Glimpses

Chapter 8

October 7th, 2021

Logan had been driving around Hartford for at least half an hour, aimlessly, essentially just killing time. Driving helped with his nerves. It gave him something to do. He didn't want to run into one of the family friends, he didn't want to answer questions. He didn't want their sympathy either.

In a way he liked seeing the familiar streets, places where he'd been frequently when he was younger, pass by, allowing him a moment to decide where he was going.

Other than the very lonely one-bedroom Airbnb he'd booked for himself for a few days, he didn't really have anywhere to go. He knew where he was supposed to go, where he was supposed to have gone days ago, but he was reluctant to get there.

He could've also gone to Honor's, though it was a bit further away from Hartford, but he knew that despite everything he'd probably just get to feel his sister's fury for not showing up on Saturday. He could, technically, go to her mother's but that was the last place he wanted to go, he was pretty sure he never wanted to step foot in that house again. His friends, by now mostly estranged, were scattered across the globe - Boston, New York, Chicago, L.A., London, Marrakech, Singapore...- at least those few that he'd once considered real friends. But it had been him that had shut everyone out.

Eventually he pulled up to the parking lot of Cedar Hill cemetery, realizing that he probably wouldn't get this nagging feeling out of his system if he didn't. It was like ticking a box, even if he didn't feel much like it.

The parking lot was dimly lit by just a few yellow streetlights, but the lot itself was thankfully almost completely secluded. His odds of coming and going without running into any of his parents' friends were good at this hour.

It was as he stepped out of the car he heard some commotion coming from the Blue Box, it's door half ajar. He looked down at the key of the Audi, locking it, it's buttons placed a little differently than on the car he'd driven before this.

He wouldn't have thought twice about it - surely someone was just doing their business, but it was then he noticed a smartly dressed little girl wandering away from the noise, observing her reflection in the oil-stained puddle of water in the middle of the parking lot. He assumed it was one of the girl's parents who was with her, but since a few large trucks passed by, speeding in his opinion, and the parking lot really was only separated from the lot by a thin strip of grass, he felt he needed to say something.

"You guys okay there?" Logan said, not wanting to sound like a creep sneaking up on a kid. What was she - four-five? - he thought, judging by Honor's kids when he'd seen them around that age. "You should be careful not to wander onto the road, cars might not see you," he cautioned, taking a step closer to the little girl, while gesturing towards the road. The girl was dressed in dark colors, making her even more difficult to make out in this poor lighting.

But him addressing her didn't quite work out how he'd planned, having clearly shocked the girl by speaking up.

"Mommy?" the girl jolted, and rushed back towards the Blue Box.

"Yeah, we're fine," a woman's loud voice replied. The voice sounded a little broken, perhaps a little upset even - well he had just nearly heard her curse, hadn't he? But there was something familiar to it, just the same.

It was like looking at a ghost from the past - so very familiar, yet like having stepped into an alternate universe. It was her but it wasn't.

"Rory!?" Logan asked. Could it really be her? Her glasses reflected the streetlight, not really giving him a good look of her eyes.

"Hi," she replied, the recognition in her eyes definitely confirming that it really was her.

Rory - a mommy? - he looked back and forth between her and the girl. The girl certainly looked like her.