A green globe with a golden embossed ‘2000’ and stars shooting out like fireworks emerged as I took off the protective wrapping. My breath began t... swirl within me, and my belly tightened. I almost felt faint. I sat down on the couch out of fear that my legs would buckle from the weight of it all. That was the year that our son, Everett, died. His life was cut short just before he had matured into a young man of twenty. ‘Too many dreams left unmanifested,’ I thought. I quickly shook myself. Then her parents found out and made her go back to her own room. Lindsay’s dad got her a lock for the door, telling her it would help her to feel safe. It didn’t. The very first night she was back in her room, she heard the rustling noise again. She’d kept the lamp on but this time the light didn’t seem to help. She huddled there, watching the door and hoping it would go away. Then the blanket moved. She’d stuffed it under the door again as tightly as she could, but now the corner of it was. Like time has stood still for the last three years. People walking up and down the street, entering or exiting properties, I recognised a few faces I use to see when running in the morning, but to them, I was just another face in the crowd.Our flat was in the residential part of Enfield Town, away from the town centre, it was mostly families in this part of Enfield. In the summer you would get the sound of children playing outside. Over the weekend neighbours always had barbeque. What sheate, what she drank, from her favorite coffee to her favorite alcoholicdrink. Her life had become my obsession.Taking a sip of her coffee, the customer spoke, "Girl let me tell you!"Sydney listened to the latest gossip as she worked patiently puttingfoil in her hair. She thought, "The best part of my job is, being thehub for all the latest gossip!" The young lady in the chair had justshared, that she had been having an affair with her boss for the lastthree months, and she wasn't sure.