She was sitting outside the coffee shop thinking again. Staring into the ashen sky, not searching for answers. A far away glaze buttered her eyes, and she just sat and let the questions of life swirl in her brain. There was a neglected cigarette in her left hand and a cold chalky coffee on the rickety round table. She was frozen by the thought of being alone for the rest of her life. She thought of him, and was scared. The cigarette's ash hung for dear life onto the filter, and a gust of wind sent the used cigarette out her hand and dropping to the concrete porch. This shook her from her trance and she shivered. She slowly turned her attention to the cigarette, that was now moving with the winds direction, rolling on the pavement next to the leaves and other used cigarettes that held a story all their own. She pulled her black trench coat taut around her trembling frail body and stood up from the old sagging wicker chair. She sipped the last of her bitter coffee and walked to her car.
Her car was warm and her seats were soft. It was old but got her where she wanted to be. These days, it wasn't anywhere meaningful. Meaning was not really a component in her life anymore. She lived in a small drab town where people minded to themselves and there was sparse land and fields; everything was squeezed in with a billion car washes and ten thousand useless banks. No room for true beauty, like the cow pastures a few moments before sunrise when the mist lifted off the ground and into the heavens. There was an oversized grocery store in place of that beautiful field now. She drove, and every place she looked she immediately was reminded of something he and she did together. Kissing in that park, walking down the sidewalks of that street, sharing their one-year anniversary at that restaurant. This town was no good for her because she was haunted everywhere she went. It was slowly deteriorating and crumbling what was left of her. Red light. Her car came to a halt, and she looked at the turquoise necklace that was dangling from her rear-view mirror, illuminated despite the grey clouds that hung low and ready to burst with their tears. She felt the cool stone and massaged it in between her fingers. She flashed to a memory of her and her best friend sitting in a diner during Christmas time. Her friend presented the necklace to her. "This stone is nicknamed the travelers stone." She laughed. "Like I ever travel." She put the necklace around her tiny neck. "Well, maybe someday we'll get out of here. Just keep looking forward to our road trip at the end of the year." The friend whispered and touched her hair. The girl felt comforted by her friend's touch, and she smiled. If only they could have experienced more memories. She came out of the fog of remembrance and felt a pang of penitence make a home in her stomach. Green light. She let go of the turquoise and drove home.
She was on her bed stooped over a myriad of photo albums. Her face was tormented with sadness and tears, and she let the droplets fall freely onto the pictures of her and her love. She looked at her favorite picture of them together - the one where they were in front of their new apartment, his arm around her and giving his adorable geek smile, and her looking up at him with endless loving eyes and a wispy smile across her lips. She managed a torn smile and let out a heart-shattering yelp of hopelessness. He was gone from the world forever, and she was left abandoned. She gaped at her engagement ring through blurry eyes and moaned. She cast the albums to the carpeted floor and dug her face into her pillow, her mournful song stifled and muffled, but not any less inconsolable. The present world faded out and she escaped into her grievous dreams.
She was driving to the coffee shop again. The day was black and the acrid plumes of smoke from the hundreds of suburban soccer-mom cars set a curtain of grit over the town. The roads were slick with oil and rain. The world felt dead that day; everything looked as if it had a tinge of grey splashed into the mixture of their atoms. She was driving down one of the main FM roads that was bustling and gorged with cars with a story all their own. She wondered where all the cars were going to in such a hurry. She wondered why no one could take their time to enjoy things anymore. She came to a red light. In the murky wetness of the day her turquoise shone as if the sun was in its soul. She rubbed it in between her fingers and looked at the lines of green and the unique splotches of blue. She reminisced about what her friend had said to her about the turquoises' nickname. She smirked even though the sickness gurgled in her bones. Green light. She was driving through the gross roads that looked sick with pollution. She was approaching the coffee joint, but she kept thinking of him. She kept thinking of her best friend, too. She knew that this town and all its memories lingered, making her hate every day of living. She knew she had nothing to live for anymore in this town, and she wanted to get away. Nothing kept her here anymore. She was almost to her landmark. She looked at the coffee shop. She looked at the turquoise. Looked back at the shop, looked at her stone. She said goodbye to her friend and her lover and all the memories that haunted her and she kept driving.