Sonata

Did I mention how much I detest the sun?
In the thick of one of my greatest dreams, and I can feel the light on my eyelids. The events of the night before were barely legible to my half-woken brain, but I did recall the brightness of those laundry mat lights.

I was really hating on anything that included a bulb at the moment.

The curtains that were supposed to be protecting me from an early awakening had been hastily pulled back, and in my moody state, I damned whoever's fault that was to hell.

As far as I knew, Saturday was a regularly based holiday that I celebrated by oversleeping.
Who the hell crashed the party?

"Good morning Evelyn." a manly voice spoke.

Ugh, well there's my answer.

"Good morning Carolyne." I groaned unenthusiastically.

Not a single dictionary in the universe can pinpoint how I felt towards this woman. She was one of my father's 'hired help', but I liked to think of her as a 'hired HASSLE'.

One of the most selfish, demanding, human beings I have ever had the displeasure of coming in contact with.
She hurried over to my side and tapped my shoulder repeatedly. I tried to shrug her hand off.

"Get up Evelyn, for Christ's sake, you know how much responsibility I had at your age?"

It was too early to be dealing with this SHIT.
She loved to do this to me whenever I first woke up, still very careless and off guard. She discovered that I was passive to morning reprimands while my eyes were close to fully shut.

You throw a snide comment here and there, then I'll snap at you, but bombard me with a slew of complaints and I'll just take them.
Quite a backwards process.

I walked to my bathroom, Carolyne hot on my heels; rambling about something that sounded like me getting a job, and I slammed the door right in her face.

Like I said; WAY too fucking early.

I had my back against the entrance, and I stood there staring at my reflection in the mirror directly across in a drowsy haze.
The sight wasn't something to be proud of, for I don't condone greasy hair and a profile smudged in eyeliner and mascara. The last time I took a shower was the day before last, and I didn't believe a whole day and a half could put me through such a toll.

True, I had been crying the majority of the time, but not too terribly.

My eyes could be mistaken for internal bleeding, and surrounded by black rings that use to highlight my pupils, but now looked like a leftover clown mask.
It was that lack of an agenda mentioned earlier that had lead my appearance down such a hideous road. It would be logical to think that having nothing to do all day would make way for me to become an indoor busy body that scrubbed their house spotless, to the extreme of cleaning the cleaning supplies, and taking two or three showers everyday. Instead, I might as well be paralyzed from the neck down.

My schedule consisted of either lying in bed all day for a ridiculous 12 hours until it was time to sleep again, or reading the same three books that were stuffed in my nightstand.

It had somehow turned into a sort of mission for me.
I had a miniscule branch of a thought that if someone was concerned enough with my well being, then life would do a 180 into the direction it used to travel in.
Music would be allowed again.

It was frustrating that only Carolyne had taken note of my "reclusive behavior", and all she had done was bitch about it.
This plan wasn't going the way I intended.

Stuck in the bathroom, I figured I might as well face it and come clean:
I smelled like fucking garbage.

[&&&]

I no longer came off as a monster.
The grease that felt like a permanent leave-in conditioner had left my hair and I didn't look like a raccoon.
Turns out a shower was exactly what I needed.

I didn't feel quite as depressed anymore considering that soaking in my own body odor surely played some part.

I wrapped the towel tighter around me and opened the door.

Coming out of my transformational central, it was an even more gorgeous site to see my room empty of Carolyne and her personality stench that followed.
I didn't want to go back in the tub.

The strong scent of soap and shampoo was filling my nose with every breath I took.
I really was glad I decided to get my act together.

That was until a realization came up.

Once again, I was left with a houseful of working people.
I had nowhere to go, no one to see, and nothing to do but watch my cell phone accumulate more dust.
I literally hadn't seen it in weeks.
Me, the girl who had always suffered from 'ghost texts'.
The only one in the house that ran an outrageous phone bill.
Those were the old days.

And now; nothing.
I used to have so many friends, believe it or not, that liked to party and get drunk. They'd hit me up and we would stay out til' all hours living in a moment that came off as indestructible.
There were days that I had no choice but to stay in bed, which is no different from now except that I do it out of leisure.

If you could even call it that anymore.

I strolled over to my dresser, grabbed some clothes that would be presentable and comfortable, and put them on.

Presentable for what I don't know, but I had worn sweats and big t-shirts for too long to continue that charade. I think I was beginning to lose myself, and I didn't want to push it too far.

I ended up with a simple outfit of jeans and a dark purple sweater.
There arose more knocks at the door.

"What?"

"Do you plan on doing nothing again today?" She asked.

Carolyne just couldn't leave me the hell alone.
My jaw went slack for a moment; almost stunned that she was talking to me as though I was her child. Then again, I should expect disrespect from her.
I let out a humorless chuckle and scratched the side of my newly cleaned temple.

"Uh...no, I guess not."

"Great, then you can come with me into town." She said with an edge.

I cringed and shook my head dramatically as though she could see me.
There was no way in hell I wanted to spend the day with her, and especially in town where all those seniors and housewives had the chance to saturate around me.
Since I griped about how much I've stayed home; I am now sorry.
Since I got ready to finally go out; I now wish I hadn't.

