Monday, June 15, 2009

The Running Girl

There are not many people in this world whose lives revolve entirely around something other than themselves. Only those who have found their soul-mates or such things really experience this kind of life. Lynn Fletcher's life revolved, like most peoples' lives, around herself. She did not like the word soul-mate because it sounded too final, like destiny, which was also a word she despised. She had decided a long time ago that she would decide what would happen in her life, and nobody had any say about it. 

Lynn did everything for herself. She jogged around the city, 4.23 miles, every other day. She did this because she liked looking at herself and reminding herself that she was, in fact, prettier than many if not all of her friends. She also liked to have men stare at her when she wore her expensive, fashionable, and rather skimpy clothes. She thoroughly enjoyed being able to say that she was in shape and healthy. 

Lynn worked at a job her father had secured for her. She made enough money to live in a nice apartment and buy nice things, and she never gave anyone but her direct family birthday presents. She much preferred receiving gifts over giving them, but she wanted to seem like a good person to her family at least. She always gave Christmas presents that seemed expensive but were actually cheap. But she always gave Christmas presents. 

Lynn had a system. She also had a husband, but her system took priority the majority of the time because it was a system that decided who she could trust and who she could not. If a person she met and who became a regular part of her life had not given her a present by the end of the first year she had met them, she did not trust them. (Her husband had given her a rather expensive gift which allowed her enough trust to eventually marry him.) 

One day when jogging, Lynn saw her husbands' car pass her on the road. She wondered what he could possibly be doing driving home in the middle of the day. This was the first sign for Lynn that her system might need to be redesigned. She ignored it, ran the rest of her jog and went home. She arrived to find several boxes of her husbands things packed, sitting innocently in the hallway. Her husband was at the table, signing papers. 

No hello. No I'm home. Just...

"I want a divorce." 

Lynn, dripping in a bit more sweat than she typically excreted on her run, turned to the bathroom for the shower. 

"Stop, Lynn. I'm sorry. I can't do it." 

She turned to her husband. She felt tears coming to her eyes but she did not speak. She walked to the table, signed the papers, and went to take a shower. 

There was a moment, for maybe thirty-seconds, where Lynn broke down. It happened when she sat down to eat her dinner. A marinated chicken breast coupled with milk and potatoes stared up at her from just one side of the table. Just one side. Just one fork and one knife and then it hit her. 

Her system was wrong. It didn't tell her anything about who she could trust and who she couldn't. That much was made obvious by her husbands' betrayal. She had to discover a new system, a new method. She thought about it all, long and hard. She finally decided to reevaluate every relationship she'd ever built. She had the time, now that she had no husband... 

And that's when it happened. Lynn broke. She cried and shook, her chest heaving and she cried out her fear. She dried her tears and went on another run. It felt good. 


P.S.- I've decided to post one of these every Monday, because I usually have that day off from work and it also gives me time to write. 

2 comments:

Jake said...

So far i've only read like, three things you've written, but I have to say I am not a fan of your female main characters. Don't mistake me, I love how they're characterized and developed. I just don't like them because they seem like such BITCHES. I guess that's the sign of good literature though; You seethe at a main character but you can't stop reading.

K.G.G.Pennington said...

hahah. I'll make a better female role next time.