Chapter 1: The Student

First lockdown has ended and classes are about to resume, but nothing is as it was.

Leanne regards her studies as outdated for an utterly changed world, and decides to do something to help others instead. Her friend Alex has a plane and he is so in when she suggests volunteering in Morocco, and will fly them there.

Soon, the sky above and the sands of the Sahara below will tell their tale.

Chapter 1

 

RIPPLES ON THE golden dunes told the tale of the wind that had buffeted her threadbare tent in the night. As she climbed the monolith that had confronted her as darkness fell, her footprints marred the perfect patterns nature had created, but she needed to see what lay on the other side, and artistry be damned. Her breath shortened, partly from the ascent, and partly from the hope she still nurtured, a hope that might soon be as scarred as the swirling lines she stumbled over. The expectation of disappointment caused her breath to hitch repeatedly.

Eddies lifted the fine sand she disturbed into tiny whirlwinds, but otherwise the world was unmoving, silent … abandoned.

Closing her eyes as her line of sight drew level with the apex of the dune, she lunged upward for the last two increments needed, and then stood there, eyes closed.

If she did not look, nothing in her world changed. She could go back down and walk the other way with the sameness and the desperation she gradually grew accustomed to.

If she did look, either something different awaited her regard and therefore a decision, or the sea of sand would be as it was yesterday and the day before yesterday. The latter was the disappointment she sought to avoid.

Untenable. She was not a coward.

She opened her eyes.

Almost she surrendered to utter distress, for the waterless sea stretched before her, as it had yesterday, and the yesterday before that, and then a glint snatched her attention and stretched it further, farther into distance. There it was. The faintest line.

Difference.

The ocean.

She fell to her knees and sobbed her relief.

  

Twelve days ago

ENOUGH. SHE HAD literally had enough.

Leanne punched her pillow as she rolled over. Bolting upright, she shoved her pink roses comforter to the foot of the bed and planted her feet on the wooden floor. After a month gone, and good riddance, Steve’s self-satisfied face continued to haunt her dreams. Enough already. Today was the day she positioned his residual influence on her mental health behind a brick wall and slathered it in concrete to seal it, and him, eternally away.

Nodding decisively, she strode to the bathroom.

Yes, today was the day.

Bloody Steve. With his good looks and glib tongue, he had her eating out of his hand within an hour of meeting him, but she denied him, didn’t trust that someone as charismatic as him could be interested in her, didn’t trust how he bestowed that million-dollar smile on every woman who entered his orbit either.

Now she understood that her standoffish attitude was the lure for him. She was a challenge, and he had never been interested in her.

Then she believed she meant something to him. Should have trusted her initial instincts.

Ha. And again, he intruded.

Enough, Leanne. Grow a pair. Stuff him. The last year? Chalk it up to experience, and move on.

In the interest of moving on, she took added care with her appearance, straightening her shoulder length, dark brown hair, even swirled some eyeshadow on, intensifying her blue eyes. While she wasn’t in the market, and probably wouldn’t be for a while, looking good made her feel good. Today was a new day, and she needed the boost.

Time ticked by …

… hell, now she would be late!

Leanne raced for her flat’s front door - only door, really - checking that she had everything as she opened it. Phone. Tablet. Keys … keys? Where are my bloody keys? Right. In my hand. Hand sanitiser. Sunglasses. Mask. Hair band. Where’s my notebook?

After grabbing her notebook from the tiny table that doubled as a desk, she swanned out.

Today was also the first day back to lectures after lockdown restrictions had been lifted. She couldn’t wait to see her friends again. Just the balm she needed to put all thoughts of Steve aside.

 

IT WASN’T THE same.

The lecture hall was virtually empty to allow for social distancing. No one smiled; more correctly, she couldn’t see anyone smile, or grimace, or blow kisses across the room; everyone and their emotions were hiding behind masks.

Draconian measures were in place. Walk there, not here. Stay apart, do not gather! Masks - mandatory. Even in class. She had yet to see either Laine or Gerry, and that was just wrong. She had hoped to see Alex, too, but Alex, she knew, would not come for this chaotic first day; no, he would wait it out in style and swan in later.

Leanne stared down at her tablet. She lifted her head to gaze down at Mr Lowry spouting some philosophy about History belonging to the victors … and couldn’t care less. This new normal sucked. Had they, students, kids everywhere, the goddamned entire world, spent months waiting for this? Had she put up with Steve and his surliness in her 6 x 10 flat for … this? At least it showed her the real Steve, but today was meant to be a fresh start. Oh, it was new all right, only not the kind she had expected. Preparing for this, knowing there would be restrictions and change, was not the same as having to actually live it.

Shoving her tablet back into her holdall alongside her tattered notebook, she stood and made her way to the exit.

“Miss Deacon? Leaving us?”

At the door she turned. “Sorry, Mr Lowry. I’ll be doing the online courses instead.” Offering no further explanation, she left.

THE STUDENT