Lottie woke to the sound of hail tapping at her window.
It was cold in her room, cold enough to prevent her from going back to sleep easily, but not cold enough to justify walking across the hall to the ancient thermostat and shifting it to the “on” position.
She wrestled with sleep for a few minutes, but, not finding it, she resigned to start her morning routine.
After slipping on her pants, she dug around the dirty and clean piles of clothes in her room in search of a rain coat.
“Wintry mix,” she thought. What a strange word.
It was still mid-March, so this chilled weather wasn’t uncommon for Illinois; but still, it was a sharp contrast from the sixty-degree weather they had the week before.
Spotting her raincoat at the bottom of one of the “dirty” piles, she snatched it with a vigor unbeffiting of her sleepy state. It was her old roomates’ jacket. She didn’t much mind it now, though. It was just a piece of clothing. The memory of her former best friend and the betrayal had long since been washed out in several laundry cycles.
Now, it was merely a jacket.
Zipping it up to her chin, she eased her way down the stairs, each step groaning. They, too, had been awoken far too early.
Grabbing a smoothie from the refrigerator and her keys from the counter, Lottie started making her way to the campus recreational facility. It was a brisk morning, and the gentle rain helped bring her to her senses.
There’s something clean about a cold rain. Something purifying. She longed to live in a cold rain forever.
The new parking lot in front of the gym had been finished before the first snow came, so she cut across the lot for the first time. She felt a little shifty. There was no fence and no tape blocking the lot, but still, she felt as if she were breaking a rule and hoped that no one had seen her cross.
Forgetting all about the parking lot, she began debating whether or not to drive home before her first class.
She always felt so uncomfortable lounging about her childhood home, but the drive always brought her much joy. The bustling city transformed into rolling hills before her eyes, to her great delight. She resigned to go.
