What am I doing?

1. Introduction

The car door slammed shut, Lynn's suitcase thudded on the gravel and the yellow American taxi drove off, leaving her in the middle of nowhere. 

Well not nowhere, the gravel track went straight onto a main road and from there it was a five minute drive to the nearest town, but right now she was standing a few paces from her mother's house. A mother Lynn had never met.

Wind swept up her chest length, dark ginger hair and Lynn tried to tuck it behind her ear but the wind kept blowing it back into her eyes.

She struggled to drag her grey suitcase along the loose gravel and up the stone stairs at the front of the house. Actually 'house' was an understatement. What stood before her was a mansion, made of stone and at least three stories high and including a loft.

Lynn rang the door bell and stepped back. A lady much past her youth opened the door, she was wearing a black pinafore with a grey top underneath to match her grey hair. She invited her in.

A lady Lynn assumed was her mother was standing at the top of a set of marble stairs that probably made Buckingham palace jealous. She was wearing skinny jeans, golden high heels that made Lynn wince, and a thick white fur coat that made her mother look top heavy. 

Her mother had a heavy tan and long blonde hair which contrasted greatly to Lynn's pale freckled face, ginger hair, black hoodie, dark blue ripped jeans and black converse all-stars.

Lynn felt small and insignificant in this place. "Juniper" cooed her mother, reaching out her slender hand. The physical distance between the two made the gesture ridiculous, and who on earth was Juniper.

Her mother, Carrie, even from the top of the stairs, could tell that her daughter had no idea what she was talking about. Her ex had probably not used her chosen name, the name Carrie had wanted to use.

"What did James name you?" Carrie said.

"Lynn" she replied. She wasn't use to hearing her father's name, he was always just 'dad'. Lynn had assumed her father had given her a name he liked but also the one her mother liked too. But Lynn knew one thing, she did not like the name 'Juniper'.

"Mary take my daughter Lynn to her room, and have her ready for school tomorrow". 

"Yes madam". The old woman, Mary, gently took Lynn's hand and guided her away from the penetrating gaze of Carrie, up stairs and down corridors she led her to a door in a lonely corridor.

The room was a sterile white with a double bed with white sheets and a painted white wardrobe with a matching chest of draws. A huge window let natural light into the room but it only made it look more clinical.

Mary told Lynn to make herself comfortable and that dinner is at seven, she could have it in her room or downstairs with her mother if she wanted. Lynn thanked Mary.

Mary was a sweet, kind, maid of the house and Lynn liked her immediately.

And now she was alone again.

Sitting on the firm bed, Lynn untucked her necklace. It was her father's silver ring on a black rope that hung in the dip between her breasts and could be concealed by her grey t-shirt. Lynn turned it over in her fingers.

She just wanted to go back home, to England, to her father. But none of that was possible. Lynn was only seventeen and her father was dead. She had to have someone to look after her, according to someone authority, even if it was a stranger.