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This is my first story and first chapter! To let all of you know now, these chapter's are LONG-ish. Anyway, enjoy and review please! I value second opinions!
Prelude…
Morning sunshine flooded through a girl’s bedroom window and traced shadows on the floor. As the light danced on the girl’s face, she turned away from her window and buried her face into the pillow. The sounds of someone moving about drifted up the stairwell and crept into the girl’s room. There was a cry of surprise from downstairs and then a burst of shouting.
“Jessica Autumn Twill! You’re going to be late for work AGAIN!”
Jessica nearly leapt out of her bed as she said, “I’m up already!” She landed on the floor with a loud thud and glanced over at her alarm clock. Jessica blinked at the alarm clock on her bedside table as her small adrenaline rush subsided and muttered, “Aww crap…” She picked herself up off of the floor and undressed. She tossed her Garfield pajamas into the corner of her room and pulled on her work uniform from Rokuda’s Market.
After donning her black pants, white t-shirt and a red apron (tied on backwards of course), Jessica plodded down stairs to the kitchen while trying to stifle a yawn. She pulled the orange juice and the milk out of the fridge and then grabbed the box of Captain Crunch. After accidentally pouring the orange juice on her first bowl of cereal, she tried again and got it right.
Meanwhile, Amy Twill was berating her as Jessica sat down to have breakfast. “I can’t believe Mr. Rokuda hasn’t fired you yet! You’re always late!”
“Great vote of confidence mom…” Jessica muttered through a mouthful of cereal. She poked at the soggy masses of Captain Crunch with tip of her spoon and yawned again. She was barely done with half of her cereal when Amy nearly jumped out of her socks.
“You’re late! Get going! Go, go, go, go!” Amy pulled her daughter out of her chair, retied Jessica’s apron and then hustled her over to the door. Jessica barely had enough time to grab her socks and shoes before she was hustled right out the door. “Goodbye! Have a nice day!” Amy called to her daughter as she shut the door. After a few moments, she went back to the kitchen table and began to clear the table.
After she had deposited the dishes in the sink, Amy looked over at the family portrait hung near the living room entrance. She gazed at the picture of the three of them together and had to wipe away a tear from her eye. “Oh Richard… What am I supposed to do with that girl?”
“You’re late again.”
After a slight pause, Jessica managed to respond. “I know,” she sighed. “Sorry.” She turned on her register and keyed in her employee number.
“No excuse this time? Or have you used up all of the ones you know?” He leaned against the conveyor belt and stroked his moustache. He was a stocky man and looked like most of his job consisted of sitting on his backside and signing papers, which was what he did.
“Oh don’t worry, ask me in another ten minutes…” Jessica turned on the light above her register, but Mr. Rokuda reached up and turned it off.
“Actually, Miss Twill, I have a different job for you to do today,” he said as if he was expecting her to jump up and down in joy.
Jessica looked up at him groggily. “Different?”
He nodded with a little disappointment at her lack of enthusiasm. “We got a call a couple days ago, asking for a delivery to a small house in the park. I have the directions, but it’s a bit of a hike.”
“Okay… I guess…” Jessica shrugged and removed her apron as Mr. Rokuda set the medium sized package onto the conveyor belt. The box jingled a little bit as he set it down and tapped on the lid. He placed the written directions on top of the box and patted Jessica on the shoulder.
“You could use this time to wake up and figure out how to get to work on time.” He let go of her shoulder and leant on the conveyor belt once more.
There was a pause as Jessica wiped the crud out of her eyes and then she thought for a moment. After a while she said, “I’ve got a good one. My dog ate my apron so I had to get a new one.”
Mr. Rokuda looked puzzled at first and then smiled a little. He shook his head and replied, “You must tell me where you can get a new one personalized so quickly. I could use it for the new employees.” He muttered something about not knowing she even had a dog and he stroked his moustache again. “Well, get a move on or you won’t be back until closing time.”
Jessica wrapped the package in her apron, tied the strings around her neck and grabbed the instructions. As she pulled the strings away from her neck so that she could breathe, she noticed the odd expression on Mr. Rokuda’s face.
“Saw it in an old Japanese movie once; it makes carrying things easier I guess.”
He nodded in understanding and watched her head for the door. He logged her out of the system on the register and began to go back to his office. There were some papers there that needed to be signed.
“So I’m here,” she muttered as she found her place in the instructions. Jessica glanced at the weed cluttered twin tire tracks leading into the woods and then rechecked the instructions. “I guess that counts as a country lane, albeit overgrown, but who’s perfect?” she asked no one in particular. Instead of retying the package to her back, Jessica set it into the crook of her arm and began the last leg of her journey. She sighed as she looked up at the gray cloudy sky and a light breeze ruffled her messy hair. “It’s the same thing, day in and day out… Why can’t it be like television?”
The country lane was long and way overdue for a trimming, but she reached the small house just as the sun reached the top of the sky. Jessica knocked on the door, but even though she barely touched it, the door fell inwards. She jumped back as the door hit the ground in a puff of dust.
She looked around nervously and then called out, “Hello? Is anyone home?” She took a cautious step into the house. “I’m sorry about the door…” Jessica glanced around and noticed, as her eyes adjusted to the light, it was apparent that no one had lived there in quite a long time.
Jessica put the package on the table carefully and began looking around. She noticed that many of the small but hefty shelves looked like they were holding onto the wall by a thread and most were covered with old packaged foods similar to cans. There were two chairs, one of which had collapsed on the floor, and a huge sturdy table. She spotted an old picture frame on the table with a picture still in it, but the paper was covered in so much dust that the faces couldn’t be made out. It was a simple frame and today it might even be considered archaic. She picked up the frame and peered at the faces but she couldn’t see much though the dust.
Jessica blew some of the dust away, but as she did so, one of the loose shelves finally gave way. A cascading pile of cans fell to the ground and a corner of the shelf hit her on the back of the head, effectively knocking her to the ground. She fell face first into the dust and felt the shelf fall onto her back.
The framed picture fell out of her hand and crashed to the floor. Most of the dust was knocked off, but her vision was growing blurry. She closed her eyes to try and clear them, but the world decided to go away for a while…
