AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I quickly searched through clothing and a few boxes that were half opened but didn’t find what I was looking for right away. Instead, I found a barrage of belongings to a life that was no longer here.
Pictures, keepsakes, and other mementos I didn’t even realize I had were piled high in the small area of the cabin that I had almost completely forgotten about.
It was strange to be searching through here, with the intent to find something other than a survival tool I had lost.
I was immediately struck by exactly long it had been since I looked for something that was normal.
I hadn’t done anything fun or even remotely behaved like a human in a long time.
However, right now, it seemed as though I was on a crash course back to reality.
I couldn’t help but think that my re-emergence into reality wasn’t half bad with Carrie by my side.
“Is everything okay?” I heard Carrie call from the bed, breaking me out of staring deep into a box of memories.
“Yeah…I’m fine,” I answered, shoving the box aside and reaching for another one.
“If it’s too much trouble, don’t worry about it, Johnathan. It was just a suggestion. Don’t go crazy.”
“Too late for that,” I insisted with a grin, poking my head out of the closet for a moment before going back to dig a little deeper.
The next box I grabbed seemed strangely familiar. I opened it and sure enough, I found exactly what I was looking for.
I dragged it out and placed it on the bed.
Carrie carefully went through it, eventually looking up at me with a strange expression.
“This cabin wasn’t always an escape for a crazy loner with no friends or family,” I admitted, sitting down on the other side of the box.
“Are these yours?” She asked, before she amended her statement, “I mean, did you bring them from wherever it was that you lived before?”
“Yes,” I insisted in a facetious tone, “I decided that I would try to teach Jake to play. He’s gotten really good at Scrabble. The dog can’t speak a lick of English, but damn, can he spell it.”
I laughed as she narrowed her eyes at me.
Playfully shoving my arm, she insisted, “I don’t know. This just seems like a weird thing for a fishing cabin to have, especially when you’re the one living in it.”
“Yeah, well, before it was mine, it was my grandfathers. My brother and I used to come up here to spend some time with him. At night, we’d play a game with him. He’d cheat, we’d get mad and the game would usually end before there was a true winner…You know, normal family game night.”
Cassie gigged, but her eyes were seriously set upon my gaze, “I’m happy that you’ve started talking about your family.”
“I mentioned I had a grandfather and a brother; only one of those is actually any kind of in site into my past. Everybody has a grandfather.”
“But you knew him?” She urged.
“Yeah, I knew him…Unfortunately, that’s about the only thing worth mentioning about my family. My grandfather isn’t here anymore…”
“And your brother?”
“He grew up to be an even bigger dick than I am.”
“That’s hard to believe,” Carrie teased, and I narrowed my eyes at her, feigning insult.
“Thanks,” I answered, “Real nice. Do you want to play a game or not?” I turned my attention back to the box and shuffled through it, trying to direct her away from the questions about my past.
“Sure! What’s your favorite game?” She insisted, peering into the box again, as though she didn’t know what she was doing.
I glared up at her, “Oh no. You’re the one who wanted to play a game. You pick.”
