Silver Lining

Chapter Three

Elizabeth stumbled on the stairs to the front doorway. She groaned in frustration. 'Can this day get any worse?' She thought. First, the breakup, then the waking-up-on-a-saturday-when-she-thought-it-was-a-school-day mishap, her awful appearance then this?!

She took a deep breath and looked up in the blue skies as the sun shined brightly. She felt her pale face turned bright with aglow as the warm rays touched her skin.

"Okay, Liz. I don't know about you but it's time for a reality check. Derek is never coming back. Suck it up and move on, girl. Now do what your mother says; go out and have some fun. Show a brand-new Elizabeth!"

As she read in books, Carpe Diem.

She skipped like a cheery, four-year old girl who just got an ice cream cone as she made her way to Walmart.

As she walked along the way, she noticed this huge moving truck parked on the driveway of a two-storey house two doors away from their home. The new neighbors, perhaps. Elizabeth remembered the last persons who lived there. The Munroe's which were an old couple living together who has a daughter but now lives in Mexico with her new family. Rumor was they decided to sell the house and moved in to the California Retirement Community Center.

While walking back and forth, she wondered who her new neighbors was.

Later that night...

Elizabeth woke up to sound of squeaky, barking sounds. She raised her sleeping body and tried to open her eyes by twitching them. She successfully did it by yawning and gave out a little stretch. When she was wide-awake to find out where the noise came from, she found her culprit.

Paris was jumping up and down from the floor, constantly barking at her sleepy owner. Yup, the dog has to go out and do her business. Elizabeth looked on her bedside table to check her clock. Flashy green numbers shows it was 2 am. Just as she expected, it was already like clockwork.

Her dog made a run out of Elizabeth's room as she slipped on her fuzzy pink slippers and went for the door.

"Paris-no!"

Elizabeth hissed at her dog who was wriggling through the gap in the backyard fence. With a sigh of resignation, she padded out into the yard, with her pink slippers took off, leaving in her bare feet, her pink cotton pajama bottoms fluttering around her calves in the late night summer breeze. The glow of the full moon lit the yard well enough for Elizabeth to see where she was going without a flashlight.

She reached the gap in the fence and turned sideways to squeeze through. Despite her slim size, she had to push to make it.

Rip!

Elizabeth looked down. Her favorite pajama bottoms, the ones speckled with cute images of fluffy cherry-topped cupcakes, now had a gigantic rip in the side. Perfect.

She felt an uncustomary flare of irritation at her dog. Was it too much to ask for the dog to simply run out into the yard, do her business and run back inside?

Elizabeth had images of running through the neighborhood in the dark, her ripped pajamas flapping behind her and frantically chasing her dog while neighbors peered through their windows at the crazy lady.

She cleared the fence and emerged in the neighbor's backyard just in time to see Paris squatting in an impeccably groomed flower garden.

"No!" She hissed again, but the dog was determined. Rushing over, Elizabeth grabbed Paris by the collar and gave silent thanks she had remembered to bring a poop bag.

Whipping it from her pocket, she knelt down to scoop Paris' little gift into the bag, the sharp corners of the bark mulch poking into her bare feet.

A slight movement to her right sent a jolt of panic through her heart. Still squatting down, she turned her head and her eyes fell on a pair of floral Nikes- men's Nikes.