Kate said, \u201cWell, it was dark. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t see anything. \u00a0Much. \u00a0Well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lynn said, a smirk on her face, \u201cI think if someone was chasing after me with a black duster on, I would have remembered what he looked like.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid I say he had a black duster?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at her cereal in her bowl, contemplating. \u00a0Now she didn\u2019t remember saying that. \u00a0She didn\u2019t remember what he looked like – was she even being chased? \u00a0She stopped at a coffee shop on the way home, but why? \u00a0Was there a man?<\/p>\n
Lynn was examining her, like a nurse examining a patient for any signs of deterioration. \u00a0Finally Kate said quietly, \u201cMaybe I imagined the whole thing. \u00a0It seems so surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSurreal,\u201d laughed Lynn. \u00a0\u201cMaybe you were spooked by someone and just panicked. \u00a0Happens all the time in the big city.\u201d \u00a0Lynn nodded to the bowl of cereal. \u00a0\u201cYou going to eat that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, yeah.\u201d \u00a0Kate poured milk onto the cereal, watching it flow over the shredded wheats, covering the brown with a thin film of white. \u00a0She took up her spoon and started to eat, as Lynn went back into the living room.<\/p>\n
Ana was watching TV, spread out on the couch as if she owned it. \u00a0Well, she did, technically, having bought it from a yard sale the weekend after she moved in. \u00a0None of the girls had boyfriends, or any male friends, so manhandling it up to the third floor took a lot of work on their part. \u00a0They decided that after they were done the year, they were just going to leave the damn thing behind and eat the security deposit.<\/p>\n
The couch was a soft brown, with some wear on the armrests, but didn\u2019t look too shabby and didn\u2019t have any hidden friends. \u00a0That was the one and only thing that scared Kate to no end – bugs. \u00a0Bugs of any type. \u00a0Spiders, roaches, ants…she hated them all, and would scream like a terrified girl at the sight of them. \u00a0It probably had something to do with her uncle\u2019s farm.<\/p>\n
Kate carried the bowl to the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. \u00a0\u201cWhatcha watching?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMore zombies,\u201d said Ana. \u00a0\u201cCan\u2019t get enough of this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lynn gave a long-suffering look and beckoned Kate over. \u00a0She shook her head – her mother taught her to never eat while watching TV. \u00a0\u201cYou\u2019ll get fat,\u201d she told her. \u00a0Well, it was probably too late now, but old habits die hard.<\/p>\n
Kate watched some zombies get blown up, and she\u2019d had enough when Ana sat there and laughed. \u00a0She went back to the kitchen and leaned against the counter, eating her cereal. \u00a0Again, she plugged the earplugs back in to drown out the noise from the living room, and her teacher droned on about Ezra Pound. \u00a0Her mother had said nothing about eating and listening to her professors\u2019 lectures, so she did not feel guilty about that.<\/p>\n
She finished her cereal, then turned to wash out the bowl. \u00a0She saw the light go off behind her in the living room; this meant that they were going to pack it in for the night. \u00a0Ana had her own TV, but she had wireless headphones so could listen to what she wanted. \u00a0Lynn had her computer like the rest of the girls. \u00a0Kate had an old Mac laptop that her father had gotten her; it was too old to run some of the fancier things, but it still had Microsoft Office 2008 on it. \u00a0She could at least run presentations under Powerpoint and do her reports on Word. \u00a0Those programs she was familiar with in high school.<\/p>\n
She washed out the bowl, drying it, still listening to the professor, now who was taking questions. \u00a0She couldn\u2019t quite hear the questions being asked, but she understood the answers. \u00a0American Literature was not her major, and she didn\u2019t know why she had to take these extra classes. \u00a0Her father didn\u2019t think it was right, either, and had complained to the admissions officer there about it. \u00a0It didn\u2019t matter; it was a time-honored tradition to have a well-rounded education, blah, blah, blah. \u00a0Her father would have none of it. \u00a0Kate was embarrassed, but said nothing. \u00a0It was her father, after all.<\/p>\n
Kate headed to her room, which was the second one off the kitchen, Nita\u2019s being the first because she was the last person who rented. \u00a0Kate shut off the iPhone and looked at it, this time as a phone. \u00a0It was ten-thirty here; it would be nine-thirty back home. \u00a0Too late to call St. Paul. \u00a0She hadn\u2019t called them in about a week; she would call them on Sunday night, after football.<\/p>\n
Her room was bigger than her room back home, big enough for a full-size bed and a wardrobe, and a desk for her computer. \u00a0She had plenty of room to move around. \u00a0The room was kept clean, as she thought of her mother every time she dropped clothes on the floor, as she did right now, getting undressed to get in her pajamas – which were actually a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. \u00a0Her roommates couldn\u2019t believe that she wore shorts in October, but this weather was balmy compared to Nebraska, where sometimes there was snow for Halloween.<\/p>\n
