1st 5 Pages March Workshop- Thakare Rev 1

Name: Sanyukta Thakare

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Gilmore Girls meets Switched at Birth.

Title: Time And Again

The spark of Ashley’s cigarette ignited the cheap whiskey she threw on the leather jacket he had been sporting all night as a genuine Cole Haan Vintage Lamb Moto. The lying cheat screamed at the sight of the bright burning flames caught in an instant, while the room filled with the smell of burning plastic. In an attempt to take it off, he trashed his surroundings, not burning anything yet. What next caught on fire made Ashley laugh, his proud brown luscious hair would never be the same. Looking at her laugh, this time unlike it happened, he launched at her screaming in pain.

Ashley screamed in anticipation and got thrown out of the dream. The bright sun coming down through her window hit her eyes hard as she tried to adjust to the light. She noticed the gray t-shirt she fell asleep in had turned a dim gray in patches. Rubbing her eyes in circles with her palms she pulled on her dark auburn hair. What jolted her out of the dream had been more than the attack, the life like boy and the screaming. It was the door calling for her attention. Moving her laptop and the history books that surrounded her, she got off the bed losing her balance, threw on a clean t-shirt with a single shade and answered the door.

Randol Myers, Windrip’s local postie stood on the porch with a wide smile across his face. It wasn’t part of his job, just the kinda guy who smiled at everyone. He passed her the brown envelope and his standard black scanner for Ashley’s signature.

“Says it’s from Pemerson Lawyers. Don’t forget to give it to your mother.” He smiled again, handing them over.

“Thanks, Sure.” Ashley shut the door and dropped the bundled package on the kitchen counter, examining its outsides. At first, she stood still and just stared at and didn’t open the sealed package, but soon snapped.

She paced around the crowded living room resting her eyes on the envelope looming on their beige kitchen counter. In hot bold black letters, it read Pemerson Lawyers. The room grew smaller as her patrolling corner increased. All the tossing and turning gave her a splitting headache but what matter stayed inches away from her, in the sealed package. Spiraling deeper in thoughts, she plunged into self-doubt. Could the notice be for her? Did she relapse? She hadn’t been part of any foul play at school as long as she remembered. Maybe a few clashes with her former clan but that’s nothing worth calling the lawyers over.

However, Ashley’s opinion held no mass in front of the Windrip High winzes who had their own sense of righteousness or the entire school that hated her to the core. The thought of being publicly called out yet again dried her throat and the urgency to know what the package held consumed her. Three more steps and it would be in her hand. First step in and the flickering yellow lights of her mother’s blue Ford Fusion beamed through the window, behind her.

Without thinking she jumped the remaining two steps, grabbed the letter and scratched the sealing sticker off. It pulled a little piece of the brown paper off making it impossible to cover up. Ashley didn’t care she would have to come clean eventually. For now, she needed to know whose ruin it dictated and didn’t have time to read the detailed bunch of pages that came falling down. The doorknob clicked, and Ashley turned wasting another second. She picked up the scattered papers without stuffing them in and ran to her room, next to the entrance hallway.

The end and the beginning of the papers always had names, always. She’d seen it in movies. She could hear her mother walking in, moving towards the living room. Rushing through the pages twice as fast, she found only one familiar name in two places, luckily not hers. Valerie Lockwood rested at the start and a signature hard to read at the end of the paper, she figured it’d be T. Lockwood that looked like an N.

“Ashley, did Randol stop by?” Ashley heard Valerie pass by her room.

In a fit of panic, Ashley blurted, “One sec Mom.” she stuffed the papers back in again and walked out. Fidgeting as though she committed a crime.

“You said something?” Ashley asked clearing her dry throat.

“Randol told me he dropped something off earlier. Did you get it?”

“Oh, Ya. It’s in there. I’ll get it.”  Ashley stumbled at each word, pointing her room.

Ashley pushed the package towards her mother. “Here.” The Roman font still daunting her, Ashley’s eyes widened thinking about the words she’d found inked on the papers.

Valerie dusted her hands and took charge of the papers, “Did you open it?” she looked at the torn sticker.

“I was curious, I am allowed to be.”

“Who is it from?” Valerie asked.

“I don’t know, all I saw that it had your name, and a signature that I think… ” Ashley watched her mother carefully remove the papers and calmly began at the first page unlike her. In less than three seconds her expression changed from calm to a full-blown chaos. She chewed on her lips turning them a thin straight line and touching her face again and again.

“That’s fine, I got it. Thanks.” She looked at Ashley suspicious and covered the papers instantly. 

“Who is it from?” Ashley dared to ask.

Still lost in thought, after several pauses Valerie said, “It’s from a friend, nothing important.” She continued fidgeting around the kitchen avoiding Ashely.

Suspicious Ashley stood in right before her so she couldn’t avoid her, “Is it from uncle Tony? Is it the shop again?” The topic had always been off-limits in the house. Ashley learned to live with the distasteful memories of Tony and Valerie arguing every now and then. Though they remained on good terms with his wife Becky, the arguments never ended.

“Actually, it was a café,” She pointed a finger at Ashley’s face, “the one and only in Windrip at the time. We owned it and you didn’t even get to see it. I can’t ever let it go. One last thing we had left of your great-grandfather and Tony had to go sell it off with your father.” Valerie’s rage turned into shame in a flash. She looked down sighing loudly, releasing her rage she promised, “It’s not from your uncle.”

They never talked about Ashley’s father. And if by chance such an incident took place, it would only mirror feelings of disgust and resentment. Early on Ashley hated not knowing him and rebelled for not telling her. When last Ashley asked of him, Valerie gave her all the answers she needed.

‘It’s no use talking about dead people, who never cared about you when alive.’

What seemed hard to understand at the time, became a part of her with each passing year. She never discussed him even when a rare situation like this arose, it got easy to ignore. She didn’t care what happened to him, he reeked of a jerk as a father and as a husband. The one who stayed next to her was Valerie, what on earth would make Ashley think about the man who never even appeared before her beautiful heavy green eyes, gened from her grandmother.