Someone

Standing at the coffee maker, Cathy yawned and leaned on the counter. Looking out her office front door window, she noticed the bright orange color of the leaves popped against the dark gray sky. There’s a gentle breeze blowing, as she watches the branches sway back and forth. The gurgling sound of the Keurig pulls her back into focus, “ugh, it’s too early for this”. Cathy goes behind the coffee station to the large bottles of water plugged into the machine. There is barely enough water, and the sensor probe won’t reach the bottom. She drags a new fresh jug over, which is too heavy for her to lift and she is alone. She replaces it and goes back to the front to make her cup again. Listening to the smooth drip of the coffee flowing, she takes another glance at the front door and on the floor, there is an envelope. “That’s strange, that wasn’t here before.” Cathy goes over to the envelope, she picks it up, it’s crisp and not worn anywhere. The front is blank but there is a note inside, she takes the folded paper out:

SOMEONE

The note is clean, typed and folded with sharp corners. Cathy flips the note over but that is all it says. “Someone, what? Well, I can’t worry about this right now, I’m getting a late start to my morning as it is, it must be garbage anyways” and she throws the note out. The office I so quiet first thing in the morning, Cathy gets in hours before anyone else does so that she can leave early. Mornings when it is bright and sunny it is nice being here alone, but on gloomy days like this Cathy looks forward to hearing other people coming in. She goes up the carpeted stairs to her office on the second floor. Her bright corner desk beckons for another day of spreadsheets, emails, and company messages. She sits in her chair and starts sorting her emails, cleaning out the junk so she can get to the priorities. Laughing at a meme one of her coworkers sent her the day before, she takes a sip of coffee, BANG! “Ahhh! What was that?!” BANG! “Ok that’s it, what the heck is going on!” Cathy gets up from her seat and walks toward the noise, it is coming from the back of the building. The office building is located in a rural area, where there are a lot of trees and woodland creatures. She sees a squirrel on the lawn, BANG! Out of the corner of her eye, she notices a walnut rolling off the roof line. “Oh! Ha! That’s what that noise is, stupid walnuts hitting the roof, get yourself together Cathy!” Laughing to herself, Cathy heads back to her desk, sits down and sees a blank envelope on her keyboard. She pales. There is no one here but her, she is the one that disarms the alarm and she would have heard if someone else came in. Right? Hands shaking Cathy opens the envelope and pulls out the folded piece of paper:

      IS

Once again, the note is typed and folded with precision. “Ok this is becoming too much, something’s not right”. Cathy messages her boss telling him she is not feeling well, and she is going to work from home today. She dumps her poor cup of coffee she never got to drink, grabs her laptop and coat, and heads downstairs. Cathy pauses at the alarm to arm it. “If there’s anyone else moving in the building, I won’t be able to arm it, and I’ll call the police”. She waits, but the alarm pad activates, signaling she is alone. She shuts off the lights, sets the alarm, and heads back out into the crisp morning air. The commute back to her apartment takes Cathy through beautiful back roads, especially with the leaves changing their colors getting ready for Winter. Near her apartment there is a general store, and before she goes home, she stops to grab bread. She pulls into the gravel parking lot and goes inside. It’s a rustic old colonial blue house turned into a store by the new owners. The old clapboard floors creak and there is a comforting smokey aroma from the wood stove in the air. “Morning Ken, just the loaf of bread today thanks”. She pays for her bread and goes back to the car. When she opens the door, she screams, on her front seat is a plain white envelope. She should go back inside. She should call the police. “What am I going to tell them? I’m being harassed by stationary? This has to be some kind of prank, I’ll see if any of my friends had the day off and are messing with me”. She pulls out of the parking lot and drives home. She is paying attention to her surroundings now, no one is following her, there are no other cars coming on the road.

 Cathy pulls into her driveway and goes to her apartment, which is above a garage. It’s a nice setup, she has solitude, and yet there are people in the main house, so she isn’t altogether alone. She goes inside, sets up her laptop and logs back on, wanting to forget the envelope placed on her seat. She tries. She stalls, and when she can’t any longer, she opens the note:

     C o m i n g

A sweat breaks out on Cathy’s brow. This note isn’t crisp and neat like the other ones. This is handwritten and the paper is torn on the edge. Cathy doesn’t have any enemies, at least none she knows of, no angry ex-boyfriends, she can’t think of who would be doing this to her. She texts her best friend Marge

- Are you messing with me?

- What are you talking about?

- The notes, are you leaving me the notes?

- Girl, what notes, I’m heading to work.

- You promise?

- Cathy, what notes?!

- Never mind, I’ll explain when I see you later. Are we on for drinks tonight?

- Yes! Can’t wait, I’ll see you tonight and we’ll talk

- Sounds great!

Feeling unsettled, Cathy makes sure her doors are locked and goes back to her laptop. “I’ll get back to working and forget about this crazy day”. The rest of the day goes on, no more notes, no more crazy sounds. She starts to feel at ease again and by the time Marge comes over she is relaxed. Cathy tells Marge about the weird day of events, and she assures Cathy “it has to be a prank, or someone got the wrong person”. Cathy hadn’t thought about that perspective, there were no notes at her house, maybe whoever was doing this realized the wrong person was targeted. More and more days go by, there are no more notes and Cathy is comforted in the fact it was a case of mistaken identity. She goes about her life, going to work and going home, in peace and quiet. Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months. The end of Spring is upon her now, and Cathy is noticing the daffodils springing to life outside in the garden. She decides to go for a walk and heads down to the river bank near her apartment. There is a fresh new smell to the air, the earth is coming alive again. The grass is becoming greener, and she is hearing more and more birds every day. Humming to herself she walks along the water bank, watching the river flowing along in a gentle stream. She hears a branch crack and looks around. “There’s nothing there, you’re being silly”. Cathy pauses to lean against an old oak tree, the silence around her is almost deafening, the only sounds are the water and her breathing. From behind the tree something taps Cathy on her shoulder.

She freezes.

Slowly she turns around.

“YOU!”