The Maine Event

Chapter 3

"Good morning," Rory greeted Cathrine as she arrived at the kitchen that late morning, having already spent a couple of hours on her computer before dragging herself down for breakfast. 

Rory had taken the envelope with her and now placed the envelope to the counter in front of her, just out of the way. She had been reluctant to lose sight of the envelope in question, as if afraid it would disappear into thin air. Yet she was scared of opening it. It seemed too important to just open. She could sense without opening it that the contents was likely to be the heavy kind, most likely opening up her old wounds even further. 

Last night had been peaceful, safe. But she knew that state was fragile. She wondered why he had chosen this time and this way to tell her what he had to say, surely it wasn't just about the early morning departure? What was he so afraid of saying to her face?

"Good morning, I see you had some company last night," Catherine noted, making casual conversation.

Briefly she wondered how she could tell and whether she herself should even admit to it. Things were complicated after all.

"I did, he had an early flight to catch," Rory replied as she noticed the two sets of dirty footprints near the back door. "Sorry about the mess, it was dark and I didn't realize," she added apologetically.

"It's fine, I'm just glad you had some company. It's a great place to write but it can get a little lonely," she said. "Coffee?" she offered, already pouring out a cup for Rory.

"Yes, please," she replied, thankfully.

"What's that?" Catherine asked, curiously, gesturing towards the envelope, having handed her the coffee.

"Just something I'm supposed to read, but I guess I am still preparing myself for what it might entail," she noted. 

She really didn't mind her questions, she just wasn't sure how to reply to them. In a way it was nice that someone was curious enough to ask, to care in their own way. She'd really only texted a few times back and forth with Lorelai in the past few days, but with serious gaps in their communications, she really didn't feel like talking to her about what she was going through or feeling in general. It hadn't helped that she'd chosen to stay in Maine for Thanksgiving, her reasoning being not only the reluctance to talk to the people back in Stars Hollow but also the fact that she had no real income to speak of these days, and if she was going to Nantucket for Christmas, she was better off limiting her spending.

"When I was still working at Yale we did this study where we essentially found that fearing the unknown, more specifically fearing one might get hurt is actually worse than actually knowing that you will get hurt," she replied insightfully, with a smirk.

"You worked at Yale?" Rory asked surprisedly, adding, "small world - that's my alma mater."

"I bet you were in the English department, right? With all the writing I know you're doing it would certainly make sense," Catherine assumed, as she cracked a few eggs into the frying pan.

"I was, it's been a while since I've thought about that time truthfully," she replied, recalling that actually thinking about the process of studying, the process of research had grown distant to her. Strangely she felt a little regretful of that even. "So you worked in, what, psychology?" Rory asked curiously, taking a sip of coffee.

"Biochemistry actually. It was a study based on rats, but they're close enough. Rats and humans are more alike than we like to think," she added smilingly, tossing the eggs around in the pan.

"That's pretty interesting actually," Rory replied. "So how did you end up here?" Rory inquired further.

"I got pregnant, but I never regretted moving here or the pregnancy, just back then there weren't a lot of possibilities for a single woman to continue working in academia while being a single parent. So here I am. But I've made my peace with it. It was fun but I realize that there are other ways to live one's life than the one we may have envisioned," she explained.