It was very early in the morning. As the bus kept moving forward, in one of the seats near the window a girl could be seen looking out at the barely discernable shadows running away. She had no particular expression on her face, despite the rattling of the bus, the wind, the strands of her hair that danced about in the wind, the morning mist and seeping coldness, she sat there, lost in thoughts, like a stone statue. Her eyes were open, but they lacked any glitter of life, of hope or happiness; but closely resembled the hollowed out shells of humans that frequent ghost stories and nightmares.
As the first rays of light slowly started spreading visibility around, a small town came to be. It was situated at the bank of a river, cordoned off by two mountains at two sides and in between them, not so far away, a concrete masterpiece of a dam. The bus came to a stop at the riverside station. Seeing the girl so lost and not moving, the elderly man who sat in the nearby seat came to jerk her awake from her stupor.
" Little girl, this is the last stop. Aren't you getting down ? " he asked in obvious concern.
The girl shaken awake from her wide eyed delusions, just stared at the elderly face now marred with lines of frown, like a deer caught in headlights. Seeing her still unmoving the man asked again, this time with more pronounced worry and confusion.
" Are you visiting somebody in here ? Is someone going to pick you up from here ? Are you waiting ?.."
This time the girl was finally aware of her surroundings and quickly stood up and reassured the man.
" Grandpa am good. I was half asleep earlier. Am visiting my cousins, and I know my way around. It's okay. Thanks for waking me up. Bye.."
She collected her travel bag from under the seat and climbed out of the bus, flashing a smile to the elderly man once again. The marketplace nearby to the station was slowly coming alive. She walked amidst the traders setting up their stalls, beggers and cobblers stirring awake, lady's selling flower garlands for the temple and cut to a small pocket road. Walking along the same for about ten minutes, she saw the iron gates of a modest home and an outhouse nearby.
Without any unfamiliarity she climbed over the gates, went straight to the outhouse, found the key near the flower pot, opened the door and made herself home. After sending a message, switching off her phone and changing out of her clothes she proceeded to the kitchen to make some coffee. As the coffee boiled she stopped remembering something; She then opened the back door , went to the front door, locked it , kept the key back in place, came back inside and drank her coffee.