To be a Wildflower

Chapter 6

Elizabeth sat by the counter and kept glancing at her phone, the tips of her Doc martens tapping  on the floorboard nervously as she waited for Maya. It was seven pm. Elizabeth drew her eyes away from the phone as it worsened her nerves. Instead she inspected her apartment trying to focus on something else. The thin glass windows overseeing pillars of other red bricked buildings, but mostly the endless sky above that stretched out for aeons. The rare picturesque blue sky patch that wasn't covered by a cluster of buildings was what made Elizabeth pick the apartment, she knew if she was going to be cooped up in all week more than any average New Yorker, she could always go to that window ledge by the kitchen counter and gaze at that patch of sky, knowing she wasn't being suffocated.

Elizabeth knew what she was about to do was crazy and absurd, but the words on that letter clung onto every cell in her brain and the more she read, the magnanimous her urge  to visit this town no one's ever heard of became, at least herself. She could not describe the impulse, but she knew she could not refuse the cosmic pull this town had on her. 

Elizabeth had been spending the past few hours trying to conjure up the most believable explanation she could present to Maya about this sudden escapade of her, including grounded facts and reasons, but she had no success. The doorknob rattled and Elizabeth's head snapped towards the door while her breathing increased rapidly.

                                                                                                   *****

Maya walked into the apartment with a comforting thought of a long shower and a cold glass of wine after a hectic story she had got approval for about a restaurant with a horrible cuisine, along with a strong alibi to top it off. With high hopes in mind for a celebratory relaxing shower, Maya cascaded into the apartment to see Elizabeth dressed up in her beige travel sweater, the only midi skirt for special occasions and her Doc martens with a sheepish grin on her face. The travelling bag next to Elizabeth made Maya's mouth drop. 

"What's going on?" Maya asked closing the door behind her.

"As you can uh see," Elizabeth eyed her luggage dramatically, "I'm...going on a little vacation."

Maya's face dropped all the way to the ground in a literal New York minute and Elizabeth winced as if she had dropped one of Lorraine's crystal vases. "Wha-what... why are you telling me this now?" She asked mortified and tired all together.

"It was a last...couple-of-hours decision?"

"Where are you going?" She asked flatly.

"Just Alabama, this town called uh...Chelseaville. It's nothing—

"Elizabeth cut the crap and tell me what's going on please?" Maya's tone was weary.

Elizabeth sighed and stood up, but she did not make it towards Maya. After taking a dramatic deep breath, she told Maya about her reasons to visit this town.

Maya was not surprised because she was aware of Elizabeth's sudden stunts, but today instead of rolling her eyes at Elizabeth, she felt sorry for her roommate for trying to find her next escape as she always did when her life was at the cusp of newness. It did not take much time for Elizabeth to decipher this look of pathos on Maya's face, like her mother's.

"Maya, I know it sounds crazy, but out of everything that's not happening in my life, this feels insanely right and maybe I do need this getaway."

"Elizabeth, do you even hear yourself? You're doing it again—running away the moment your life is trying to make amends." Maya said looking at her unnervingly and Elizabeth felt her chest twitch in pain. Maya was tired of witnessing her friend pack her stuff and fly away when her life was beginning to stabilise, she was aware of Elizabeth's resentment towards conformity and her place in this city, but she was also guilty of watching Elizabeth seek for a "greater perhaps" and not realise it anytime soon.