Chapter 5:

Maggie finally rolled into the great city of New York around four in the afternoon. She drove through the crowded streets until she got to Greenwich Village where she was supposed to be meeting the real estate agent to look at the first apartment.
She sat in her car, staring out the window, in awe. She had never seen anything like it before. The tall buildings giving off a reflection from the sun, looking like liquid streaks of silver. Rows upon rows of houses in all different shapes, sizes and colors. There were front porches and white picket fences. Parked cars lined the streets. Children were playing in their front yards, and people gathered on their front steps, smoking cigarettes and drinking out of paper coffee cups from yuppie coffee shops.
Before she got out of the car, she used her cell phone to call the real estate agent to let him know he had arrived. He told her to stay where she was and he would meet her there in fifteen minutes. She realized she didn't have a leash for keeper, so she picked him up and got out of the car. It felt good to stretch and she took a deep breath; her lungs filling with crisp, clean air.
It was a little cool outside, but it was refreshing. The grass was starting to turn green and the trees were being re-born after a bitter cold winter season. She walked around the corner and set keeper down so he could go to the bathroom. After a few minutes, she picked him up, cuddling him, and leaned against a stone, fence-type wall and took in her surroundings. Across the street she focused in on a white house. It had black shutters and the paint was chipping off all sides of the house.
There was a small front porch with a few steps leading down to an unkept yard. Children's toys were strewn about and there was a gravel driveway with a rusted Volkswagen parked in it.
She could hear a loud dog barking in the back portion of the house, but could not see it.
All of a sudden, the front screen door flew open and two young girls ran outside to the yard. A burly man, presumed to be the girl's father, came to the door and warned them not to leave the yard. Before he turned to go back inside the house, he made direct eye contact with Maggie. He gave her a grisly looking smirk, swallowed a gulp of beer, and was gone.
For reasons unknown, the hair on the back of Maggie's neck stood on end and her whole body shivered. She shook it off and continued watching the two girls play in the yard. They were throwing a ball back and forth and smiling and laughing. They looked to be sister's. Both with long, wavy light brown hair. They wore jeans and one had on a white sweater, the other a pink one. Maggie guessed that one was around seven or eight and the other five or six. Keeper noticed the girls and gave a few barks that got the girls attention. They ran over excitedly and asked if they could pet Keeper. Maggie stooped down so they could reach him. The youngest of the two looked at Maggie with the most angelic smile and said, “ Hi, I'm Jessie and this is my sister Sam. What's your name?” Maggie smiled back and told the girl her name.
“ I have a doll named Maggie and she's my favorite,” exclaimed Jessie. Just then, the eldest girl stopped playing with Keeper and stood up and said, “ Are you new around here?”
“Yes, I just got here not too long ago.” “Oh. Well, are you all by yourself?” “Just me and my dog,” said Maggie.
Then, the strangest thing happened. Jessie came over to Maggie and took her hand in hers and in a gentle, loving voice said, “Thats so sad. You don't even have a sister to play with?”
Maggie was speechless. She didn't know what to say. She felt her hands start to shake slightly. Jessie was still standing there holding her hand. Maggie said, “ Not everyone has a brother or a sister.”
Something changed in the little girls demeanor. She didn't look so sweet anymore. Maggie thought she must have been just imagining this change, but then the girl said, “Well, you have one. You just don't know it yet.” Just as Maggie was about to question her about her comment; the girl's father stepped outside on the front porch. He yelled at them to get back to the yard. The girl's turned and ran back to their house without saying a word to Maggie. She watched as the father pushed each one of the girl's inside of the house. Then he looked over at Maggie and yelled, “Don't you know little girl's aren't supposed to talk to strangers!”
With that, he turned around and went back inside the house and slammed the door shut.
What just happened, Maggie thought to hersel;f? She felt like she was in a dream, like none of it was real. Why in the world would a little girl, a stranger, tell her that she has a sister but doesn't know yet? It just was plausable. She went back to her car, set Keeper on the front seat and dug in her purse for the bottle of tranquilizers. She took two of them and took a deep breath and closed her eyes. All of a sudden there was a thump on her window and she almost jumped out her skin. A well dressed young man was standing there smiling at her. She put her window down and he said, “Miss Morgan?”
“Yes?”
“I'm Daniel, your real estate agent. Sorry I'm late. Are you feeling okay?”
She probably looked like a crazy woman, at least thats how she felt. She took a quick look in the mirror and didn's seem to look too bad, just a little flushed. “I'm okay now. I was just resting.”
“Okay then, let's go look at some apartments.”
She felt annoyed and jumpy and an unbelievable fatigue settled upon her. She hoped the first apartment was fine because she just wanted to take a shower, go to sleep and end this dreadful day.

The Eclectic Pen - I Remember You- Chapter 5

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