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The Disappearing Girl

A Short Story

By Robin LaurinecPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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Hailey held the mug of tea up to her lips and took a deep whiff of the steam rising from the hot liquid. She smiled and slid the back porch door open. Stepping out onto the deck, she looked over the pond. The woods stretched out for miles around her, with only her small cottage peaking out amongst the foliage. The sun was partway into its daily climb in the sky, and the beams of light danced across the lake's frozen surface in intricate patterns. The birds were unusually loud this morning, but Hailey didn't mind. She stood for a minute, not moving a muscle. This is what she loved the most. With the bustle of modern life, it seemed that humans were built for noise and motion, but standing there, Hailey knew that wasn't the case. What humans crave is stillness. The silent contemplation of being. She wasn't into that hippy-dippy free love shit which many people in her position ascribed to. But, there was something powerful in just being. Standing in the wild, untamed brush, there was no pressure to do this or be that. Out on the small deck, she was nothing and everything all at once; a paradox existing in perfect harmony within herself.

It's not like anybody missed her. By the time Hailey reached her twenties, all her family had died except for a cousin who had broken himself off from the family years before. She was alone, lost in the current and flow of the modern world. She had saved up her money and purchased this small cabin. There were no roads leading up to it. It was isolated, and it was perfect. She had packed up a bag of the few essentials she needed, and had left the rest in her apartment. Then, she vanished. Even after all these years, she was still declared a missing person. Of course, not many people were looking for her. Even at her job, only a few people had even noticed that she had disappeared. She had lived like a shadow, and had slipped away in the darkness of night.

Hailey hadn't minded though. Even from a young age, she had been a loner. Living by herself in the woods just seemed like the logical choice to her. Her father had taught her to survive on her own, and she had put those skills to good use. She grew her own food, hunted for meat, and even sewed her own clothing (having stocked up on fabrics before she had abandoned society). She was like an island, alone in the ocean; a complete ecosystem in its own right, independent of the world around it.

She took another long sip of her tea and pulled her jacket tighter around her shoulders. She loved the bitter cold as it nipped at her nose. The steam from her mug swirled in complicated patterns in front of her face as she took another sip. The sun continued its trek and soon, Haley knew, it would be too warm in the sun's beams to enjoy her tea. She looked down at the empty garden boxes glazed over with snow. Come spring, the crops would respawn and she would have strawberries and tomatoes galore. But in the winter, she had to make do with what she could preserve or hunt. She turned and walked back to the door. Resting her hand on the knob, she turned back and looked at the pond one more time. Later today, she would need to traverse onto the glassy surface in search of food, but for now, the lake was still: a vast expanse of infinite possibilities.

Short Story
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