5 Books For Eveline

27

27

Returning to the house, Purdy found it a lot colder than she expected. Tossing the keys onto the sideboard, on top of the hospital letter, she dropped her purse onto the sofa and then headed to the kitchen, where she placed the enormous bag of medication on to the counter before turning to start making a cup of tea.

She glared at the bag and remembered the words of the doctor. With a slight infection and inflammation of her hip, they had difficulty seeing the actual joint. The doctor, however, had decided that her hip had deteriorated faster than any of them had expected. They would need to take more x-rays, once the antibiotics and anti-inflammatories had done their work, but the doctor seemed certain.

In less than a year, if she didn't have a hip replacement, she would find herself in a wheelchair. That seemed about par for the course. First they said it could be years before she may, emphasis on 'may', need a hip replacement, right down to having less than a year before she would find herself unable to walk. Of course. It wasn't as though her life could already fall on a list of "World's Worst ...".

As the kettle boiled, she decided to organise her new batch of medications. Pills for the pain and balms to rub into her muscles in this section. Industrial strength anti-inflammatories here. Antibiotics here. She hoped they hadn't prescribed a penicillin derivative, this time. The last time, shortly after the accident, she had come out in a severe rash and learned she could have died. Again.

With her tea made, she hobbled back into the living room and dropped onto the sofa, cradling her cup to ensure it didn't spill. After a few seconds, she leaned over to the coffee table. First to check her phone, that Briar had left on the table, then to switch on the laptop. Waiting for it to load could fill a lifetime and Purdy could feel her tea growing cold in the mug as she waited.

There were no text messages, no missed calls, nothing from Briar and Purdy tried to stuff down the disappointment. Briar had made her choice. To expect Purdy to simply fall into line, after only a few days, and become fast friends forever was Briar's own fault for expecting too much of Purdy. She couldn't give Briar that. She didn't have it to give. Having someone within arms reach had proven too much already.

It only showed that friendships, or any kind of relationship, was no longer an option for Purdy. People expected too much. Demanded too much. Forcing themselves into Purdy's very select, closed environment could lead to nothing but pain, for all concerned. Better to end it all before it really began. After all, Purdy had only known Briar for a few days. How much could losing something so recent hurt, anyway?

When the laptop finally loaded, Purdy typed in her password and checked her e-mail and found nothing. Not anything. Not from Briar, or anyone. She wasn't disappointed. Disappointment would mean she expected something and the only thing she expected of anyone was that they would, eventually, leave. Everyone left. No-one stayed.

With little else to do, Purdy made a passing attempt to look through some websites. A few local ones told her little that she hadn't already found out from books. She looked at maps, photographs, even drawings of the local area, but none of it gave her any information she could use. It all seemed so worthless and pointless. Dull and mundane without the added colour of Eveline and Raya's story to bring those places to sharp, vibrant life.

No matter what Briar had said, Purdy needed to continue her search for the fourth volume. Taking Briar's copy would not help her. The books, themselves, were only part of the appeal of the entire enterprise. To find those special places, the hidden little gems of a long passed time, a lost age, was as equally important, to Purdy. It gave her a solid, unbreakable connection to the past, to the story and to Eveline and Raya.