The phone call had come out of the blue. Veronica recognised the voice immediately. It was from such a long time ago that she could have blown the cobwebs off it. As soon as she heard it she was reminded of the time that they used to spend together at the clubs down in King St, Melbourne so many years ago. Short skirts, teased hair, lippy, earrings, tight tops and high heels, music, drink, men and everything else. What a wild time they had. What different time that seemed to be from now. Veronica had closed that whole part of her memory as though it did not exist and here she was being woken from 20 years sleep.
Suddenly she was gasping for air. Her suburban life was sucking her dry. Veronica could hear Simone sucking on a fag and the longing came back, even after all of those years. Veronica yearned for a life that had a buzz again. Her heart was leaping with fear and excitement at the idea. This was just what she needed right now. Something to get the hell out of here.
Life was not what she had really planned. Here she was trudging through the humdrum of life and suburbia: meals, cleaning, lunches, washing. On and on it went. Veronica had been caught in Ground Hog day for too long and thought that she would never be free of it. She was sucked dry. She could hardly even remember who she was any more. Her name bore a vague resemblance to her. Other than that, there was little else. There didn't seem to be much point in throwing the lippy on anymore or doing the hair. It was just trackies & frumpiness for Veronica for years.
When it came to the day, it seemed all to easy to arrange. Make the lunches, wipe the benches, drop the kids at school, come home and pack the bags. This was the easy part. In fact, it was down right exciting and Veronica had to stop herself from shouting about it to everyone around her. Everything seemed to be done a little faster than usual and Veronica was shaking the whole way through. This was just the break that she needed. She deserved it after all of these years. It was all going to change from here. No note. She didn't feel like it. It didn't seem like that it would do any of it justice anyway. Maybe she might come back. She didn't know. The excitement was a little sickening.
Bags packed and clothes changed. Trackies folded onto the queen sized bed. Never to be worn again. Time to leave now. Heels on, mini skirt on, hair teased, lippy on. Walk out the door. Veronica paused at the hall mirror. Behind her was the family portrait. With that she turned and removed her heels from her cold, cold feet and put them into her warm ugg boots and got on with her day.
Thanks Pip for the theme for this weeks (creative!!) words and pictures!
