It's a Long Way Home [Lando Norris]

1

Some of the world's most popular conspiracy theories are that the Earth is flat, the moon landing was faked, and there are aliens walking amongst us.

And then there is the biggest conspiracy of them all.

You and me being soul mates.

I suppose it depends on who you ask, some would call it fate.

Others would call it a terrible idea.

Because soulmates are meant to find each other at the right time, in the right place, under some perfectly orchestrated circumstances.

We did not.

There was no grand plan. No warning. No lightning strike telling me that the person standing in front of me would somehow become the person I couldn't imagine my life without.

There was just you.

And me.

And a whole lot of miles between where we started and where we somehow ended up.

*******************************

AVELINA

Norris Ranch - I read the words carved into the wooden billboard at the start of town, the letters weathered from years of sun, rain and dust.

For a moment, I just stared at them through the windscreen.

I'd spent the last few hours wondering what I was going to say when I finally saw him. God only knows this town was happy to see the back of me. I knew my return was going to be the topic of every whisper for a while.

"You've got this" I encourage myself as I step on the gas a little and allow my beat up truck to roll into town.

It'd be five years since I had stepped into Riverwood Grove.

Five years since I'd driven down these roads, passed these familiar buildings, and tried to forget the people who had once known every part of me.

And now I was back.

Not back because I wanted to be.

My father was dead.

The words still felt strange, even after all the paperwork and phone calls that apparently needed to be dealt with when someone died.

His estate was a mess and someone had to sort through it.

That someone was me.

I'd been working with the government in the city for the last couple of years, all hybrid, so my actual presence in the city was not needed, but it was the appearance I was trying to keep up.

The city was expensive. My savings were disappearing faster than I could make them and now with dad gone, there wasn't much keeping me there anymore.

So I made the decision that seemed like the only right one to make at the time.

I'd come home.

At least for a while.

The family farm was sitting there, empty and waiting for someone to figure out what to do with it. I could live there without paying rent. I could sort through Dad's things, deal with the estate, sell whatever needed selling and, hopefully, figure out what the hell I was doing with my life.