Nancy sets forth in the world, qualified by her care of Little Edward, "hopeless as a boy."

Part 2

I woke up in the morning to the sound of a womans’ voice telling me to get out of bed and into the shower. I thought that I had been in the shower last night but obviously I was not clean enough. She told me to make sure I sat when I went to the toilet and to make sure I shaved my face twice while I was in the shower.

All was quiet in the house. The Sun had risen well over an hour earlier. The hum of London grew as the city started a new day.

There were two occupants of the house. For one of them this was a day to celebrate. For the other, the prospect of walkies, rabbits to chase and food was normal.

In a bedroom at the front of the three-storey terraced house, Vivienne Carter was wide awake. Today was her sixtieth birthday, plus it was the first day of what she’d been calling her ‘afterlife’. She’d just retired from her job as very senior official at the HMRC in the ‘Collections Department’. The previous day which had been a rather sad occasion. Vivienne, could have carried on working for at least six more years until she qualified for a state pension but she’d had enough of work, commuting and putting up with the incompetence of other people for far too long so she'd decided several months before to call it a day when she turned sixty years of age.

Author's note: For those that did not see my blog entry, I'll summarize. I've recently battled with suicidal depression, and needed to focus on the real world instead of escaping into fantasy. I'm doing a lot better now and plan to continue writing. Although I can't promise any regularity, I am hoping that I can put out at least two chapters a month. Please don't hate me if I don't live up to that though. Enough rambling and making everyone reading this feel bad and onto the story.

Summer with Em - Chapter 48

By Julie D Cole