"I don't know Caro-"

"Hurry up Evelyn, you've been cooped up in this place for weeks. You probably forgot what town square looks like."

Oh, if only she knew my whereabouts last night.
I knew exactly what the shitheads had done to town, which was another reason for my uneasiness.
I didn't want to see it again.

"I will not take no as an answer. Now get a move on."

There was no way for me to win. I didn't stand a chance.
If I refused, she would get me back someway or another.
This is how my mind taunted me as I drew on some eyeliner and
straightened my hair.
No doubt I was going to look the same as I did half an hour ago.

I took my time gingerly; straightening the same section of hair over and over again until it was flatter than a board, plucking my eyebrows, and in general, not giving a shit if Carolyne had died from heat stroke from waiting in the car too long.

As I got outside, I squinted under the powerful sun that decided to shed a few extra gamma rays. There was a slight breeze coming continuously that made the intense light and heat a bit more bearable.
Just as suspected, Carolyne was tapping her acrylic nails along the dashboard with an emotionless stare while I opened the passenger door and took a seat. She started the car immediately after and sped off the estate.

There was no music playing through our drive to town, and I guess
that was something I just had to get used to from now on.
It was all awkward drives from here on out.

As not explained, Carolyne absolutely adored the new changes taking place in Wilcom, and on the same day the law was passed, she gathered every radio she could find and disposed of them.
Which in translation meant threw them in the landfill to be burned with all the other ones.
This lady was 100% BITCH.
And as if called to the stage, she said,

"Isn't the peace and quiet nice for a change?"

I just looked at her the worst way possible; only making that wrinkled smile stay in place.

"I don't understand your logic." I mumbled.

But in a quiet car, there are no secrets.

"You'll get over it sooner or later."

We didn't speak after that.
It was always her voicing her opinion and nothing more. I never had the opportunity to speak because she would yell over me, or she said she "didn't feel like discussing it anymore."
I was the child in this so-called relationship and she was law, even though my father could fire her and end her powertrip against me with a quick snap of his fingers.
Carolyne knew as well as I that that would never happen.
A busy man like himself couldn't get wrapped up in petty family affairs.
Thanks dad.

She slowed to a stop in a close parking space to the grocery store.
I wouldn't look at her while she put the car in park.
I wouldn't look at her when she took the keys out of the ignition.
And when I heard her slam her car door shut, I wouldn't look at her walking away.

I could only think about bitches like her that had ruined my life. It was all her fault. It was all my father's fault.
Fuck them.
Fuck Wilcom.

"Fuck the whole damn world!" I yelled furiously.

I kicked the floorboard, hoping that my feet would crash right through and I could flinstone my ass back to Chicago where this kind of ignorance wouldn't be tolerated.
I wanted to drive the car into oncoming traffic.
I ached to burn alive in the sunshine.
Again, ANYTHING to just die right on the spot.

There was knocking on my window.

"Fuck you Carolyne!" I screamed; blinded by anger.

Laughing.

I glanced over and just about got my wish for dying.

"Carolyne? I don' reckon that's my name, an' do I look like a lass teh yeh mate?"

"Aye, yeh got the hair for it."

The one I remembered as Curtis slapped the shorter one's arm jokingly.
I was too baffled to speak.
They stared at me.

"Oh come on, yeh didn' forget us that fast, did yeh? Remember? Curtis? And this one's Matt?"
He said loudly so he could be heard through the glass.

I nodded.
Curtis sighed in relief and smiled.

"Excellent, and eh, do yeh think yeh could roll down the window?"

I had seen them twice, by chance, in the span of 24 hours.
Coincidence?
Should I have been worried?
I clasped my hand around the handle to wind down the only shield I had between these two strangers, and suddenly, I became unconfident in my decision.

They must have noticed this, for Matt said,
"Bloody hell, we don' bite. We're jus' jonesin' to talk to somebody."

"Jonesing?" I asked incredulously.

"He means we jus' want teh talk to yeh. Yeh know, converse? Have a waffle with yeh?"

"Huh?"

They exchanged glances, and Matt rolled his eyes.
"Jus' stop Curtis, you're gettin' her in a tizzy. Look, can we talk to yeh?"

Again, I nodded.

"Do yeh go downtown often?" He asked.

"Not so much anymore-"

"'Cause we were wonderin' if you'd wanna come to a show!" Curtis cut in excitedly.

"...A show?"

He hit his forehead and blinked at me in shock.
"Yeh serious? Yeh don' know what a show is?"

"No, I do, but I just thought it was illegal."

"Aye, it is love."

"Then how'd you manage to pull that off?"

They shared siamese grins.
I pulled back slightly as Curtis came closer towards the car, head past the window, and whispered next to my ear:
"It's a secret show."

They had truly grabbed my attention by this point. I wanted to know everything there was to know about this event. Everyday for the past three weeks had been an excrutiating hell because I couldn't listen to a single song.
All I had was the memory, and that was already becoming foggy.
If I agreed to what they were offering, then maybe the days wouldn't feel so long.
Maybe I had a chance at a normal life again.

I looked back and forth between the two, having a mental battle between the part of me that wanted to stay safe and keep a clean record, and the part of me that was begging to live in the moment.

"When is it?"