Dragoona Island - Episode 1 - Cassie
1655 Words
The sun was still managing to shine on me, despite all my attempts to hide under my comforter, I was not ready to face the day yet. I was not sure I would ever be fully ready to face another day, not now, not ever. A full week had passed since losing the only person in the world I loved, now I was completely alone.
I snuggled under the comforter and tried to close my eyes. Sleeping was the only thing I could do to stop the dark thoughts, to keep myself from crying or feeling completely lost and adrift from reality. I was ignoring my phone, I knew my friend and work colleague Beth was worried about me, she had left me numerous voicemails and handwritten notes through my door telling me as much. The truth is, I had no intentions of returning to work right now. Not sure I could ever go back to the place that my mom had taken her last breath, the memories of her hand going limp in mine as she gave her last long breath made my chest hurt. Was this what having a broken heart felt like?
The reaction to my mom’s death may seem extreme to some, the fact I had completely given up on life and participating in it. What people could not understand though, is that I literally had no one else in the world now my mom was gone. Sure, I had work colleagues and Beth, who was the only friend I had, the only friend I had ever had. My mom and I had moved round the country on a yearly basis, we never got close to people, we never put down roots, I changed schools’ numerous times and often had to redo the same grades I had previously obtained. I had been a freshman four times, a sophomore three times and a junior twice, luckily, I only had one senior year to contend with. My mom just kept telling me it was important to start a fresh in each new school, so I would start high school all over again. When I think about it now, it did seem weird, but I never questioned it, I trusted my mom completely. She never gave me any reason not to.
Now, here I am, all alone in the world, no other family, or no idea if I had a long-lost family somewhere out there looking for me. Even if I had a family somewhere, did they even know I existed? Why had my mom never mentioned anyone? No grandparents, no aunts or uncles, not even a distant cousin. It was only now I was thinking all these things because I had been so focused on caring for my mom the last few years, I did not want to question her too much, especially as her health declined rapidly when she hit her seventies.
Even the mere mention of my father made her upset. All she would tell me was he died before I was born, that was it. No name, no photograph, no nothing… it was almost like she was hiding a big secret, but I never pushed for more information. She was always too frail and weak, especially latterly when she stopped her treatment..
For years, me being around her always seemed to give her a new lease of life. I would sit and hold her hand for a while and suddenly she would get up and start cooking and working in the garden. It was like my presence alone gave her more energy, a reason to get up out of bed.
A year ago, when I qualified as a nurse and got my first real job at St Michael’s General, I was working most days. Sometimes, I would not see mom for a week at a time. Her health seemed to decline quickly and the guilt I felt for not being there for her was tearing me apart inside. It was in that same hospital my mom lost her battle with life; it was where I said ‘I love you mom’ for the last time. That is why I cannot go back there, not now, not when there is nothing but painful memories to go back to. I loved my job; I was a damn good nurse. Many had praised me for the care I provided patients, even patients that were extremely poorly would make a full recovery under my care. Helping people and making them better seemed to be my calling in life. But now, I no longer even had that to focus on.
I sighed before throwing off my comforter, I may have wanted to stay in bed forever, but my bladder had other ideas. I guess I should get up and try to get through another full day. As hard as it was, I still had so much to do.
I had moved back into my Mom’s house temporarily after she passed away, I found it strangely comforting to be around all her belongings, the faint smell of violets remained, they were her favourite flowers. She was always surrounded by them. I never asked why she had such a fascination with them, I guessed she just loved their sweet scent. I now had the terrible task of clearing out all her clothing and belongings, her home was going back on the market and I had only two days before potential buyers would be stopping by.
I made some coffee, looked in the fridge to check if the food fairies had left me any eggs or bacon for breakfast, sadly they had not. All that was there was an out of date yoghurt and some brown grapes that had been green at some point. Yum!
I closed the fridge door and headed upstairs to get a shower. Maybe a nice hot shower would help motivate me to go to the grocery store and buy something edible. Or something that was not mouldy or brown, that would be a great start!
I turned on the shower. As I waited for the water to heat up, I looked at myself in the mirror as I removed my tank top and shorts. I looked tired and pale, not like my self at all. My waist length platinum hair was no longer full of lustre and shiny as it always was, it just hung round my face looking as gloomy as I felt. My large brown eyes that normally sparkled under bright lights, now looked like two sunken black holes.
I would never have described myself as pretty, although men seemed to pay me a lot of attention, some even called me beautiful. I did not see myself as beautiful though. I had never even had a boyfriend. I was 5ft 4” in height, I was extremely petite and struggled to find clothes to fit my tiny frame, my hair had never been cut, not even trimmed, yet it always hung like white satin down my back. I had silver streaks in it, which was odd considering I was only twenty-four years old. It was my eyes that people commented on most though. I had eyes that looked deep chocolate brown in dim lighting, but they were almost like amber stones filled with fire when the sunlight hit them or when I was under the tube lights at the hospital. Some would ask me if I had an eye condition, but mostly people were just in awe of them. I assumed I had my father’s eyes because my mom had blue eyes.
As I was about to step in the shower, I noticed the shampoo bottle was empty. I groaned and grabbed a towel to wrap round myself while I went to the storage cupboard to fetch some. I just hoped there was an extra bottle in there, or else I was going to have to go to the store with very unglamorous, limp, dull hair. Ugh!
I opened the cupboard and went to flick the switch to put the light on. There was a loud crack and I was left in darkness. Great! I made a mental note to get more lightbulbs at the store too, I looked up to the top shelf where the spare shampoo and toiletries were kept.
Despite the darkness my eyes seemed well adjusted; I could see as clearly as if a light were on. Guess I had excellent 20/20 vision, finally some good news. As I stretched up on my tip toes to reach to the back of the top shelf, I felt around for a few seconds in the hope I could find the shampoo without needing to stand on a chair to look.
My hand slid across something cold and smooth, my fingers tingled. I pulled my hand back in surprise..
What the hell is that?
I went to the kitchen table and pulled a chair over to the walk-in cupboard. I stepped on it and peeked over the edge of the shelf. There was a gold box, very ornate with an antique look to it. That was not the weirdest part though, it seemed to be glowing, or was it my imagination?
I reached out and pulled the box towards the edge of the shelf, my fingers tingling slightly at the contact. I hoped it was not locked as I had no idea where to begin looking for a key for something like this. I started to lift the lid. Yes… luckily it was not locked. I took a deep breath and looked inside.
I sucked in a breath… right on top of the other items inside the box was a photograph. I intuitively knew who was in the photograph, he had my eyes.
Could this be a sign?
Was it possible that my father was still alive?
- Writer
