Woman in blue raincoat is a new twist on Janet. I didn’t mean to go there, it just happened. As for what happens next? Shrugs!
Sophie should have gone by the path in the woods. It would have been muddy in this rain, but less exposed. The trees would have sheltered her. Time, however, was critical.
‘She’s fading fast,’ her father had said on the phone, less than an hour ago. ‘I should call the hospital, but I want to keep her here.’
Sophie had nodded her agreement and whispered, ‘Yes,’ in answer to her father’s quavering, ‘Do you agree, Sophie?’
The call had come while Sophie was at work in the local bakery. She had briefly explained to her boss while she shrugged on her blue raincoat.
‘Here.’ Her boss picked out the nearest quiche from the display counter and a freshly baked loaf. He slid both into a bag. ‘Take this. It could be a long vigil and you or your dad won’t be up to cooking.’
Sophie nodded her thanks, gently eased the gift into her blue rucksack and slipped her arms through the straps.
And here she was, marching the country lane towards home and what awaited her there. Her mother’s sudden illness was puzzling, and distressing. She was hardly an old woman, and the doctors had been unable to find anything wrong. But she was, as her father had said, fading fast. Literally fading away, her skin more translucent by the day, her rich brown hair dulled to a washed out beige, and her deep blue eyes – which normally looked on the world with amused tolerance – turned inwards, uninterested in anything.
Sophie hurried her steps. A sudden warmth above her, and the rain ceasing its drizzle on her face, made her look up. She gasped. Surely the rain, and her worry, were causing her to hallucinate. But the great, deep green shape hovered above her, to the side, its giant head turned to her. The great black eyes were gentle, caring.
Sophie stood on the path. Around her was the village scene she had known all her life. A house coming into view at the end the green, and grass, shrubs, trees to either side. Normal.
Bar for a dragon slowly lifting and lowering its massive wings near her right shoulder.
‘Come on up, woman in blue raincoat,’ a tinkling voice urged her, and the dragon lowered itself to the wet ground, tucked its wings to its sides. ‘Your cousin Janet needs your help.’
‘But …’ Sophie blinked, searching for the voice. ‘I have to get home. My mother is dying.’
‘Come with us. It’s the only way to save your mother.’
Sophie could see the voice came from a golden-haired fairy. She was dry, the rain seeming to swerve around her. Her and her pixie companion.
Her cousin Janet. Sophie had not had much to do with her since Janet went to the city to study and work. They’d been close as children, playing at imaginary dragons and princesses under an old willow.
Sophie looked into the dragon’s very real eyes, and climbed onto its back.
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PERSON IN BLUE RAINCOAT WALKING ON PATH
About the only thing protecting her from the persistently drizzling rain was a blue raincoat.
As Trudy made her way slowly home from work along the winding path bordered by grass and trees, she pondered on the day’s events.
It had been of the toughest she had ever faced. Not only had her boss suffered a heart attack and been rushed to hospital, the board of directors had called a staff meeting to announce the company was going into voluntary liquidation.
Trudy suspected her boss’s misfortune had been brought on by impending news of the firm’s demise. And while she felt extremely sorry about his heart attack, she had more immediate problems with which to contend.
First and foremost, was affording to pay rent. Without a job – she presumed her position as human resources manager would no longer exist, although no one had so far said so – finding the $1000 a week needed to remain in her modest three-bedroom home was going to be a serious challenge. Not to mention the associated costs and the ability to buy food.
The board chairman had stressed that all employees would be taken care of, with each receiving a generous payout, but Trudy wasn’t so sure.
She knew of other companies that had gone under in the past with employees left high and dry as liquidators found no funds left in reserve to guard against bankruptcy.
Since no one had given any inkling of impending doom at her workplace, Trudy suspected that scenario might also be true of her own situation.
The ongoing drizzle only made the prospect of searching hurriedly for a new position even more depressing.
Trudy sighed. How was she going to tell her two children that she no longer had a job or the money to put food on the table.
A single mother – she had separated from her long-time partner some two years earlier – each week her pay check had been fully allocated to living expenses, with nothing left over for a rainy day.
Asking her former partner for help would be of no use, she decided. He was already reluctant to pay child support – in fact, owed thousands of dollars in back payments she had little hope of ever collecting.
Oh well, finding a new job was now an urgent priority. She could not afford to wait on the financial outcome and staff determinations of her current company.
Head bowed, Trudy continued to shuffle along the path.
Life can be so unfair, she thought, but why do I have to be the bunny?
Time for a Tattslotto ticket, she mused brightly. Maybe I’ll strike it lucky and all my problems will be solved.
I hope the magic works – for her Mum’s sake!