Ghost of a Chance: Redemption

Chapter One

Author's Note: Thank you for choosing to read.  I will be updating and completing this, so please feel free to comment and make suggestions.  Thank you!

The train jolted forward, pitching the young woman nearly into the aisle before she caught herself.  Teddi Reese leaned forward from the hard plastic seat and began retrieved her scrambled papers before other passengers had an opportunity to step on them.  Back in Amosville, someone would have knelt down to help.  If we had a subway, that is.  She smiled.  The thin young photographer had been in Washington for over two months, but she still thought of the small, central Pennsylvanian town as being home.  

“You look happy,” another rider said, his head swaying a little with the motion of the train as it picked up speed.  

Teddi studied the man for half a heartbeat.  Speaking to people on the Metro was not always a wise thing to do, but rather than worry about it, she smiled again and answered simply, “I am.”  

Six months ago, she had walked down the cold stone steps of a funeral home, after having said goodbye to her best friend, Jenny Myers.  At that point in time, even knowing what she knew, the loss of Jenny had been so deep she was certain she would never be happy again, never smile again.  And now, half a year later, here she was, smiling at at her own joke.

“Yes,” she said, “I am happy.”

“That’s cool,” the man said, but his attention had already passed on.  He studied his cell phone for a moment, slid it back into his jacket and leaned back with his eyes closed.  

Teddi glanced around at the fifteen or so other riders on the bright car.  None of them was smiling; each was either buried in a copy of the Post, texting on cell phones, or otherwise in their own small world, extending no further than their handheld device and the next Metro stop.  

Why shouldn’t I be happy?  She was just twenty-four-years old, and on her own in Washington, DC, on her way to interview with a photography studio on Independence Avenue and Fifteenth Street, just a few blocks behind the Capitol building.  She watched the flashing lights of the station as the train slowed on its approach, gave a small lurch backward, and stopped.  By the time the doors slid open, Teddi was already on her feet and moving through the small crowd, exiting the train as others entered.  She glanced at the sign as the train slid away from her, into the darkness.  The Stadium station was as close as she could come to the address she had been given, and she faced a walk of about four blocks.  She checked her watch, verified she had plenty of time, and yet, found herself hurrying toward the escalator.  Any other time, she would have dwelt on the similarity of the metro station to a scene from Star Wars, but today Teddi was anxious about her interview.  

She rode to the surface, blinking a little in the bright June sunlight.  The sun was sinking, and she would be walking almost directly west.  I should have worn my sunglasses.  It was too late to go back for them, so she squinted into the sun and marched west, her seldom-worn heels clicking on the rough concrete.  

When she found the address on Independence Avenue, she swallowed a bit of disappointment.  The building was hardly more than a store-front; the first floor was of large brown stone with two large glass windows on either side of a glass door, heavily protected by a stout iron gate that covered the doorway from top to bottom.  Teddi noticed the lock was rusty, and there was a ‘For Rent by Owner’ sign in the lower right hand window.  The building did not display any of the grandeur she had imagined from its street address, 1500 Independence Avenue.  She wondered if she had copied the location incorrectly, and walked closer to examine the store-front, hoping she was wrong.  She quickly found another door, to the right of the building, with a small sign indicating that the photography studio was upstairs.  Wow, she thought, and took a few moments to consider simply leaving without interviewing at all.  Her thoughts returned to her emptying refrigerator and cupboards, and she turned the doorknob.