The Smiling Lady

Sarah had never really much cared for her hometown. From school politics to the stench of downtown Cloverville, she began to loathe her very existence in this small town Americana life.

There must be more than this, she thought to herself.

But, was there?

She wasn’t quite sure. The furthest she had made it past Cloverville was a drive “into” the city of Chicago, nearly five years ago on the day. Her parents insisted they didn’t have enough time to actually go into the city, but promised her they would all make it back there before Sarah graduated from Cloverville High School.

Bullshit.

Sarah’s parents were an interesting pair. They had met in college through parties and bouts with drugs, alcohol and the experimentation of the 1960s. It never really added up, and for Sarah, a sense of dread began to overtake her life as she started experimenting with kissing and flirting and dating a small handful of guys throughout her high school.

Am I going to end up like them?

These thoughts and questions consumed her. Ate at her. They basically became the reason for her anxiety diagnosis during her junior year (she had told her parents that the pressures of choosing a college had gotten to her).