Flannery Pratt

Flannery Pratt had never made a decision that could be considered noteworthy.

When she stood on the rickety and slanted train platform, she was still. Her eyes scanned the posted flyers; schedules and maps, listings for rooms and employment, and wanted posters which fluttered with the same restlessness she assumed their counterparts possessed.

Her father had left her there without ceremony. In one hand she gripped the worn handles of her carpet bag. In the other, $80 to cover travel and food. She had only packed a few items. There were letters from her father, intended only for a man named Phillip Parson. Beneath that sat her mother's chipped hairbrush, another dress that wasn’t quite as pretty as the new one she wore, and instructions for her arrival. She hadn't read them yet, figuring there would be plenty of time aboard the train.

She had never met the man she was betrothed to and wondered at the kind of person he might be. Would she be happy? Would he love her? Would he welcome the idea of her siblings following after? Would she even be able to wrestle them away from her father?

Flannery diverted her thoughts and anxiously scanned the pages, settling her eyes on the schedule and ticket prices. The train to Cody, Wyoming would leave in the next half hour with her, so long as she obeyed.

Wind howled by, past the town and guided by the alleys and streets that led to the station. It forced her to steady herself, lest she flew away with the postings it had torn from their pins. She swallowed her own dusty spit and watched for a moment as the pages soared against the sky, ushered higher and farther as the gust continued. She steeled herself, hair whipping at her face, ready to turn and enter the station.

With her hand on the door, another gust tore through. This time it ripped at her dress and forced yet another page free from it's tack. Beneath it, hidden till then without care, was a second listed schedule, this one now fully exposed. At the end of the list, another city sat printed. San Francisco, California – one way ticket for $75 dollars leaving in 3 hours.

She had heard men discussing the promise of a new life in California. They spoke as though the land itself was a gift. Earth that bore fruit willingly. A sun that never set. And water that sparkled like silver.

Now she stood there; a life planned for her, or a life without plans at all; finally a decision she had to make for herself.

***

If you could have a choice to do over again, what would it be? If you're feeling bold, share what (or who) you'd choose instead. Why would that make all the difference for you?

I wish I'd chosen to live for myself rather than my jobs in the past.

Any of them.

All of them.

I sacrificed holidays and celebrations, vacations and friendships for people who decided my dedication and hard work still just didn't cut it. I think I'd have been a lot happier earlier on. I would have found my peace and my passions when I still had the energy to enjoy it.

Yours,

S. E. Barry