The Priory by Jonathan Wheatley

Author:Jonathan Wheatley [Wheatley, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flesh and Bone Publishing
Published: 2020-04-26T22:00:00+00:00

5

The sun was warm on her skin, even though it was still early, and a cool morning breeze washed over her, sending her strawberry-blonde hair flowing into her face. She could hear the non-stop noise of the cars on the motorway. Jess considered walking to the blue park from the photo, but then thought better of it. The vehicle was unlocked, as it always was on the drive. She got in and found the keys at the bottom of her handbag.

The roads were quiet; it was the middle of the school holidays and just past seven am. She drove past the Shell garage and the empty fields, sticking to the speed limit even though the road was empty. She ignored the no-through-traffic sign and turned into Maverley Gardens; a winding road of bungalows with gnomes in the front gardens, and stopped at the end of the road. She waited for a white van to pass before pulling out and taking the next right. She followed the road past the closed chip shop and the chinese takeaway. Jess didn’t sense the grimace that had taken over her face as she drove further into the estate, or the way her jaw clenched.

Jess pulled over 150 yards past the shops and put the handbrake on. Her pristine white Nissan Qashqai looked out of place amongst the dusty cars and vans on the road. The park was a short walk away, just the next left turn, and she planned on walking the rest of the way.

Before she got out of the car, she had a moment of clarity, what was she doing here? Lydia and her hadn’t been friends for years’. What could she possibly do, and why did she feel it was her problem to solve? Jess sat behind the steering wheel, staring out onto the depressing-looking estate. Even under the blue sky and bright sun, it looked grey and dismal. What did she expect to find at Lydia’s house? For all she knew, Lydia had moved since the snowy photo. But she felt guided as if an invisible fishing line was pulling her here–it was a déjà vu feeling she hadn’t experienced since she was a child.

When she was younger, her parents used to joke about it. If they ever lost their keys or her little brother lost a toy, they would say, “Jess, do your thing,” and she would find it by concentrating on it. As she grew older, it happened less, and until today, she had forgotten about it. She’d left her parents behind like she left most people behind in the end. She concentrated on the image she held of Lydia with the feeling there, in the back of her mind. She knew she was in the right place.

Jess got out of the car and closed the door, locking it this time. When she was younger, before she met Mike, she had lived in this area. Her parents weren’t poor, but they weren’t rich, and two streets over was where they’d bought their first house–the house she’d been raised inside.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.