Alive inside (Book Three)

New Normal Part One

Ch. 1

"New normal"

'2022'

[Settlement near Richmond, VA]

Nighttime had fallen across the land and yet no one slept this particular night, tonight a settlement celebrated another month of life, as they did.

*I am a man of constant sorrow, I've seen trouble all my days I bid farewell to old Kentucky, the place where I was borned and raised!*

A band playing bluegrass music with a woman singing, filled the interior of a barn with strings of light, trailing the ceiling with people dancing across the floor.

*For six long years I've been in trouble, No pleasure here on earth I find for in this world I'm bound to ramble, I have no friends to help me now!*

Very few of the people were not dancing, but one of them who wasn't, stood alone, watching the others have fun.

*It's fare thee well my own true lover, I never expect to see you again, for I'm bound to ride that northern railroad, perhaps I'll die upon this train!*

A teenaged Genevieve, stood against a support pillar next to the drink table, watching everyone have fun, with a ghost of a smile on her face.

She had grown taller and filled out an athletic frame, though she still was not finished growing.

Her face's roundness had lessened and become slimmer instead, yet her eyes still shimmered a blue that reflected off the lights.

The band roused up the instrumental as the last piece of lyric ended, the crowd dancing, picked up their rhythm to the sound of the music, the dark-haired teenager rapped her knuckles quietly on the wood, trying to remember the last time she had an honestly good time at one of these frivolous events, or if she had ever seen the movie Melissa called Oh Brother Where art Thou.

*You can bury me in some deep valley for many years, where I may lay then you may learn to love another while I am sleeping in my grave!*

A face familiar to the teenager could be seen dancing with one of the settlement's chief supply sorters.

*Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger, my face you'll never will see no more, but there is one promise that is given, I'll meet you on God's golden shore!*

The familiar girl stepped out of the dancing crowd having left her dance partner mid-dance, she stepped towards the lone teenager.

*God's golden shore!*

"May I have this dance, Miss Kensley?" the girl asked, with a giggle and curtsy.

*The good lord God's golden shore!*

Genevieve's eyes raised to behold the one and only person she had befriended since getting to this settlement, she let out a single, soft chuckle, letting a small smile grace her features as she shook her head defiantly. "No, Aiyana," the teenager said as if this wasn't the first time they had this conversation.

Aiyana was tall and but thin, her brown hair fell across her forehead like a curtain, while her flowing locks were fastened in a ponytail.

The white Christmas lights strung up from each corner of the barn they were inhabiting, made Aiyana's brown skin glow as she bowed.