Globetrotter Ingrid gets a fabulous fresh start when her job takes her to Melbourne, Australia. Here she meets wise and sweet Oliver, who makes her forget she doesn't have a heart.
This successful stability prompts Ingrid to accept an invitation to...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
September 2018
Ingrid's insides coiled as the Remus reminiscence rushed to the forefront of her mind. Not even the rustic landscape whizzing past could quench her awakened thirst. She mentally thanked Elvira for reminding her of the best night of her then-seventeen years of life. Intrigued by the intricacies of the human consciousness, rather than disappointed, Ingrid realised she'd relegated that particular mind-blowing memory to the darkest depths of her brain.
As if that could erase the shame of having cheated on her boyfriend. It had been easy for her to dismiss it as not-actual-cheating back then, since they hadn't taken things any further. Remus had slept beside her that night and made her breakfast in the morning, before driving her back to her dorm. A gentleman, like he'd claimed.
Ingrid wondered if she could link up with Elvira again, ask her what had become of him. Curiosity gnawed at her conscience.
"It's really odd, isn't it?" Filip piped up from the driver's seat beside her.
"What is?"
"Like... all of this used to be crop fields and pasture. Now they won't stop building houses."
Her head turned to glance out his window. Patches of identical houses had sprouted up as far as the eye could see, some of them finished, some of them still under construction. Before long, the city would surely be expanding beyond its boundaries and swallowing up these rural neighbourhoods right on its doorstep.
"You've never been home since you left, have you?" came the second question, as if he didn't already know the answer to it.
Ingrid sighed. "No, Filip, I haven't."
"Did you ever miss it?"
"Not a single fucking bit."
He quieted down after that, focused on speeding along the street winding up and down the sloping hills. Still-green trees flew by, mingled in a blurry mosaic with earthy, golden fields, the occasional house, or cows and horses grazing.
The car slowed down once they officially entered a village. Houses lined the road on either side, some of them old and crumbling, others brand new. The contrast jarred Ingrid. It felt so foreign to her after spending nearly a decade in rich, luxurious cities.
Educated cities.
Ingrid had spotted a single school building since leaving the town behind. Their old school, which now looked abandoned. People out here did not have the time or money to go to school. Parents needed their kids for manual labour at home, to put the bare minimum of food on the table.
How her grandfather used to mock Ingrid for her books and her homework.
Why don't you make yourself useful and clean this damn house!
Which he had made a mess of.
Yes, keep learning those languages, so you can go work the streets abroad...
