I still hate Sundays.
I traced a fingertip along the edge of the digital photo that peered back from my computer screen later that night. A shot taken when I was around ten of my beautiful mother and the only man I remember her dating, his arm around both of us as we stood outside of my Sunday school doors. I never remembered her dating, she kept her personal life to herself most of my growing up years. Except when it came to this one.Chuck.The one that got away. They’d gone to high school together and caught up when they could between his business trips. She cried crocodile tears over his leaving for months.
There was a time I thought good old Chuck was my dad and they were keeping the secret from me, but when I finally asked, mom laughed me off wistfully and said life would have been easier if he had been. Whenever he came to town he brought flowers for mom, a stuffed animal for me, and always took us out for Sunday dinner after church. Mom wasn’t normally the church-attending type, but with Chuck she was. And she never forced me to go to Sunday school when it was just the two of us, but when Chuck was in town, she always did.
I still hate Sundays.
I crossed my legs and leaned back into the leather sectional, fat snowflakes falling from the sky. Tav had been gone eight hours. Eight hours since he’d skied off into the sunrise. As soon as he was gone, I curled up at the picture window and lifted my head from my laptop every two and a half minutes expecting him to be right back.
The sun was setting now, and I’d been walking down memory lane for most of the day as I organized the old photos on my laptop. I’d considered strapping myself to a pair of skis and practicing around the driveway, but breaking every limb in my body didn’t seem like the logical next step forward. I’d turned then to organizing my work files, then catching up on the spreadsheet of my expenses, before finally turning to personal items.
I paused on another old photo taken the same day of me and Bradley after church. We swung side by side on the swing set with bright smiles on our faces. He was my bright spot then, on Sundays and at public school in our small town. He was a year older than me, and when he’d quit school at seventeen to join the military, it’d taken the air out of my lungs. The only worse blow was when mom announced she was moving across the country a few years later.
Bradley and I lost touch. Mom and I lost touch. And then came Tav.
Just then the alarm system beeped twice and sent me spiraling off the couch. I caught my laptop before it crashed to the floor as another series of beeps sounded throughout the house.
“What is going on?”
I went to the smart screen that controlled the house. I brought the normally black screen to life, surprised to find a red dot blinking in the corner.
“How do I fix you?” I said, searching the touch screen for a settings menu. I tapped at different corners, then asked to see the weather forecast just to see if it would work.
The screen blinkeda lowbatteryindicator on the screen.
“Low battery? Where am I supposed to find batteries?”
“Spare batteries are in the control panel. Spare batteries are in the control panel.”
I frowned, realizing the system knew more than I did about this place. “Thanks.I guess.”
“You are welcome.”The system chimed.
“Ugh, so friendly. Don’t you know we’re in the middle of a snowpocalypse? I could use a little more horror and doom in your voice to reflect the current state of my affairs.”
“Noted.”
A wry laugh split my lips as I went to the pantry where I remembered seeing a mounted control panel, hoping it was the one she was referring to. When I opened it, I found rows and rows of plugs, each labelled, along with another small touch-screen mounted in the corner. I tapped it once and it came to life with the SmartSystem logo I’d seen in the top corner of the main screen. A tiny dot blinked next to what looked like a small battery trap door. I opened it with my nail easily, and a tiny row of batteries lined the edge beside a separate row of electronic computer chips.
“This place is so creepy.” I popped one of the small flat batteries out and cupped it in my palm before heading back to the main control panel.
*
Plumes of smoke curled like a corkscrew into the clouds as I leaned deeper into the oversized pillows at my back, eyes tracking the midnight skyline. I sat with my knees perched up and back against the wall in the loft, the floor-ceiling windows unveiling the mountain range that surrounded me.
Tav was crazy to think he could ski out of our winter Hell.
He was probably dead.
Or worse, eaten alive by a wild animal or...local?
I imagined tracking down that mountain and into the valley to ask my nearest neighbor if they’d seen my fiancé.
Skiing was out of the question, but maybe I could find myself a sled. I grinned, imagining myself dodging evergreens all the way down the mountain on a toboggan.
I swirled the last drops of wine in my wine glass and then set the empty glass on the floor near my feet.
I stood from my place on the floor, taking long moments to stretch. I squinted into the silver moonlight, thinking this place wouldn’t be half bad with the internet and an unlimited supply of takeout food. My life had become so simplified at home, I could take everything I needed with me to be happy. But without the internet this smart house was Hell.
