Anonymous

11 - Chloe Marks

It had been a couple of weeks since Jason had passed and the funeral had taken place. Harriet was still finding it too hard to move on. Jason had lightened her life in more ways than one and now she was completely lost. The funeral had passed by in a blur. So many people had attended and Jason's family were distraught. Harriet wondered if his mother would ever actually let her son go.

Since the way Jason died was so unlike him and out of the ordinary, no one seemed ready to accept it straight away and now it seemed Harriet was the only one left, besides his mother, to accept Jason's passing.

Harriet had decided to take a few days off of work to recover from the stress and grief. The captain understood and told her to return to work on the following Monday. She had the full weekend to herself. As per usual, her insomnia kept her awake most of the night and by the time seven o'clock in the morning rolled around, Harriet was already up and dressed.

Just as she finished her breakfast, the phone began to ring. Harriet plodded over to the landline and picked it up.

"Hello?" A crackling noise greeted her from the other side, followed by a loud sigh.

"Hi Harriet." A soft voice made Harriet smile.

"Hi Mrs Murray, how are you holding up?" Jason's mother had started calling Harriet once a week. She wasn't sure why, but she had a niggling feeling it was because she wanted to keep Jason close, and Harriet was a constant reminder of Jason and his work. It helped Harriet too, being able to talk to his mother about anything and everything took a bit of weight off her shoulders.

"Oh, I get better by the day. It's just so hard." Mrs Murray sniffed. "Our Jason was such a good boy. I never would have though he would die through unsafe driving."

Harriet let her eyes wander upwards. "No me neither Mrs Murray. He was such a safe driver. But the world has a funny way, I'm sure he's keeping an eye on you."

"And you too Harriet dear."

"I'm really sorry to cut this short but I've got some jobs to get on with. Can I call you later?" Harriet could feel the tears welling up in her eyes and didn't feel ready to cry down the phone to her own mother let alone her partners one.

"Okay, I'll speak to you later. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Thank you. I'm alright, about the same as you really." Harriet let out a little laugh. "Speak to you later Mrs Murray."

"Yes darling, speak soon." And with that, Harriet was listening to the dial tone.

***

Harriet had busied herself by cleaning her little home from top to bottom. Every inch had been sprayed and hoovered. The spiders that had made themselves at home in the corners of each room had been sucked into oblivion. Harriet hated spiders. She wasn't one bit scared of a criminal pointing a gun straight at her chest but some little eight legged beast? She would run and scream like a little girl.

Plonking herself down on the sofa, Harriet pulled out her phone to see she had a notification from the dating website. Since losing Jason, she hadn't bothered looking at anyone, and just ignored the message notifications she got. There was another one waiting for her to accept a request. She clicked off and shoved her phone back in her pocket.

The sun was shining and the heat was rising. It was starting to feel like Summer. Without hesitation, Harriet got up and grabbed her keys from the side in the living room and walked out the front door, locking it swiftly behind her. She climbed into her car and pulled out, heading in a direction she wasn't even sure of.