Back Here Again (Story by Jill inspired by Jennifer's photo)

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Jennifer gave me this photo as my prompt on September 4, 2021. I love the image, but it didn't really prompt any story ideas right away—well, except for maybe finding someone in the woods (and I had just written something like that for the last prompt)! But then I came up with this idea.


Back Here Again

When I get really mad, I have a spot I go to that helps me clear my head. It’s in the woods, sort of. I mean, there’s woods around it that I walk through to get there—I guess that's more accurate to say. So that’s part of the mood shift too, I think. The walk, I mean.

We live about a half mile from the woods and then maybe another mile walk through it to get to my spot. Usually by the time I sit down and watch the river quickly flowing over rocks, I already feel somewhat better.

I forget about the stupid SATs and the fact that Brandon Ryan asked my best friend to go to Homecoming instead of me. And that she said yes ...

I forget about the fact that my sister left for college—and that I really miss her. And now I’m home alone with my parents who are always fighting about money and who left the lights on and where they want to go for dinner … and pretty much everything. 

I forget about the fact that I didn’t get cast in the show I just auditioned for, and now I have nothing to keep me busy except for coming here, I guess.

And here I sit, imaging what it would be like to be a drop of water in the river, quickly flowing downstream. And then I start dreaming about how my life is going to turn out when I can finally leave this small, narrow-minded town that I live in. And then when I realize that I’m not mad anymore, I go back home—back to my current reality—and put up with it all until it gets to be too overwhelming that I find myself back here again.


—Jill Cullen (written on 9.11.2021)



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