what happened in a small town

part seven

She woke up late after a long night that did not end easily. She fought her mind with all available means of escape and failed until the early hours of the morning. She was lost between her feelings and desires and she still did not know what she should do, as if her life had been completely erased and she had to find a suitable starting point to restart it.
She was awakened from her sleep by the continuous ringing of her phone. She put her arm above her head after rubbing it repeatedly until the phone started ringing again. She picked it up and answered without looking. “Hello, who?”
The other party coughed in embarrassment and then introduced himself. “I’m sorry to wake you up. I’m Peter.”
“yeah, how are you?”  She closed her eyes in annoyance, then closed them in astonishment, then opened them and sat up on the bed.
“Fine, you? I didn’t get a chance to meet you because I was busy at work, but we will meet for dinner this week.”  He was silent for a moment while she answered him with a silly laugh before he continued with embarrassment that drowned in his tone. “I’m just asking about Joan because her phone is off and she said she’d stop by.”
“I just woke up, maybe she came and my aunt told her I was asleep.”
He thanked her and asked her if she had come again to tell her to turn her phone back on. She murmured quick words and ended the call, then got out of bed.
It started very early with Joan, she used it as an excuse to run away, she never changed, all her bad experiences taught her nothing as if she had never gone through it!
She becomes depressed just thinking that everything here is as it is, life just passes by and repeats itself over and over again.
This is what she escaped from but to a greater hell. She was inexperienced, alone, and did not behave well with life, but that does not make life here any less bad. What is happening in this city is the hell that philosophy describes, a source of permanent torment for man.
She went down the stairs slowly, her loose pajamas touching the floor. She sat down trying to wake herself up. She heard the rustle of her aunt’s feet coming from outside the house. Then the sound of the door moving, so she raised her eyes.
“You’re finally awake.”
“I slept late.”
A quick answer with a smile that tried to look nice. The fifty-year-old woman approached her with a sincere smile. “I'm happy to have you back again. The house was gloomy and silent without you, do you realize that?”
She rested her head on her bent feet, smiling with sincere gratitude for this woman who gave her what she could after the death of her parents, despite their turbulent relationship. “I’m grateful to be here again and for you to let me be here.”
“You’re the only family I have.”  She patted the top of her head and around her face.

There is no other family for them, and Katherine gave her what she could, even though they were not close before the accident with her parents. Sometimes she feels that she loves her, and other times she feels that their relationship is normal, and it was okay in both ways. She sighed, turning her head away, wondering.  “Did Joan come today?”
She rubbed her messy hair from the effect of sleep shaking her head in disapproval.  “No, did she tell you she would come?”
She sighed with weariness and internal emotion at her friend who had not changed.  “No, but her husband Peter called me to ask me about her because she told him that she would come to me.”
“Again Marla.”
Her aunt turned away from her, her eyes widening in quiet excitement. She had been accustomed to this from Joan’s parents while they were in high school. She saw her brother’s daughter, who opened her arms helplessly. “I know but what can I do?”
“I know you have nothing to do with it, but you have to talk to her because I don’t need to go through the matter with her husband like I did with her parents.”
She walked towards the kitchen then Marla got up and followed her. Joan used to use her as an excuse to meet her bad boyfriend and spend the night with him, and every time the thing was revealed to her parents, her aunt was forced to engage in long conversations about it for her parents to believe that her niece was not aware of this and was not helping her lie and deceive. She just finds herself in the situation every time without knowing it. They were never convinced, except that every time she actually had no idea that Joan was using her as an excuse, she tried every time to talk to her but nothing changed. They were very young and did not have many wise words to dissuade her from what she was doing.
“Well, then I was telling her that he was going to ruin her life and that he didn’t deserve it because he was drowning in shit. Now I will add to them that she is cheating on her husband.”