The house was empty again when Sophie woke up. She ran through the motions of getting up as if she were going to school. She immediately had a shower and was dressed and ready to head out before she even took a step downstairs. She watched some awful talk show while eating breakfast (definitely breakfast this time, as it was not much later than 10am). The show was reuniting adopted children with their biological parents. She frowned at the coincidence and then laughed at the thought of going on such a show to meet Bob. The television-viewing public was definitely not ready for Bob. She wasn’t even sure if she was ready for Bob.
Her cereal was finished and the bowl and spoon went next to the sink, as usual. The afternoon was still a few hours away, so she had some time to prepare for her meeting with Bob. She wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to do that. It wasn’t an exam or anything, there was no studying to do. Perhaps all she could do was try and relax. She thought about what she wanted from this meeting. She wanted some straight answers. Whether Bob would be able to provide such things would be another matter. Perhaps the best she could hope for would be to get as much information out of him as possible and then trying to make some sort of reasonable sense out of it.
Her phone buzzed. It was a message from James, wishing her luck. She smiled and slipped the phone back into the pocket of her shorts. She decided a walk would help clear her head a little bit. Clouds had invaded the sky today and there was a fairly decent wind making the rounds, so she would be wearing her jacket today.
After stepping out of the house, she headed in the opposite direction from where she would be heading later. She wanted to avoid the village and anyone who might be in it. Particularly mad people with whom she shared DNA. Instead she headed off in the direction of the main road, which led to other parts of the country or, slightly closer to home, a decent-sized out-of-town shopping centre.
She wasn’t heading there for any particular reason, more for the simple fact that it was somewhere to go. Maybe she’d spend her birthday money. It was a good half hour’s walk away, so she’d easily have enough time to think about things. Whether those things would be regarding this afternoon, or merely the possibility of buying a new hat, she wasn’t quite sure.
Despite the volume of traffic on the road, it wasn’t really any kind of motorway. It had pavements, so you could walk along it safely and there was even a bus lane. Sophie decided she’d probably catch the bus back home later. That would give her a bit more time for shopping. As she walked, she passed occasional clumps of small shops and various entrances to relatively new housing estates. As she neared the shopping centre, the housing estates gradually turned into warehouses and factories. they spewed out the odd strange smell and various metallic sounds.
Sophie arrived at the shopping centre and headed immediately for the nearest place where she could sit down and have a drink. She waited in line at a coffee shop where they used strange words for things and charged stupid prices for things she had no interest in. Sophie didn’t like coffee, so opted instead for a cup of hot chocolate and a slice of cheesecake. The hot chocolate came with whipped cream on the top. This annoyed Sophie somewhat and she opted to simply stir it into the hot chocolate, as she didn’t want to just eat a pile of cream. This resulted in a lukewarm cup of hot chocolate that Sophie decided was better than nothing.
As she sat and drank her hot chocolate, she watched people walk past the coffee shop. It was more just an area of the shopping centre, rather than an actual store. Only posts with ropes strung between them separated the seating area from the rest of the shopping centre. No one particularly interesting was walking by. Sophie was disappointed by this, but also pleased that no one she knew seemed to be hanging around. She was very much trying to avoid everything and everyone today. She congratulated herself on how well she was doing. If she carried on like this, she’d manage to avoid the entire planet.
She looked down at her cheesecake. It wasn’t as nice as it had seemed when it was sat behind the glass of the cabinet that contained the various cakes the shop offered. It was rather rich and sickly and wasn’t blending well with the hot chocolate in her stomach. She decided to leave most of it and set off towards the shops that filled the rest of the shopping centre. She needed some serious distracting before she had to get on with the business of the afternoon. She looked at her watch, it was about half 11. She probably didn’t need to be at the church until about 2, maybe even later. That gave her a good couple of hours here.
She spent most of her time wandering aimlessly from shop to shop, looking vaguely at anything that caught her eye. Nothing thrilled her enough to make her hand over any money. She tried on a few things, but decided they didn’t look as good on her as they did on the hanger. The best she’d found was a dress that she adored the style of, but was a size too big. The shop assistant told her that they could order it from another store and let her know when it was in.
Before she knew it, the time had flown by and it was time to catch the bus home. It was a quick journey and she spent most of it listening to music while staring vacantly out of the window. She wasn’t sure if she was dreading the meeting with Bob or looking forward to it. It would definitely be an experience, that was for sure.
