Curiosity

So here I am again, another day another short thing. I'm not sure you can call this one a story:

Curiosity killed the cat. Every day curiosity kills and every day curiosity saves. Its not always a bad thing though.

Elliot had never considered herself a curious person, if there was a locked room to her she didn't care. In school she accepted what the people said, then would go home and think nothing of it. If people had secrets they had secrets, what was it to her what went on in their lives?

Frankie was the opposite, if there was a locked room she couldn't sleep until she had discovered whats inside. In school if people said something, she would wonder and wonder about it until she had unearthed why things were that way. If people had secrets, well she always found out. For this she was always getting into trouble and tight situations.

Just as their personalities were opposite so was where they lived, Elliot lived on the council estate in a small terraced house with the smallest garden on the wrong side of the town. Frankie lived in a house where the garden stretched all the way round and the only way to reach it was to go up the private road that lead only to her home. Elliot went to a public school, where she was constantly ignored, not that that was a bad thing for her. Frankie went to a preppy private school where her teachers constantly tried to whip her into 'a proper young lady', where all of the stuck up students hated her and she hated them.

This huge house was never enough for Frankie, the cold floors and large rooms had long been explored by her and now she was bored. With her parents rarely home, she took to the gardens, then when they had bored her, she took to the streets of town.

Here she found a completely different world. No more perfect plants, but wilted, dying, overgrown thorny bushes. No clean and clear road, now twisted alleys and bumpy tracks. Then there was the cans and bottles laying at every corner, the smoke of cigarettes thick and strangling and the noise that seemed to be coming from nowhere. The further she walked the worse it got, till the point even she could no longer stand. She turned to go back and found she had lost her way.

As she stood there, she found thoughts and answers running clearly into her mind. The reason her parents had always took her out of town for days out, why they had banned her from coming here. Why, even though there were schools in this town, she had to travel three towns over everyday for lessons.

Meanwhile, Elliot was sat in her room watching her 4 year old sister sleep in the small bed, when her mom shouted up to her.
'Oi, Ell, Jackson is coming round in 5 and that's how long you've got until you have to bugger off. We want the house tonight, no kids. So take your sister with you.'
She groaned and stood up deciding she will wake her sister last and started collecting up a few things. A blanket, her purse with a single ten pound note tucked inside, a toy, a pack of cards, her coat and last the sleeper pram. Her sister was old enough not to have to use it, but it was late and she would want to sleep. Then she shook her sister, who looked at her confused.
'Whaat now?'
Elliot couldn't help but smile at the attempt to sound like her and the way it had come out no more vicious or angry than a young kittens meow.
'Jackson' she whispered quietly 'we have to go out.'
The teenager picked up her sister and wrapped her up in the pram.
'Go to sleep little kitty'

In the darkness of the street, a door opened spraying light into the mist. Frankie waited, apprehensive about this interruption of her adventure. From the light emerged a pram and a smallish girl wrapped up warmly, it was only then she realized how, in her words, 'bloody cold' she was.

Elliot didn't notice the shadow until she was mere meters from it. True to her nature she ignored it and continued on her journey.

Frankie had expected at least a look or a glance from the girl, which would have given her the chance to ask. Yet nothing. It was as if she didn't exist at all and Frankie wasn't used to this. So she followed, expecting her answers to be with this teen.

Minutes passed, the small family leading the shadow through even more back alleys and strange paths until they reached a pub lie building and stopped. Except this wasn't a pub as such, it couldn't have been because instead of windows there were boards and the fence was high and metal. Still Frankie followed. This is where she caught up with the girl, who at this time was trying to force open the stiff door.

'Would you appreciate a hand?'
Silence sounded for what seemed ages as the two girls took in each others image.
'What?' Compared to the polite confidence of Frankie's voice, this sounded like, well like the bottom end of a mongrel.
'I'm sorry to interrupt your travel, but could you please help me. My name is Frankie and I might be just a bit lost.'

They talked for a little while, or it could have been a long time. Where they were there was no real way of telling. Frankie asked question after question, Elliot didn't mind too much. They talked about family, school and all the usual teenager things. Frankie talked a lot, about her life, about her boredom and how she had come to be here. Slowly but surely as they talked, they walked and soon Frankie had found herself back at the entrance to her road.

Walking a up the path, she continued the conversation. Elliot's replies came rarely, getting smaller and further in between until it was as if she wasn't even there. Frankie turned around, to see nothing.

Years later and Frankie still wonders about this night. Once a week she still walks those streets, but their paths never crossed again. Elliot never met Frankie again but a piece of her stuck and through that she confronted her mom and no longer put up with the way things were.

I will admit, it became a little rushed near the end. I got a bit bored, sorry. I hope you like and remember a little bit of curiosity is a good thing, don't just accept things the way they are, but don't go too overboard because you might find yourself lost.

PRx