I have a hobby that I enjoy, every once in a while I’ll look at house listings, find a house I like the look of and imagine what it would be like to live there. There are photos and I imagine what sort of furniture and wallpaper I would have in each room, what I would plant in the garden, also there are usually maps attached so I can click on the map and navigate round the area, checking out what cafes and places of interest are nearby, what trains and buses run in the area as well.
About six months ago I found a really gorgeous house in a small village - why are these villages always called something like Greenville or Roses-Under-Water? I clicked on the map to look around the area and found myself following the route of a meandering main street filled with coffee shops with floral displays in the middle of the street, it looked idyllic. Everything was much clearer than it usually is on these photos, I felt like I could actually wander into the stores and touch the produce. As there sometimes are in these scenes, the photographer had inadvertantly captured some people stuck forever in the pose they were in at the time, a man walking his dog, a child skipping along.
As I scrolled up to a woman pushing a pram, she suddenly turned and stared right out of the screen at me. I jumped and closed the page quickly.Out of curiosity I googled the bus number for that area, as noted on the map, there was no number 14 bus to be found at all.
Over time I thought I must have imagined it all or dreamed it and went again to look at houses, and landed on the same page for the same house, I had to check if I had been mistaken before, and set off scrolling along the same street. The flowers were slightly browned and droopy, and I imagined I could feel a chilly breeze. I could see the store windows so clearly, here a butchers store with things hanging on hooks in the window which looked like human hands and feet.As I tried to bring it into clearer view, to see what it actually was, the same woman with the pram came into focus. The baby opened its mouth showing its sharp teeth and staring at me, and I nearly broke the mouse slamming it so hard to shut the page.
This experience stopped me from looking at the houses online and I found other hobbies to waste time with, one of them is riding around on buses to see different towns I have never visited.
Today I became lost, but as often is the way in these small towns there is no phone signal, and about ten minutes ago I asked someone where the bus stop out of this town is, they pointed me to this stop, which they said was the only bus stop round here, I read the timetable and saw that it serves the number 14 bus, to Greenville, and nowhere else, and as I have no other options, I decided I would take the bus but get off the bus before that town and try to find my way.
As I have been standing here, I have noticed a woman walking towards the bus stop, pushing a pram.I recognise her. The baby is crying in that hungry manner that babies do.