Everyone had opinions and theories about her dad and his past, but Ashley chose to ignore what the other people thought of her father because he’d taught her that other people were rarelyright in their assumptions. When some of the old biddies in town said that Ashley wouldn’t amount to anything, Ned had told her that they were wrong, that they’d always be wrong, and she was one of the most special girls in the world.
Ashley was pretty sure that they were right in her case, but that didn’t matter. Her father didn’t believe it. The rest of the world could sit there and judge her for being one of those little girls with too much energy or who always seemed too awkward, which were both still true. It didn’t matter, though, her father still looked at her and smiled with pride. It was a smile that made her feel safe. She repaid that pride and love with the care she gave him now, care that she would provide until the day one of them died.
Even if it meant giving up her university plans and never leaving Tennessee. She would do anything for Ned. She’d proven it time and time again.
Ashley forced her face into the perfect, fake smile and acted like everything was fine as she grabbed the door to her trailer and wrenched it open. As usual, her dad was sitting in front of the TV, his usual place since he came home from the hospital.
“Storm’s coming,” were the first words that Ned said to greet his daughter, grunting at the TV with a certain dismissive grimace, as if to say he couldn’t understand why a storm was rolling in either.
“Could be tornado weather,” Ashley reminded her father, but he only shrugged.
“Don’t feel like tornado weather in my bones,” he replied.
Ashley shook her head and closed the door before she kicked her shoes off. “Do your dusty old bones tell you a storm is coming at all?”
Her father’s lips twisted up at the corners and he snorted softly. “Don’t know about that, but I do feel a little jumpy.”
A bit of weather was enough for the people of Walland to talk about for weeks, but the town rarely got anything beyond a severe thunderstorm. Floods and tornadoes hit other areas, but Walland? Never. It was like the town was under a magical spell of protection, but Ashley reminded herself that microclimates were a thing. Magic wasn’t, though.
“You enjoy your dinner, Daddy?” Ashley asked her father as she crossed the expanse of the living room, making a beeline for the bathroom. She always took a shower after work. She hated smelling like French fries and whatever that day’s special had been.
Dad grunted out an affirmation, his eyes never leaving the TV. He seemed almost mystified by whatever was on the screen. Before Ashley disappeared into the bathroom, he called out to her and she stopped to listen.
“They say it’s going to rain for a few days. You be careful going to work in the morning, sweetheart,” Ned said.
They both knew he’d still be asleep when she set off for work, so he said it now Ashley only shook her head and laughed. “Dad, you know I can’t stop lightning from coming down and whacking me, but I promise I won’t walk around with a lightning rod in my hand.”
“Good plan, baby,” Dad mumbled, his attention back on the TV.
By the time she came out of the bathroom, he was sleeping, just as he almost always was. Ned slept most of the time since his stroke, and the aftereffects of the stroke were beginning to catch up with him. She’d heard her father murmuring, more than once, that things would get better if he could only go home. What made it worse was he’d sometimes argue with himself. Ashley still wondered where exactly his home was. Because Walland had never felt like home to him and it didn’t feel like home to her.
She’d often wondered why that was, but any time she’d asked Ned about their past, he would get cagey and give her vague answers that never satisfied her. It was no wonder she looked forward to sleeping more than she did actually being awake.
At least in her dreams she lived in another world, a world where life wasn’t so hard.
Dressed in a long but worn yellow towel, Ashley walked across the hallway to her tiny room. Paneled in wood veneer that outdated her by 50 years, the room had a smell that wasn’t unpleasant but did seem to hold memories of past lives she probably didn’t want to know about anyway.
A smile grew across her face as she fell on her large, overstuffed mattress with a sigh. It was the one and only indulgence she had allowed herself in life, mainly because sleeping was her only hobby.
Nobody would believe Ashley if she ever told them, but every night she had the same impossible dream.
Chapter
Two
Well, it wasn’t the exact same dream. The images, places, people always changed. Every time, though, there was a sensation of belonging to something far away, something different. It was a complicated feeling, as feelings usually are in dreams. She felt hopeful for a better tomorrow, but would end up sad when she realized, just before waking up, that it was just a fantasy. The dream wasn’t real, it was just kid stuff.
Ashley’s eyes tore open before she reached the end of her dream the next morning, the harsh sound of her final alarm blaring through the tiny speakers of her phone.
She didn’t know how she’d managed to sleep through all the alarms before that one. Usually, the first alarm was enough to do the trick. She kicked at her covers and jumped out of her bed, cursing quietly to herself.
It’d been a year since she’d last overslept, but luckily, she wasn’t going to be late. If she hurried. She didn’t want to be late, not when Cheryl had already started to cut her hours at thediner. Cheryl wouldn’t feel a need to apologize anymore if Ashley started to show up late.
Business wasn’t quite the same as it used to be, not since the economy took a nosedive. The owner of the diner was looking to sell it, and the small town was dying out. When kids went off to college now, they rarely came back, and others had left, looking for a better life for their families. The diner might have five more years of life before it would have to close altogether.
The morning shift was the most lucrative, and she needed the shift, even if she’d worked the night shift only hours earlier. They had bills to pay and debt collectors to ward off. Ashley knew that just as well as she knew that her father would never work a day in his life again after his stroke.
She needed this job and she knew it. There weren’t many other options for her in this town. Her heart raced in her chest as she bolted to the closet and threw on the first shirt that she could find before tugging on a pair of jeans she found in a pile at the foot of her bed.
