Take My Mask, I'm Home

under the sun, by the bath house

When Lisa woke up, for a moment, she was disoriented. This wasn't a gradual wake-up; she was as wide awake as if this was the middle of the day. Twisting around towards the windows, she saw that there was no light coming in from the sides of the blinds. Lisa groped under the sofa for her glasses and slid them on, before fishing under the pillow for her phone.

It was 4:52am. Lisa groaned, before quickly stifling the noise when she heard Jennie shift in the bed to her right.

Oh right. Yeah, she wasn't alone in this room.

The house was quiet. Nobody else would be up yet, although Clare would get up in about an hour. Clare always did like an early morning, not that Lisa understood it. Since New York was four hours ahead of them at the moment, she figured that she was slightly jet-lagged. She'd also slept so much yesterday, and they'd gone to bed relatively early, so all in all, Lisa wasn't surprised she was awake at the moment.

Jennie must really be exhausted if she was sleeping right through her jet lag. Lisa wondered what time Jennie usually arrived at K-Corp in the mornings. She was pretty sure from what Mina had told her over the years that their boss showed up at 8 am at the very latest; at Knetz, she usually arrived at about 8:30am. Lisa had the sneaking suspicion though that just because she only arrived then, didn't mean that Jennie hadn't already been working or busy before that point. In fact, she would bet money on Jennie having been up for several hours before she took one designer-clad step into the Knetz building.

Lisa listened carefully. Jennie was breathing deeply and evenly, which meant that she was fast asleep, and likely wouldn't wake up if Lisa got up now. As slowly and as quietly as she could, she pushed her covers off herself and snuck over to the closet to grab some running clothes and her old sneakers. Deciding against changing in the bedroom just in case, she scooped up her phone and crept out of the room.

Jennie didn't even stir.

Downstairs, Lisa changed into her workout clothes and used a new toothbrush she found under the sink in the guest bathroom. After tying her laces and strapping a comical head lamp around her head so she could see any possible debris in her way, she let herself out of the front door and into the dampness of the early morning. There was a path that she liked to run on around the house and part of the island, and after a quick stretch and warm up, she set off. She relished the fresh air she breathed as she ran along the familiar path. It had been laid some time ago, and every time she was home, Lisa took advantage of it.

A lot of the trees Lisa passed on her way were spruce, very old and tall with their fallen spiky branches littering the ground. As her headlamp swept around her, she caught flashes of color from the arctic lupine, fireweed, and blue columbine that grew naturally here. One year, Clare had battled with the seasons and planted loads of daffodils; although they sometimes struggled, a lot of them always grew, and Lisa loved the dashes of yellow amongst the blues and purples of the other plants.

There was just something about sitting there and being surrounded by a riot of color and the sound of the sea nearby. Lisa loved it. In New York, it wasn't possible to get the same sort of peace and serenity that she got from being here, and for the first time, Lisa wondered whether she'd be able to come home more often when she was no longer Jennie's personal assistant. When she was a journalist, she would have more freedom.

That is, if the fraud against the government went off without a hitch. Lisa's stomach clenched, and she pushed the thought away. She was in it now, for better or worse.

Lisa jogged on the spot when, after a while, she reached the boathouse. She'd check the weather when she got back inside, but if they were going to have a stretch of clear, dry days, she and Jennie would be able to brush the flakes off it, and then repaint it. It wasn't an overly large boathouse, just large enough to squeeze both Leo and Clare's boat. The whole thing could be done in less than a day, if they were quick about it, and then it would need several days to dry. Lisa nodded to herself; yup, it could be done.