BEHIND CLOSED DOORS...092715

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

September 27, 2015

After some hours working on her computer, she stood up and slightly tugged at the drapes on the window. She could see that dusk has set in.  Any moment now and the lights of the house on the opposite side of the street will turn on.

How long has it been since they were neighbours? He doesn’t even talk to her when they pass each other every morning on their way to the morning commute.  Merely a slight nod on the head, and only once to murmur an apology, when they accidentally bumped each other. He seems to be a very busy man, carrying around his laptop bag and seemingly lost in thought as they wait for the traffic light to turn pedestrian-green.

She has been in this neighbourhood for quite some time but apart from the landlady and the grocer down the street, she too doesn’t know anybody that much.  At least the postman would be familiar with her name, when he delivers her magazine subscriptions once a month. It’s like everybody is busy with their lives around her, while she does her work of editing other people’s online stories from home.

Technology is a convenience for her who has a troubled past. After being rejected by her over-achieving family for not being good enough to graduate from high school with flying colors, she worked her way through college by being a student assistant at the community library.  Although she’s not that dumb though, as she enjoys reading, but the lack of encouragement and support from those who should have given them drove her deeper to escape more into the adventures and alternate worlds that fiction and travel books bring.

She turned to look again at the house on the other side of the street.  She heard some laughter on the street and saw that he had company.  There was one man who looks like he may be around the same age as him. Is he an officemate?  There were two ladies too, who looked pretty and chic. Is the woman with light-brown hair his girlfriend, or is it the one with the dark hair? The man opened his door and they all went inside.  Their laughter and singing lasted for some hours until she drifted off to sleep.

-- by Ivy Daluperit Beronilla Lubiano --