Your support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)It was twenty after midnight when Mary Stevens finally left Charlie's, the small uptown diner she worked at part time waiting tables. It was a chilly night as the wind blew in from the bay whipping her long blond hair all around her. "Damnit..." she said with annoyed frustration as she removed the black squinchie from her wrist and pulled the thick tresses back into a low hung pony tail. She'd meant to get it cut a bit shorter as it was a bitch to care for but since she worked at night and attended classes at the local community college during the day, she just hadn't found the time.
I'll have plenty of time now she thought morosely to herself as she ran her fingers over the folded letter in her pocket. A new semester started in a week and although she'd busted her ass off at work, pulling double shifts four, sometimes five days a week in order to get enough money for tuition, she'd still come up short. The letter had come from the admissions office informing her that the deadline for registration had now passed. Yeah, like I needed the reminder she scoffed.
"God! My life sucks!" she said out loud as she walked down a quiet, empty street just a couple blocks away from her small apartment. She raised her violet blue eyes skyward as if the answer to her problems could be found there as tears of frustration and anger spilled down her cheeks.
At 21 years old, she had been late starting college and had only completed a single semester so far. After 2 years of caring for her sick grandmother, the woman who had raised her since she was 10, the classes had been instrumental in helping her deal with the grief of her death. She had been thinking of majoring in some form of social work, a career path that would have enabled her to help those in need.
The closer Mary got to her apartment, the more she dreaded it. The thought of being there- alone with her thoughts- seemed too intolerable to bear right now. So, despite the time of night, she veered off her path and headed South towards the docks, not thinking about anything but the hopeless state of her life.
I'll have plenty of time now she thought morosely to herself as she ran her fingers over the folded letter in her pocket. A new semester started in a week and although she'd busted her ass off at work, pulling double shifts four, sometimes five days a week in order to get enough money for tuition, she'd still come up short. The letter had come from the admissions office informing her that the deadline for registration had now passed. Yeah, like I needed the reminder she scoffed.
"God! My life sucks!" she said out loud as she walked down a quiet, empty street just a couple blocks away from her small apartment. She raised her violet blue eyes skyward as if the answer to her problems could be found there as tears of frustration and anger spilled down her cheeks.
At 21 years old, she had been late starting college and had only completed a single semester so far. After 2 years of caring for her sick grandmother, the woman who had raised her since she was 10, the classes had been instrumental in helping her deal with the grief of her death. She had been thinking of majoring in some form of social work, a career path that would have enabled her to help those in need.
The closer Mary got to her apartment, the more she dreaded it. The thought of being there- alone with her thoughts- seemed too intolerable to bear right now. So, despite the time of night, she veered off her path and headed South towards the docks, not thinking about anything but the hopeless state of her life.
