Where Do We Go From Here?

Prologue

At first, Wendy had scrolled straight past it. She’d been mindlessly scrolling, thinking about work and what to make for dinner, so the image had nearly been lost forever in the endless stream of nonsense that is Facebook.

But eventually, once the picture was out of sight, she’d realised something had registered after all – an imprint persisted in her mind’s eye. So, after reading a heavily punctuated rant from a friend, she’d paused, frowned, and scrolled back up.

The image – a meme the youngsters call them, don’t they? – was of a rustic log cabin on the banks of a misty lake. The photo looked as if it had been taken in Norway or some similarly beautiful, chilly place. The fluorescent yellow text, in a horrible cutesy font, read:

Who needs payment? That had been her first clear thought, followed closely by, How is that even a challenge, anyway?

She’d read the text again and murmured out loud the words, ‘NO OTHER PEOPLE.’ Other people are hell, she’d thought. That’s the whole point!

Next, she’d read the comments below the image.

Her friend Jill had written, No dosh required.

Packing my bag right now. Other people, people she didn’t know, had said similar things.

A woman had asked if she could bring her dog, another, a pile of books.

Someone even wanted to bring a horse! The cabin, Wendy had thought with a smile, would end up pretty crowded, and that truly would be hell.

But then her smile had faded and for a few time-stretched minutes she’d frozen, lost in thought, as she imagined herself in that cabin – imagined how profoundly ecstatic it would feel to be that far away from the chaos and complexity of her everyday life.

A strange thing had started to happen: a long-forgotten feeling of desire had begun to rise within her, an emotion so powerful that it would drive everything that came next.

She hadn’t truly wanted anything for so long, that was the thing. None of the options ever seemed to appeal in any way. This meal or that meal? This restaurant or that one? Here, there? With, without? Who gave a damn about any of it? She feared she had lost the ability to care.

But suddenly here was something she wanted – no, it was more than that – something she needed: a break, alone, away from all of it.

And to think she’d almost scrolled straight past!