2000

 

Tina Kennard was — what?  Discomforted, anxious, worried, just a little nervous, unsettled – she ran the choices through her head and liked the last one best and settled it on her shoulders.  She knew that it wasn’t quite accurate but would do until the correct one sprung up. 

She had checked the pantry for missing items, whether laundry needed to be done, if any bills needed to paid or letters returned.  She ground fresh coffee beans and ran the ridiculously expensive maker, but the cup she had made was almost untouched since she had lost interest in the newspaper she had been reading.  She left the kitchen table in search of the crime novel that was half finished. She smiled – so many years, and Bette still teased her about her reading preferences.  She read the trashy fiction for almost 15 minutes, but rose again.

“Restless,” Tina triumphantly observed, finally coming up with the description that best suited her mood.  Identifying her mood, though, made no difference to her behavior and she continued to flit from activity to activity, unable to settle.

She wandered upstairs to the small deck off of their bedroom.  Bette had had it built a few years ago so that Tina could spend time outside while recuperating from the broken hip that Ravenwood had gifted her.  From the deck, Tina could see their entire property and miles beyond, not so difficult since the land was so flat.  She looked towards the stable and spotted the offender as he had trotted around the paddock’s fences.  He  tossed the mane she had lovingly brushed that morning, all offenses forgiven ages ago.  She laughed to herself, recognizing that she had had a soft spot for brunettes all of her life.

Tina quickly looked at her watch. She scanned the sky for approaching aircraft even though she knew that it was too early. The expanse of sky still surprised her, as did the flatness of the landscape.  Every place was brown except large expanses of their own property.  She had pouted that she missed the landscape of her childhood and Bette had promised to transform their home to the lush green that Tina remembered.  “Lush” had been more than even Bette Porter and an irrigation system that likely rivaled that of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon could arrange, but grass and trees did surround the house and far beyond.