Issy was busy. Her head set in a new, more determined, direction. She was now making sure a hell of a lot of the things she abhorred in her past, were changed or, better still, removed.

Starting out at around noon with the sun shining down from a cloudless sky she walked toward the mailbox, then, with a burst of happy energy, she picked up her speed sprinting a section, making the dogs skitter and bark. Then the puffing and panting started. She went back to a meandering walk instead, laughing at her level of fitness, or was that unfitness?

Maybe.... she should stick to just lopping along at first, then a slow jog, then a sprint... perhaps with a little more vim and vigour she would feel a lot healthier too. With Max bouncing and bopping about at her side just waiting for her to skedaddle at speed up the drive again she pat him happily "No Max, lets do that funny Olympics walking first before mummy sprints ok!?!" Shaking her head she reinforced her words .... no, no more running today boy.

He looked at her like she was an idiot.

Leaning on the mailbox Issy sorted the mail into hand written correspondence and typeset envelopes or BBB's as she like to call them -Bills and Boring Business. A weighty tan envelope caught her attention and she hurried to thumb it open, nearly dropping the contents in the process. The item tumbled out of a fabric pouch.

Tissue paper unravelled in Issy's hand and she held up a sterling silver chain necklace with a scrolly 'G' silver pendent. A small sparkler of a diamond set in the corner.

Issy grimaced. Bugger, this wasn't even her mail. Grabbing the envelope, she turned it over as she walked... well it was her name and address; no return sender details though.

Issy opened the envelope mouth a little wider and sure enough, tucked inside, was a note folded in quarters.

With a little wiggly dance of excitement on the top step Issy sighed happily .... he had read her book and not turned her in to the naughty thoughty police!

Ducking into the downstairs bathroom Issy placed the necklace on.

Perfect.

It glint away happily in the sunlight that streamed in the window. Tiny but so beautiful, Issy rubbed it between her fingers. The rock in the corner letting her know it was most definitely under her fingers. John had gone out of his way and found this just for her. She mouthed  'Wow'  to herself in the mirror.

Nearly three and a half months has gone by now. She hadn't ventured to the city and nor had John, or Julian and Sally, ventured north.

Issy didn't mind though. She had two books on the go and the house was in a total pickle. Julian and Sally had also been overseas to see Cynthia and now they were busy organising the wedding and she knew John was obviously working hard on himself....

When he wasn't buying gifts for the nana in law with the dirty little secret that was.

Issy walked through to the kitchen and poured a mug of coffee, letting the steam rise to fill her nostrils with its bitter yet heavenly aroma. Putting off the thought of doing any more sanding on the room she had been working on Issy rushed up the stairs, her fingers itched to touch the typewriter keys.

It was like a drug.

The passion of feeling out a new plot. It bubbling just below the surface, words swirling like an eddy in her head. She could not do anything but jot the words on a notepad if away from the keys or, like now, scramble up the stairs to let every word flood out and fill the page.

So engrossed she was this afternoon, Issy missed both dinner and the setting sun.
She warmed soup at nine and a cup of cocoa just after midnight. The cup of milky chocolate was to try and settle her creativity. Which tonight, seemed to be overflowing her brain.

Hopefully, the cocoa would tone her thoughts down a peg or two, to try and enable her to get some sort of rest.

Finally, around two a.m, she lay staring at the ceiling.

Running fingers over the pendant.

She slowly drift off to sleep.

*

Hands on hips she surveyed the downstairs space, gone were the hideous throws that had come from his side of the family. Stuffed fluffy cushions, super soft, pretty cashmere fleece in its place.

Issy had painted the room, ordered a new, larger television with some sort of contraption called a remote control, sorted more photographs and hung them in pride of place, moved the record player in plus sourced a new bookshelf, which was now weighed down heavy with tomes; it sat in the far corner.

Now the nurse~ry.

She turned about and wandered back in through the doorway, it had been emotional watching the nursing home staff loading the truck with all the pieces of life saving equipment, her heart seemed to soar and fall in equal measure. Although the soar outweighed the fall which was all she could ask for. She saw and felt that chapter close, a page turning afresh  for a new start.

Perhaps, on reflection, as she had done so often in the past few days, she may have used the equipment as an excuse. A reason not to move forward, so easy not to find happiness when you gazed on the last pieces of unhappiness you had in a relationship.

