REJECTED BY LOVE

New York1921The Brooklyn Bridge remains a torturous nightmare and Eloise would do anything to stay away from it. It has been six years since she left her hometown and moved to the big city. A city that she had heard so much about but still, she has yet to allow herself make sense of how the bridge could be standing. The first that she had heard of New York was from the eldest Wheatley son, Philip, who had gone to college there. She remembers how she listened to him talk about tall buildings, cigars and women in elaborate hats with such keen interest. She remembers how she and Mary Lou had spent the next few days pretending to be women in New York, fanciful and rich. However, when she got into the city, none of it was as she had imagined it would be. At sixteen, Eloise was ill-prepared to live on her own so far away from home, but she had made her decision and could not afford to look back. Her first home and first disillusionment of what life in the city ought to be was a tenement

Eloise is back in the woods. The same woods that she ran through when she was sixteen. This time though, she is wearing the same dress that she went to Stanley’s house in. In the distance, she can see a figure running in the woods, fast as lightning and headed towards her. Eloise turns on her heels and runs away but she just cannot move as fast as she ought to. She looks back to see that the undiscernible figure is getting closer but when she looks forward again, she finds herself at a precipice.Eloise awakes with a jerk. Her heart is still beating fast as though she is in danger. She clutches her chest and tries to calm herself by taking in deep breaths. She has not had this kind of vivid dream about those woods in a long while. Not since a few weeks after she arrived in New York when she still lived in the tenement. She had managed to push the memories away and save herself from the torture of the nightmares. Now, it seems that something is triggering their return. Eloise knows wha

Eloise returns home that morning with a burning in her mind that she just cannot shake off. It is not just the oak tree or the woods. It is the entire town. It has become a disease to her and if she is not careful, it will chip at her slowly and eat up all of her sanity. Otherwise, how can she explain her breakdown in the woods? To make things easier, Eloise decides that she will not inform her father of her decision to return to New York until she has packed her bags so that he cannot convince her to stay. Sure, he cannot take care of himself yet but Eloise knows that Mary Lou will check up on him. Also, while she has not confronted the issues of her past and is certain that she still cannot talk about them with Stanley or anybody, she has had enough and is uninterested in doing any more confronting.As she throws her clothes into her bag in a disorderly manner, she hears a knock at the door. Eloise groans as she heads towards it. The people of this town have such poor timing, she t

Blue Creek, Montana As far as Eloise is concerned, it is only by sheer luck that her anxiety has not killed her. Not once in her twenty-three years in life, has she been so disturbed, mentally and physically. Last night, she had barely made it through dinner with her father, fiddling with the chicken like a child and answering his inquiries of what is wrong with nods and grunts, unable to even look at him. Truthfully, she wants to act as though nothing is wrong and that everything is just as it should be but it is not everyday that one finds out their father is a rapist murderer. As if the biggest revelation of her life is not enough hassle, her fiancé, Stanley who by all indications is the love of her life had showed up unannounced and asked her to move on from the town with him. He even gave her an ultimatum which expires in the morning. When she was twelve years old, Eloise had heard their neighbor, Mrs. Erin Wheatley, say that she was caught between a rock and hard place. How d

New YorkStanley drives into his parents’ mansion on Long Island at a breakneck speed and with a big smile on his face. If he were to be running, he would have skipped a few steps or maybe even burst into song about how happy he is. He gets out of the car with the same energy and joy and heads to the front door, swinging it open in one quick motion.“Mother! Father! Charlotte!” He calls out but gets only silence in response.Mildred emerges hurriedly from the living room area with a look of surprise on her face and smiles when she sees Stanley. “Mr. Bradshaw, you are welcome back.”“Thank you, Mildred. Where are my parents?”“They are in the back. Ms. Bradshaw has a meet.”Stanley gives Mildred a smile of appreciation and heads towards the back of the house. As he expects, the field is packed with their friends and family as it always is whenever Charlotte has a polo meet. He quickly spots Charlotte on the far end of the field on top of the big brown stallion that she had chosen herse