Candle In The Wind

1 | The Oakes

JULIETTE
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The Blood Slowly trickled down my arm gently. Like it had all the time in the world, but I didn't. I barely had any time to get ready this morning even though I woke up on time, I've been running behind all morning like I woke up late. I had a scheduled visit with the Oakes family in just twenty minutes, the drive to their fancy house alone was twenty minutes, they lived in the secluded side of town, where no one else was living, just them and the amount of acres of land they owned. Usually I'd have time to take care of myself, and look presentable or even enough time to have a well balanced breakfast but this morning, I only had time to shower — showering was only getting harder and harder every month so it took me longer, and my bladder wasn't much of a help because I had to take a pee break many many time while I touched up my face with some makeup. So, by the time I finished up it was time to head out and the accidental cut on my bicep had no shame or decorums but to keep bleeding.

I cursed under my breath and started looking for a bandage — which I guess was like looking for a needle in the dark. My apartment was a mess, lately every time I made time to clean up and organize it only took one day for the place to go back to how it originally looked, so I gave up. I only cleaned the dishes and took out the trash regularly, as for dirty clothes, throw blankets, mails, newspapers, magazines, those were just everywhere.

Bad mistake on my end, my apartment was already shitty, construction wise. When I moved down here it was all I could afford, it still is. A semi studio apartment, the kitchen and living room was one and one, the only room with the clothes door had the bathroom inside as well, it was a rare find really. I imagine I could be living somewhere worse. Besides, it was my fault the accident happened, I should've kept up with the cleaning otherwise I would've paid attention to small details, or I would have listened to Val.

When Val told me my apartment was a hazard, especially now that I've reached my 3rd trimester I didn't want to believe him, but now it's all the loose nails, the loose floorboards and the loose furniture. I couldn't go a step in this place without hearing a haunting creek, crack sound. I was starting to worry that I'd placed the baby's life in danger — I was fine living the way I was when it was just me. I was always okay doing the bare minimum for myself, it was all I could afford anyways. But now that the baby's due date was approaching I was more aware of how recklessly I used to live.

The baby was more important than me.

Still, I made notes to fix a few of the issues once I got my fat paycheck today.

So when I accidentally skinned my bicep by the loose nail that was planted on the railing of the door, I didn't complain much, I just wiped the blood and put a bandage on it and showed myself out of my shitty apartment and into my shitty car. I was late for the meeting with the Oakes, and I was definitely late for my job interview.

Here in Beaufort, North Carolina, everyone seemed to have something nice; and that's probably because they were born into it, or it was handed down to them on a silver platter. Everything had already belonged to someone. A fetus had a job sooner than I did because his father was saving the manager position for him and in order for him to get it, he had to start off as a cashier, that position was also his at the bakery, and his cousin Bailey was the placeholder. So every business in this small town was run and worked by an entire family alone.

Val and I refer to it as family cults, even though he's got his own job here already. The family cults leave no room for outsiders, you're lucky enough to make a living in this town.

The bakery that was tight on their staff had a change of mind and was willing to hire just anyone, as long as they had a car and a driver's license because the shop wanted to take things to the next level and start up a delivery system, ways to make more money. I was supposed to be interviewed today, I managed to secure a 3p.m. appointment — being pregnant does have its perks.