So yeah, she was in a rut. And living out here, more than an hour away from Dallas and her friends, she suspected that rut was going to get deeper. It wasn’t like she knew anyone in the area any longer. She’d moved away when she was eighteen, losing touch with her old high school friends within months as she made new ones in college. She stared at the wall, trying to remember some of her friends from back then. While names popped into her head, the faces remained fuzzy. Oh, well. She turned her attention to her laptop and the blank page staring her in the face.

If only she could write.

Something.

Anything.

* * *

“Do you have binoculars?”

“Why on earth would I have binoculars?”

“You live out in the country. Everyone has binoculars.”

Her mother motioned to the closet. “Look in there. Frankie may have had some. And why do you want them?”

“I want to spy on the neighbor,” she said as she rummaged in a very cluttered closet. “What is all this stuff?”

“Frankie’s stuff.”

She found the binoculars and pulled them out from under a stack of fishing magazines. Did he fish?

“So we can throw all of this out now, right?”

“I spoke with his nephew at the funeral. I told him to come by if he wanted anything, but I haven’t heard from him.”

Laura closed the closet door. “Did he have much family?”

“None that live here, no. The nephew was the only one who bothered to come to the funeral. Terrible.”

“Was there anyone at the funeral, Mom?”

Her mother sighed. “Not many, no. For some reason, my friends didn’t warm up to Frankie.”

Laura snorted. “Really? For some reason? Maybe it’s the same reason your daughters didn’t warm up to him.” She held her hand up. “But we’re not talking about this, remember? Truce.”

“Truce. Now, why are you spying on the neighbor?”

“Because they’re having a party.”

“Oh? And?”

Laura grinned. “Women in bikinis.”

Her mother laughed and waved her away. “Well, by all means, spy away.”

She turned all the lights out upstairs, then pulled her chair closer to the window in her writing room. She hid behind the drapes, only opening them enough to stick the binoculars out.

“Oh my God,” she murmured. Definitely lesbians. Hordes of them. Oh, okay. There were a few guys. Kissing. Great! Her neighbor was having a gay bash. Half of the people were in swimsuits. Some of them should not be in swimsuits.

Oh…there’s that anorexic blonde again. God, she’s pasty white.

“Who’s she kissing now?”

I wonder who the owner is.