'74

*1974*

Anastasia kicked open the door of Five&Dime Diner as she trudged into work. "I can't stand her" she mumbled through gritted teeth as the door slammed behind her.

Audrey looked up from rolling silverware at the bar and sighed empathetically, "Your mother again?"

"She just - ooh. I could scream." Ana shrugged off the heavy winter coat she was wearing and tossed it behind the counter. "She's driving me up a wall. I really don't think I can live with her much longer." Ana reached over and grabbed a stack of napkins to help Audrey with the Silverware. "If I could go one day, just a single day without hearing the name Eric Faraway from my mother's mouth."

Audrey smiled. Ana was just letting off steam. "Ana, you shouldn't let her get to you. You and I both know she just wants you to be happy," Audrey reasoned as she walked back behind the counter and picked Ana's coat up off the floor, hanging it on the coat rack. "After-all, Eric might just be the only eligible bachelor within 200 miles."

"If by 'eligible' you mean unmarried and under the age of 50." Audrey rolled her eyes with a smile. "I love her to death, you know that. I'm just tired of hearing the same things day after day," Ana sighed. 

The sun had just peaked over Dry Lake Ridge, but the temperature still felt well below freezing. The weather was not unusual for November in Brokenfold, Wyoming. Nestled in a valley of the Owl Creek Mountains, Brokenfold was hardly a dot on the map. Visitors were few and far between, and those that did appear were usually lost. It was a town where everyone knew everyone. Few families owned a television, but everyone had a radio and the newspaper ran when Janet was on top of things at the post office. It was one of those towns where you either married your high school sweetheart or left town. Ana, however, hadn't done either.

Anastasia Taylor, or Ana as she was called, lived with her mother, Catherine, in a little yellow house in the North West corner of Brokenfold. Life hadn't turned out to be what she'd imagined. Throughout highschool, she had dreamed of the day she'd leave town. She'd buy a one-way bus ticket to New York City, and from there, her acting career would take off. She'd travel the world. Meet all kinds of people. The fashion, the glamor, the food. She couldn't wait. 

But as fate would have it, just as graduation rolled into sight, Ana's father was diagnosed with cancer. She watched hopelessly as her dreams crashed before her. She was an only child, and she knew her mother couldn't do it alone. She'd have to stay in Brokenfold to help support her parents and take care of her dad.

Since she couldn't leave, the only sensible option (or so her mom thought) was what any other girl who decides to stay in Brokenfold would do - marry your highschool boyfriend. In fact, that's exactly what 80% of Ana's highschool class did. Yet, Ana never liked the idea. Marrying young and filling a yard with kids before she turned 30 sounded worse than dying alone. That is, if your highschool boyfriend was Eric Faraway.

Eric and Ana had dated off and on throughout highschool.  He was a nice, but that was just about all that could be said about him. He was quiet, dry and hard to talk to. But a girl in a small town didn't have many options. Ana's plans were far too grand to be tied down to a do-nothing husband in her hometown for the rest of her life. So when Eric proposed the day after graduation, there was nothing Ana could do but say no. 

After graduation, Ana began waiting tables at the town's local diner, the Five&Dime. Days passed, then months, then years. When her father passed, Ana's dreams had long since faded. Reality set in. She was now 29. 

Eric had also never married. He kept his offer of marriage on the table, but since their days in highschool, his love for alcohol had grown. Ana now dreaded bumping into him in town. Her happy, care-free spirit had been crushed by her father's death and her mother's ever present nagging. She had long since accepted the fact that she'd probably never leave Brokenfold, but she was still pinching her pennies and saving her dimes for the day that reality may change.