Kate slipped on her clothes, then grabbed her shower kit and headed to the bathroom, just off the living room. \u00a0She picked through the half-dark room, lit only by the street lamp outside, giving the room a faint blue tinge to it. \u00a0She got to the bathroom to find it occupied. \u00a0She put her ear to the door and could hear the water running in the sink, which was a different sound than the water running in the bathroom. \u00a0She went back to the couch and leaned on the armrest, waiting.<\/p>\n
Soon enough, the door opened and light spilled out into the living room, silhouetting a small, thin person. \u00a0\u201cAh!\u201d she cried, \u201cYou scared me!\u201d \u00a0Her accent was thick, pronouncing each syllable with a small lilt to her voice.<\/p>\n
Kate smiled, though it was probably not seen in the dark. \u00a0\u201cSorry, Nita. \u00a0I was just going to take a shower.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is all right. \u00a0How was your class?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBoring as ever. \u00a0Don\u2019t take any classes with Professor Thompson.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is only a general requirement. \u00a0I could stand that for a semester.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I don\u2019t care about American 20th century writers. \u00a0I care about computers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will learn computers. \u00a0You must have a base to build your learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kate snorted, but smiled anyway. \u00a0Nita was so nice about the hoops that the school was making her jump through. \u00a0She must be happy just to be here, Kate thought. \u00a0\u201cYeah, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nita held the door open for her. \u00a0\u201cEnjoy your shower.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks.\u201d \u00a0Kate stepped inside, closed the door and locked it. \u00a0Although they were all female, she had the habit of locking the bathroom door whenever she was there, due to her large family, such as her brothers walking in on her. \u00a0Ana never locked the door and didn\u2019t care who saw; Lynn didn\u2019t either, but had the modesty to hide. \u00a0Nita usually locked hers.<\/p>\n
Kate stepped into the shower and turned the water on hot, so it would get warm faster. \u00a0At least that\u2019s how it worked back home, and, really, old habits do die hard. \u00a0She undressed again, testing the water with her hand. \u00a0It was too hot, so she turned it down, testing it again. \u00a0A little hot, but better, and she took the plunge into the shower.<\/p>\n
She washed her hair first, and then her body, frowning at the curves. \u00a0Why couldn\u2019t she be thin like Nita or Lynn? Ana was taller and had gotten a little heavier over the past month, but her height helped make her look not as heavy. \u00a0No, Kate had more curves than she should, she believed. \u00a0She wouldn\u2019t get a boyfriend the way she looked, or the way she dressed.<\/p>\n
Not that she was looking for a boyfriend, really. \u00a0Her father told her, kiddingly, that she wasn\u2019t allowed to have boyfriends until she was thirty-two. \u00a0She wanted to concentrate on her computer science degree first. \u00a0She wasn\u2019t using college as a boy hunting-ground, like her other high-school friends were doing. \u00a0This was why she didn\u2019t go to the University of Nebraska, like nearly everyone else of her class had done, at least the ones that were heading to college. \u00a0Not all were going to college, either. \u00a0Some of them, and she remembered them in particular, she was quite fond of, but they were going to end their lives as they had began them; working on their father\u2019s farm. \u00a0She could do more, be more than just some farmer\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n
When she told her family she wanted to go to Boston, her eldest brother, Kevin thought it was the dumbest idea ever. \u00a0Going into computers was stupid to him, too. \u00a0But then, Kevin\u2019s crowning achievement was pitching a bale of hay fifty yards. \u00a0He was all brawn, no brains.<\/p>\n
Kate also wanted to show her sister, Dawn, what could happen to her if she applied her mind to things. \u00a0Dawn was the cheerleader and didn\u2019t seem to think it would be a bad thing being a farmer\u2019s wife. \u00a0She thought there was money in farming. \u00a0She was going to be a golddigger, Kate knew it.<\/p>\n
Her younger two brothers, Alex and Johnathan, were going to be their father\u2019s son, though Jon – and he liked to have his name spelled without the \u201cH\u201d – looked like he wanted to go into the Army. \u00a0He was fifteen, and he definitely was not in the frame of mind to be a member of a farmer\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
Her parents, at first, thought it was nearly the dumbest idea ever. \u00a0She wanted to go to MIT, but her scores weren\u2019t high enough. \u00a0Boston University was going to give her a good scholarship for the first two years, and her last two years would be covered by school loans and Pell Grants. \u00a0She had the option of going abroad one of those last two years, which thrilled her to no end, making her imagine that she would go to Greece, or Italy, or maybe even England as an exchange student.<\/p>\n
((Total WC 3431))<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kate said, \u201cWell, it was dark. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t see anything. \u00a0Much. \u00a0Well.\u201d Lynn said, a smirk on her face, \u201cI think if someone was chasing after me with a black duster on, I would have remembered what he looked like.\u201d … Continue reading