1 Nora

As she stared out across the water, Nora's hair fluttered around her face. It looked like it was going to rain, and she couldn't risk her laptop, so she started packing up, signaling the waiter to bring her check.

She had only written two words, "chapter one". She never imagined telling her own story would be this hard. Her therapist said writing it all down would be cathartic, but Nora was more concerned with someone putting the pieces together. What if she was hacked? What if they found her? What if, what if, what if? Her brain couldn't stop coming up with more reasons to not even start. She didn't even notice the waiter walk up and tensed as he lightly touched her shoulder to bring her out of her reverie.

"Oh, thank you." She mumbled as heat rose to her cheeks.

"Sorry, Clara, didn't mean to frighten you. You can pay up front when you're ready."

Clara. What an uninteresting name they'd chosen for her. Though she supposed that was the point wasn't it? To be boring, uninteresting, and invisible.

Nora walked to the counter, leaving some bills on the table for Josh, the waiter, and paid her tab. She'd become a regular at this little seafront cafe, and Joanie, the young girl who worked the register, smiled as she approached.

"Ah, Clara, back again today?"

"I'm back again every day, Joanie! I just can't resist your cinnamon coffee. Josh brags, but I know you're the genius that makes it!"

Nora laughed inwardly at Joanie's blushing cheeks and patted her hand affectionately.

"It's all right, dear, your secret is safe with me."

Nora started the short walk back to her cottage as the first sprinkles started to fall. If not for her computer bag she probably would've stayed out in it until she was soaked. She loved the rain, and secretly wished one day it would rain so hard she'd float away. Then she could forget the mess she'd gotten herself into for good.

The first thing she did walking into her cottage was put the kettle on. Coffee was her weakness, but tea was her strength. She changed out of her wet clothes into her favorite sweatpants and a t-shirt before pulling her laptop out of her bag to double check it wasn't damaged. The rain was colder here in Maine, so she decided a warm lunch would be appropriate as well.

Once she was comfortably seated on the new couch she took stock. She'd been in this little house for a week, but looking around at the new furniture, appliances, and clothes everything still felt foreign. She absently wondered if she would ever feel at home again. She assumed she was safe now, she knew she was more comfortable here than at the detention center or at the hotel they'd put her up in, and though she hated her old life she did miss her friends. Well, her friend. She opened the laptop again and the words staring back, "chapter one", seemed to mock her. How could she start at the beginning? She didn't even know what the beginning truly was.

She sighed, closing the laptop once more, and decided to call her case manager. Maybe she'd have some advice.

Back at the Cafe

As John started clearing Nora's table he was lost in thought. Clara seemed so cheerful when she spoke to everyone, but he felt her go cold when she'd gaze off into nothing. She didn't answer him today when he asked if she'd like anything to go, and when he touched her it felt like her eyes pierced straight through his soul. Though it only lasted a moment it was clear that she was terrified. How could a simple graze cast that much fear into such a lighthearted persons eyes?

Joanie cleared her throat behind him.

"You do realize there's only one cup right?"

John quickly reached for the towel in his back pocket, wiped the table, and moved towards the kitchen without responding. Joanie chuckled to herself as he passed, but something made her pause.

"Hey, John, wasn't Miss Clara wearing lipstick today?"

"Yeah, why?"

She looked at the cup and thought to herself, "Man, I need to find out what brand she uses, it didn't rub off at all."

Back at Nora's Cottage

Tara picked up on the second ring, and Nora could tell she was smiling when she said hello, but quickly her tone turned worried.

"Have you been contacted by anyone? Did something happen?" Tara asked hurriedly.

"No, no, nothing like that. I'm just having trouble settling in. I'm not sure what to do with myself. I'm relatively safe, the community is friendly, and with the house and stipend from the state I live comfortably, but I'm so bored. What do people do after something like this?"

Tara knit her eyebrows together on the other end of the line. She'd never had someone ask her that before. "Well, I suppose most people get a quiet job that doesn't draw much attention so people don't wonder how they afford to live, and a lot of people join book clubs or something to make friends, and some people fully embrace the new life and start over, get married, have kids. It just depends."

Nora's eyes bulged. She couldn't imagine someone in her position ever wanted to get married again, but a job she could probably do.

"That's not a bad idea. I'll start hunting for a job in the morning, and maybe that will take some time off my hands, and then I won't have so much time to think! Thanks, Tara!"

"That's not what I-!" That's not what I meant, Tara thought as she heard the line click.