You're My Lobster (JenLisa)

Chapter 1

'Country roads, take me home to the place I belong.

West Virginia, mountain momma, take me home, country roads.'

Jennie wanted to laugh at herself. She was all-out being dramatic, singing along loudly with the radio, belting out John Denver’s song while driving back to her hometown. As if she has been away from their small town for two decades, instead of merely six months. Nothing much has changed, just a couple of new stores at the town centre at the end of their street; a fried chicken house and a coffee shop. Six months ago, she was there and attended her best friend Chaeng’s art gallery opening.

She sighed. But there wasn’t anything funny about her homecoming now. She’s coming back because she has no other choice. It’s set for her by series of misfortunes. And it seemed she would be home to stay this time.

From an outsider’s point of view, she’s a picture of success, a woman who left their small town to do something with her life and succeeded. It’s true, except for the last part. She didn’t succeed. Except for her second-hand black Toyota Altis, she really had nothing to show for it. Her future looked as bleak as she started.

~~~

Jennie was watching the TV intently, it’s a documentary about an evil guy who murdered his own family to be with his new girlfriend.

“When one door closes, another window opens,” her aunt Ermi voiced out, sitting across her on one of the cream-colored cushioned chairs in the living room.

“What if it’s a high-rise apartment, isn’t that considered suicide?” was Jennie’s sarcastic response to her aunt’s imparted word of wisdom.

She flicked the TV channel. John Wick was saying ‘Be seeing you’. In Russian.

“What I’m saying here, is maybe this is a blessing in disguise. You are not the only person who got scammed for money, honey. There’s a reason why things happen, you should take this opportunity to find out what you should be really doing in life. Don’t just stop living and wallow.”

Why was Ruby Rose still hotter for her, even when she’s in the same frame as Keanu Reeves, the only guy who Jennie supposed she will be willing to try and be straight for. She flicked the remote again.

“Are you listening to what I was saying, Jennie?”

Lisa was telling her father Homer that she’s dropping the Simpson name and instead will take her mother’s maiden name and will be going by ‘Lisa Bouvier.’ Wait, Lisa? That did it. Jennie turned the TV off and got up from lying down the sofa. It’s two in the afternoon. Usually by this hour she’s checking her “investments” online, getting excited at the prospect of buying another hundred shares while updating some corporate accounts as part of her day job at the bank she used to work for, but no. There are no deposit slips to check anymore, no client bankbooks to balance out, no “stock shares” to get excited about.

Instead, her day started by watching television and ended by watching more television. She didn’t even bother connecting her phone to the Wi-Fi. She’s gone offline. She just lounged in front of the television for the last two days. She felt worse than a quadriplegic. Jennie’s pretty sure her muscles gone atrophic maybe even her braincells, because she was now jobless, she felt useless.

“Where are you going? Come back here. Sit.” Aunt Ermi stopped her.  Her aunt’s one of the kindest people she knows. The woman raised her when Jennie’s parents died when she’s only fourteen years old. Some freak accident, the boat they were riding while on an island vacation toppled over. It was their wedding anniversary. Jennie’s dad was an orphan, with no siblings. She has no living grandparents. Her aunt Ermi, her mother’s only sister, took her in. They grieved together and by default loved each other fiercely. They only have each other; the only family member they both had left.