Mia Darien - Good Things

He smiled. “I didn’t until you answered that way. I’ve been coming here for years and I only see women fight like you do when they either have something to prove, or someone they need to protect themselves from.”

“I see.” She wiped the sweat from her eyes. “Well, then I guess you have me figured out.”

“Look, I don’t mean to bother you. I just thought I would offer you some advice. It’s not much, but I can help you out if I’m here when you are. I can give you ten, maybe fifteen minutes if I see you here.”

“What, are you saying watching YouTube isn’t going to help me?” She was only half-serious.

He laughed. “I like your sense of humor just as much as that oversized heart. I’ll see you around, kid.”

Kid? He looked around her age, and she had just turned twenty-six. He didn’t look nearly old enough to be calling her a kid. She was far from it.

She watched him walk away, still chuckling at her lack of knowledge or skill, depending on how a person wanted to look at it.

She grabbed her bag and tossed her towel over her shoulders. She would take a shower when she got home. Normally, she took one before leaving, but today she would just wait until later.

The walk home was great. Living in NYC was as far away from him as she could get. Well, technically she could have gone a lot further, but she figured the larger the city, the better off she was.

Her apartment wasn’t anything to brag over. It was nothing more than a studio apartment with a bathroom that had walls. She didn’t mind, though. It was large enough to split the bedroom area and the living area. She didn’t have a kitchen table because she didn’t need one. She never invited anyone over. In fact, the only person to see the inside of her apartment was her neighbor Jess.

Jess and Kamry had hit it off from the start. Jess was also twenty-six, a small town girl who was also running from her past. They spent their evenings when Jess wasn’t working talking and having popcorn slash scary movie festivals in one of their apartments.

Jess worked two jobs as a waitress, so they only met up about once a week, twice if they were lucky. Thankfully, Kamry was an occupational therapist and found it rather easy to find all the work she needed. Sure, she could afford a larger apartment in a better neighborhood, with all the bells and whistles, but she didn’t want that because she knew if Steven ever came looking for her, he would look in nice areas. The only thing that scared her about work was him finding her address, if he wanted to dig enough.

She couldn’t go on living her life without working, though. She had for a while, but after six months of NYC prices, her savings were about out and she missed working anyways. It was a risk she didn’t have a choice but to take.

After her shower, she flopped on the couch. She stared at the ceiling for a minute then reached for the remote. She didn’t have many favorite shows, but she enjoyed house hunting, remodeling, and cooking.

She flipped through the channels and when she found a show she was interested in, she grabbed a pillow and cuddled it as they began stripping out the bungalow the couple had just purchased.

At some point, she fell asleep. It wasn’t until she heard a loud crash and shattering glass that she was startled awake.

For a moment, she froze. Unable to move. Barely able to breathe. Her heart raced and the fear was almost crippling.

Without moving her body, her eyes searched what they could see. With a sigh of relief, she sat up.

“Damn it.” She ran her fingers through her hair and then went in search of the broom and dustpan. She had left her water glass on the coffee table and must have knocked it over.

She swept up the mess and headed back to her original spot. The rest of the day was going to be straight up lazy and then back to work tomorrow.

Kamry looked over her schedule for the day. She worked mainly in long term care, but because she required a full work load, she worked for a company that would send her to three different locations to get her hours in.

She smiled. She would be visiting Brook Haven today and that was one of her favorite places to go. She loved Ms. Maybelle.

Ms. Maybelle was an eighty-seven-year young lovely lady who could light up Kamry’s day with just a smile. Her blue eyes were always twinkling and she was never in a foul mood. She told stories of how she had been an actress back in her day, and Kamry would soak it all up. The woman had a knack for telling stories. Whether they were true or not, Kamry didn’t care. She loved her and that was all that mattered.

She really loved the stories about how Ms. Maybelle met her husband. He preceded her in death, and it had been seven years, but she loved him just as much today as she did the day he had gone to Heaven.

The minute Kamry walked into Brook Haven and around the corner to the therapy department, she saw her and smiled.

“Good morning, Ms. Maybelle.”

“There’s my favorite young lady. How are you today?”

“I’m fantastic. How are you today?”

“Didn’t sleep well last night. I keep getting these headaches that just won’t go away.”

“Did you tell the nurses?” Kamry asked, raising an eyebrow because she knew Ms. Maybelle hadn’t said a word.

“No. They are so busy. Them girls run and run and run some more. I feel sorry for them, actually.”

“Ms. Maybelle, we have had this discussion before. That’s their job, and obviously they love doing it because it’s the field they have chosen to work in.”

“Just because you work here doesn’t mean you love it.”

“I love it and I work here.”

“But you, my young friend, are a special breed of woman.”

“Thank you,” Kamry said, patting her hand before grabbing the back of the wheelchair and pushing her into the department.

Forty-five minutes and a lot of hard work on Ms. Maybelle’s part later, her session was over. It always seemed like the time flew by during their sessions, because of the stories. She pushed Ms. Maybelle to the dining room where bingo was about to begin. After getting her situated, Kamry went to the nurse’s station and reported the complaint about headaches. They both frowned.

“Its starting,” Suzy, one of the LPNs there, said.

“What’s starting?” Kamry asked.

“She has an aneurysm that is inoperable.”

“Oh, no.” Kamry turned, looking to where Ms. Maybelle now played with the four cards she had chosen.

“She doesn’t know. She has pain medication that she can ask for, but it’s obvious she isn’t going to, so I will call and get them scheduled.”

“Thank you.”

Kamry turned, walking back to Ms. Maybelle and kissing her head before going on to the next resident of the day.

Kamry arrived at the gym shortly after six. She changed into her workout clothing and stepped up to the bag. The place was unusually empty, but she didn’t mind. She preferred it this way, because there were less people staring at her.

She stretched her legs and then her arms. She didn’t know a lot about working out and learning to fight, but stretching was right up her alley.

“Hey, you came back.”

Kamry jumped at the deep voice behind her. She quickly turned to see the same man that had approached her before. “Um, yeah.”

“So I was thinking, show me how you handle the bag and then I can help you with the technique. Then I thought maybe you would want to do some self defense on the floor. I’ve never had a need to learn to fight for the same reason as you, but I do know that when I am in the ring with my back flat against the mat, ju ju comes in handy.”

“Ju ju?”

He smiled. “Jujitsu.”