One Summer: a Narrative Story

A cool November wind was blowing and Brittlyn Jacobs pulled her blanket tighter around her shoulders as she stared out over the water of Wilmington North Carolina. Earlier when she had arrived, there had been a few people strolling along the river walk, but most had taken note of the cool winds coming in from the north and were long since gone. Now she found herself alone beside the river, and she took in her surroundings. Wilting azaleas and cherry blossoms lined the river, and their reflection shimmered in the shallow water along the shore. Heavy clouds were beginning to descend and fog was forming, the horizon would soon be invisible. In any other place, at another time, she would have felt the splendor of the beauty around her but as she sat on her balcony overlooking the river, she came to realize that she felt nothing. It seemed as if she wasn’t really there, that everything was just a blur. As if her life was nothing but a dream.
They’d driven here earlier this afternoon, her dad had mentioned that he was going out of town for the night a couple weeks back but she hadn’t made her decision about coming until last night. He was going to scout the upcoming basketball players and tonight was the tip-off for all North Carolina high schools. Never had she missed a scouting game, but for the first time for some reason she didn’t want to be here tonight.
Brittlyn sighed and glanced behind her at the clock on the nightstand, five thirty-six, her Dad would be leaving for the game soon. She looked back down at the empty river walk, it was quiet. Wilmington would be a nice place to live and maybe later raise a family. In her mind she could imagine this being the type of place that couples both young and old could live the lives that Hollywood portrays in movies, they could take a romantic moonlit walk along the river, go star gazing late at night, dance in the street without any music and if it’s late enough, they could even lie in the streets and watch the traffic