The Timeline

3.

February 17th, 2013:

Claire didn't know when, exactly, her love for acting had been born.

In fact, despite it being her dream job, if you ever asked her when she had decided that she wanted to try and become an actress, Claire wouldn't know how to answer, and would keep quiet, trying to come up with an answer.

In her memory lived two different version of childhood Claire: the one that hadn't known what she wanted to be when she would've grown up, and the one that knew with a burning certainty that she wanted - no, she needed - to be an actress.

There had been a time when Claire hadn't known what acting was, and her memories of that time were all fogged and confused, as all childhood memories tend to be to one once they grow up. And then there had been the time when Claire's biggest desire for her future was to be in theatre plays, movies and tv shows like the ones she saw on the screens of her home's TV and the local cinema.

Needless to say, her parents were not fond of the idea of their youngest child becoming an actress.

Her father had been vocally and stubbornly against Anna, when she had decided to purchase her own path, instead of following into one of the two carefully tested models that Jane and Philip had molded over themselves, and hoped for all their children to take.

Claire knew that, the moment she would've openly said that her dream of becoming an actress hadn't died down with her growing up and maturing, her father would've been a thousand more times vocally against it. Philip would've found infinite ways to show his displeasure in Claire's choices, both small ways and big ways.

It didn't come as a surprise, consequently, that Claire still hadn't told both of her parents about her intentions about her future: what university she would've been attending in London, for starters; where she would've worked at, in the meantime (a topic Philip tried to approach many times, for he had connections and ways to insert Claire in an ambience he was very familiar with); where she would've done her internship, during her last year of university (Philip loved to plan in advance) and so on and on and on and on...

Claire knew that she had to tell her parents about her plans, because the more time she let pass her by, the harder it would've been to come clean with them.

"I'm not saying that you have to tell mom and dad everything staight away." - her sister, Anna, was telling her,

It was late Sunday, the last day Claire would've spent at Anna and Richard's house, for the couple of weeks were up and - a quite unique event! - Jane had phoned Anna the previous day and requested that Claire go back home because she hadn't been there in forever. Why her mother hadn't phoned Claire herself was a mystery, since she was the directly concerned person.

Claire and Anna were lying on the couch in the living room, Claire's feet resting on Anna's lap, tea mugs in both their hands, steam raising in the air and space they shared, hands warmed from the warmer porcelain of the mugs, fuzzy socks and pants tucked inside said socks. Richard was out on an errand for the coffe shop - which was closed on Sundays, for that was the day Richard chose to spend with his family - and they were both waiting for him to come back, so that they could've drove Claire back to her house in Maidstone.

As always, when it was time for Claire to leave, both her and Anna would sit on the couch and gloom for a little while, because none of them two wanted Claire to leave: Anna would've lost her little sister for an unknown amount of time (at least a couple of weeks) and Claire would've gone back to a house where she sometimes did not feel at home and had to be guarded and constantly seek the approval of her parents.