Waiting For You

Rārangi upoko 5 'Bad News' (EDITED)

Three days passed since the arrival of the last letter. Anne was not expecting another letter for a while. 5 days came and went and before she knew it, two weeks had passed. After getting back from work one evening, a yellow envelope lay waiting for her on the floor of the hallway inside the front door.

At first, she didn't pick it up and continued into the kitchen to feed Lady, She then gave the dog a walk up the block. On arriving back, she finally picked up the letter and studied the handwriting in which the address was written, hoping that it might give some hint at what news lay ahead. She spent the rest of the evening laying on the couch in front of the muted TV. The letter rested next to the pile of letters on the coffee table before her, tempting her to open it. But she remained strong and did not cave into the desire.

She pulled her phone out and sent a text to Toby the director, letting him know that another letter had come. It had only been two weeks between it and the last one, and three weeks from the first one. Anne allowed her thoughts to run rampant about what could be in the letter. Did Joshua find Juan and Nicole? Were they both ok? Or both dead somewhere?

"Meow," Gandelf announced from the hallway. "Meeeeow."

The sound pulled Anne back from the edge of potentials to reality and wondered what on earth was wrong with her cat.
Gandelf had brought in a bird from the outside, and it slowly died on the floor before its mighty hunter.

"Really Gandelf?" Anne said looking down at the cat who looked right back at her.
"Meow." It said questionably, probably wondering why his owner wasn't so keen on having the tribute that it had brought in before her. The small bird, which must have been a Waxeye, gave a last flap of life before letting go of life and died.

"Poor bird," Anne said sadly at the sight. "Gandelf you don't need to catch food and bring it inside. You get given enough food by me!" She picked up the bird by one of its wings feather, Gandelf swiped at it as it rose.

Anne opened the front door and tossed the dead bird outside and the cat chased after it, before closing the door and locking the cat flap to insure that he wouldn't being the bird back in. Lady watched from her position on the floor as Anne sat back down on the couch. "Exactly, Lady," Anne said to the dog. "I agree, Gandelf should not bring dying or dead food indoors, and he shouldn't need too anyway with the amount I feed him." The dog laid her head back down on the carpet and gave a slight groan as if unhappy about being disturbed from her nap. Anne wasn't sure why the cat felt that it should try and catch prey and then bring it inside. She thought of the dying bird and felt sorry for it and how it had left the world the way it did.

The yellow letter seemed to scream accusations in her direction from its place on the coffee table. Maybe she wasn't feeding the cat enough for it not to look at birds with a sense of desire to kill them? Maybe it was an omen to suggest what had been and was written in the letter? She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up on end as if there was a cold draft breathing down her neck. She feared what the letter contained. What horrors will it announce to her tomorrow when reading it?

The yellow envelope looked harmless enough where it lay on top of her coffee table next to the bundle of letters that TVNZ had left her with. She had no desire to open them, knowing quite well that who wrote most likely pitied her and wanted to wish her well and even some complementing how brave and selfless she was for sharing with and encouraging the people of Aotearoa. Anne didn't want anyone's pity and praise, and she began to regret the decision of sharing the connection between her and her husband on live TV, as well as the friendship between Joshua and Juan, they were hers, and no one else's. She wasn't some circus animal for entertaining the general population of the country, she was a human being that had feelings. Someone that had loved ones that she could lose. She was someone that had hopes and dreams.