Six Months Later
Morgan rolled over and stretched as the bright sunlight streamed in through the crack in the curtains. She raised her arms high above her head and felt her whole body slowly awaken, as she worked up the courage to open her eyes.
She felt so warm and snug, she couldn’t believe she had to drag her ass out of bed and start the day.
“Dammit,” she whispered as she buried her face back into her pillow. “Just one more hour…”
She peeked through her eyelids and looked at the time on her alarm clock. It was almost seven thirty and she knew she had to get up, shower, and dress, and out to work within the hour.
She grumbled as she pulled the blankets up over her head and wrapped them tightly around herself.
She didn’t want to move, and she felt incredibly resentful at the fact that morning had come around so soon, when it only felt like mere seconds since she had closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
With a big sigh and a heave of the duvet, she sat up and swung her legs around to the side and let her feet touch down gently on the floor. She cricked her neck and rolled out her shoulders, before she rose to stand and crossed over to the window.
She peeled back the curtain and looked outside and at the wonderful view she would never, ever tire of.
Wakestone Mountain was sprawled out ahead of her, and she could see a fresh smattering of snow up toward the top as its peak disappeared into the clouds. She smiled and pressed her nose against the cold glass as she cast her eyes around the forest before her.
She had lived in the idyllic mountain town her entire life, and yet it still surprised her when she really stopped and took stock of its beauty. It was such a stunning place to live, and yet it was almost as if she was so used to it, she took it for granted. So, she tried to appreciate what she had around her every once in a while, and this particular morning, she was becoming fully sucked in to her incredible surroundings.
“If only I didn’t have to work,” she pouted as she looked up toward the mountain. “I’d be out there climbing and exploring.”
She pulled the curtains open fully so the sunlight streamed in, and then turned and headed toward her adjoining bathroom. She turned on the shower and let the water heat up, and when the steam was rising throughout the entire room, she slipped off her nightdress and jumped in.
As the water washed over her, she felt herself becoming more invigorated and awake, and she finally felt as if she were ready to take on the day.
She stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself up in a big, fluffy towel, before she headed back into her bedroom and started to get ready.
She had been working in the store for the past couple of months, but it had done nothing but drain her spirit and was starting to make her wish she had skipped town after she had finished high school. Morgan had always loved her hometown, and she had always been a home bird, but there had never been too many opportunities for a girl like her there. Most of her friends had left and started lives in the city far, far away. But Morgan had stayed close to what she held dear, and had settled well into small town life.
The store sold pretty much everything, and it was well known in the community. She didn’t like her boss, and she didn’t really enjoy the work, but the main thing was that it gave Morgan time to work on her art. She was a creative soul, who loved expressing herself through her craft, and so when she managed to bag herself a job at the general store, she had decided it was much better for her in the long run. It may not have been a career job, and she wasn’t short of smarts and intelligence, but she knew what she wanted to do. And studying to become something that wasn’t in her heart and soul was only going to be a waste of time.
She still remembered the way her mother had looked at her when she had told her she wouldn’t be going off to college. It had been the look of fear, followed by immense disappointment.
But Morgan had been determined.
“I don’t want to waste all of that money. I know I have talent and I want to explore that, it’s what I’m passionate about,” she had said.
Her mother’s face dropped, almost like she had been slapped right across it.
“You can’t bank on that working out,” her mother had told her. “You need to go to college, so you have something to fall back on at least.”
“It isn’t me, mom,” she had protested. “I know my own mind, and I know what I want to do. College isn’t going to be for me. I want to create, I want to stay close to home, and I want to take my time. I don’t want to be forced into something unnecessarily which will only waste all of our energy.”
She had watched her friends being sent off to college, and she had seen some of them return after a year or two, completely disheartened and broke. She wasn’t going to be that person.
Morgan was mature, she was determined, and she knew her own mind. It may not have been everyone’s ideal scenario, staying close to home and living in the log cabin right at the bottom of their parents’ garden, but she knew if she wanted to make a living with her creativity, this was something that was going to have to happen.
“Temporary sacrifices for long-term gain,” she had told her mother. “I know I’m making the right choice.”
“I hope you’re right, Morgan,” her mother had sighed. “You are far too intelligent to waste your brain.”
“I’m not wasting it if I’m doing something I’m passionate about,” she said with a raised brow.
Her mother had held her hands up in defeat and agreed to let her follow her heart. After all, who knew Morgan better than Morgan?...