.
"Nope, but I need to sleep a little. Do you want to go downtown later?"
"Um. I'm not sure."
"Well, whatever you want to do."
"Ok."
Michelle put her dishes in the sink and walked out of the kitchen. When Sara filled a cup with water, Michelle poked her head back to the kitchen and said. "By the way, I love this neighborhood."
"Me too." Sara answered with a smile.
"And we should talk. We haven't really talked yet, especially about..."
"I know. We should." Sara cut her short.
"Alright then, see you in a couple hours."
After Michelle left, Sara thought about the impending “talk”. She was a little bit hesitant about telling her story to Michelle. It was great to talk to Michelle, but she was not sure if she wanted to bring up Keith just yet. Thinking about him was still painful. She sighed sadly.
That afternoon, she read one of the books in her room. She chose Beneath the Wheel, but that novel depressed her, so she read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. She liked how the story started with the main character reaching out to the new world, learning about his potential, and becoming great. It was not a fantasy world that she was living in, but these things could happen to anyone. She spent the quiet hours by herself, delving into Hogwarts.
That evening, the girls ate dinner together than took a walk. Everything looked different from when she was running. There were lights on in every house in the neighborhood.
"If this was an old town, there would be a chimney on every house and there would be smoke billowing out of them." Sara told Michelle.
"What? What are you talking about?" Michelle laughed.
"Well, I guess I read too much Harry Potter today. Speaking of which, I want to go to England. It would be so much fun."
Michelle laughed. “You have the money for that?"
"I know, I know."
"How’s school? Aren't you about to graduate?"
"School is fun, but I am not sure if I really like what I am studying."
"Well. What can you do with a communications degree?"
“You can do a lot of things. Advertising, video, or work in broadcasting, but I don't know if I want to work in any of those fields."
"So what are you going to do then?"
"I need to figure that out during the break.”
"So what happened to you and Keith?"
"Good transition, Michelle.” Sara retorted. Well. It just didn't work out I guess." Sara answered and looked at ground.
"I'm sorry... Sara. You don't have to tell me until you are ready." Michelle hugged Sara.
"Thanks..."
After that, they changed the topic of their discussion. Michelle talked about her co-workers at the hospital and picky doctors that she was working for; Sara talked about her older brother.
"I used to like him..." Michelle admitted.
"Yeah. If you hadn't left, I would have helped you win him over. Not that you need help."
Michelle laughed. “It's fine."
It was getting dark around the neighborhood. When they were almost home, they saw one of their neighbors pulling into the driveway.
“I thought I recognized him…"
"What?"
"I saw him today."
"Who is that?"
"He lent me the hammer yesterday."
"Oh, ok.” Michelle obviously wasn’t interested. “Do you want to watch a movie and eat some ice cream?" Michelle opened the door.
"Sure. What are we watching?"
"How about The Notebook?"
"Ugh..."
"You don't like it?"
"No. I've just...watched it too many times..."
"I have too. Let's watch something funny."
They chose to watch Nacho Libre that night.