Round a narrow bend, Joy let her feet move.
She had to take it slow. If she didn't, she would get there too soon. And reaching home too soon never did her any good.
The moon had chosen to float low in the sky, like it was watching over the town in earnest. Joy wanted to yell up at its bright face. She wanted to scream that it was doing a horrible job at making her feel better. But her heart felt too heavy to disturb the quiet. The quiet being the only mercy to the chaos growing inside her.
A few more steps and she reached the town hall; A hulking mass of dirt stones and grey walls.
It reminded Joy of a witch's palace—menacing yet inviting, shrouded in a gloomy unavoidable magic.
Sitting on the steps was a grey cat, its blue eyes half open, its tail lolling from side to side. When Joy sat next to it, it lifted its paw as if in greeting. "Hey Mal." Joy whispered. The lamposts on either side of the town hall flashed in and out as though they too were in the mood to greet.
The town hall had been built smack in the middle of town. Acting as a compass to guide the misguided and confused. If you knew where the town hall stood, you knew where everything was.
And how could you forget? One hop and you were at the town graveyard. A skip away the post office stood. A small jump and you were right back where you started. To the unknowing eye the town looked like a maze, but to the well informed traveler, it was nothing but a rounded oversided carpet; once you stepped off there was nothing but trees and darkness.
On her worst days, Joy sat on the steps of the town hall and pretended she was a captain at sea. That before her, insetad of tiny brick houses and crooked lamposts, there were miles and miles of seas and lands waiting to be uncovered.
But right then, she couldn't even see through her pretend binoculars, there was nothing but the old town, and her salty tears.
Mal stretched onto her hind legs, pulling her tail straight in the air. She wiggled onto Joy's lap. "Mal, what do you see?" Joy asked the grey cat. It waved its paw in reply and yawned.
As if a cat like Mal ever thought about the world beyond this oversized-carpet. As long as there was cat nip in her mouth and good wind in her fur, life was good.
"What do I do now, Mal?" Joy wiped her runny nose with her sleeve. Mal looked up at her with wide blue eyes.
"Meow."
"Yes, but I love him. All my love inside is all that I've given to him. The world is all wrong and I feel all wrong. Oh how I wish-"
DING DONG DING
Mal shot up from her lap and scurried down the steps. Joy pressed her palms to her ears.
The midnight bell rang proudly through the night. She felt it echoing through her stomach, and she stumbled after Mal.
Her heart slammed over and over against her chest as she zipped through alleys, right on Mal's tail. Joy had heard somehwhere in the papers, that when a person was in shock they began to act without thinking. Joy wondered if her case was the same. She knew she needed to run but she couldn't see why.
Her knees wobbled.
In a single moment she sat in the dirt. Her breaths rose and fell in a rage. When she looked up she saw a tall slope stretch before her, and at the tippy top was a yellowing house. Joy had reached home too soon.
YOU ARE READING
Where's Joy?
Fantasía"You have an open heart, and you feel things deeply. That's a gift." He stared at her with very serious eyes, like he meant all he said. In the dreary Old Town, Joy Seawell struggles with a heartbreak like no other. Perhaps with the help of a little...