Now the room sat bare and stark. Issy climbed atop the ladder and began the arduous task of sanding the exposed timber beams strung over her head. The rafters on this side of the house gave air and height to the room but come time to paint, or remove spider webs, they were just painfully annoying.

The radio soft in the corner, music making her smile or remember a particular moment in her life.

Issy grinned when Silly Love Songs graced the airways and began singing along with Paul.

The safety glasses fogged often. Her arms ached from constantly having to reach above her head. Her body  weeped gallons of perspiration. At times Issy would fight the urge to throw in the towel and made herself move onto the next spot that needed her attention.

She hadn't eaten again.

Issy barely stopped.... A grape or two as she passed by on the way to the bin. Or a sip from her water glass as she ducked to the loo but, really, truthfully, she hadn't eaten properly for days. She hadn't the urge to fix a meal and wash up dirty dishes. She was on a mission. Her new chapter.

And it was quite warm in this room now. It has been stuffy all day in fact.

The block-out curtains were pulled down to wash and very likely may well end up tossed to the trash, she hadn't decided yet.

The full midday heat streamed in this side of the house from ten in the morning making the temperature rise and trap, rapidly.

And with the banter of words and thoughts in her head. The flurry of sanding and repainting to be done adding to that the excitement of finishing off the lounge room. She was way too busy for all the bother of eating.

Her body did try to tell her...

A grumble of her stomach here. A hankering for more water there.

When alone and concentrating, that happens doesn't it....

Why cook for one.

Why cook for just a mess of pots and pans and eating solo staring into nothing.

Why stop half way through a project.

Why put the sand paper down when it was so very nearly finished.

Issy fell... On the way down she made direct contact with the edge of the timber dresser and, immediately there-after, the floor met her hard.

Max licked her cheek and she stirred awake.

"Max, oh hey boy, I'm ok .. ouch. Maybe not, hmmm. Mums a silly, ouch, old girl, isn't she" Issy floated in and out, dazed and sore. Trying to get her bearings as she lay sprawled on the floor.

Pain in the shoulder, ankle throbbing. Issy let Max nuzzle her and rubbed his head with her uninjured hand, her other arm was limp and not wanting to work at all. "Where's the phone Max, let's find Julian's brick. I know I left it somewhere oww, not so hard Maxxy" Max flopped down and now lay flat, panting in her face wanting her to play, his tail wagged and slapped the floor slowly. Issy grimaced and looked about with double vision blurring the view.

The brick lay on the timber sideboard that was positioned flush beside the stairs; a few feet away out of the room and across the hall. Issy tried to stand, her head spun, ankle gave way and she soon collapsed in agony to the floor again.

Clawing with her good hand and wiggling carefully across the floor on her side, she worked her way to be as close to the brick phone as she could.

Issy stopped to rest. Her head was pounding, her heart too. Eyes teary, pain unbearable.

And it wouldn't subside.

She would need to just do it.

She moved a fraction closer then stretching she felt around on the top of the sideboard blindly. Willing the now desperately needed, overly heavy, piece of chunky technology, to magical touch her fingers.

Where is that brick!?

Julian would be ever so pleased his present was going to be put to such good use.... If she could ever reach the darn thing, that is.

The phone fell off the side when her fingers clawed it closer.
Pins and needles had her anguished. She couldn't tap the right numbers. She stopped to rest a few minutes more. Her eyes filled with tears as she grew weary from the over exertion and increasing pain.

Minutes passed before she managed to again look through blurred vision at the buttons.

She wasn't an idiot .....

Sally was hours away, nowhere near close enough to come running and Issy was feeling her head beginning to throb like mad again. Or was that, still?

She punched in 9-1-1 the emergency phone number and grasped the phone tightly to her ear, pain shooting through her drooped unusable shoulder and arm, she willed herself to hold on to consciousness and speak...

The line was dead.

Nothing...

The screen flashed then Issy saw the little coverage bar thingies were not there. Apparently the middle of the house wasn't the best place to use the brick, she threw it toward the kitchens screen door and watched the phone tumble apart. Iss screamed at the bricks misbehaviour and gasped as her shoulder pained in ways she hadn't felt since her auto accident.

Biting her tongue, shuffling back onto her side Issy inched closer to the next door to try and reach up to the house phone.

**

Paramedics whizzed around her as her head swam with dizziness. Body with pain. Screaming with every shift of her position, an officer apologised and held her hand to calm her.

The needle pinched her thigh and Issys pain melted away...