Audrey | A Short Story - Fiction

Audrey sat up on her bed; for the third time, through its loud singing, the cockerel announced that the sun was rising; it was time to get up. But of course Audrey wouldn’t get up before first doing the sign of the cross whilst holding her prayer beads thanking her God for her good health, her daily food, for her work and the small home she lived in and loved so much. Hers was a very small house with one living room, one bedroom and a kitchen. The bathroom was outside at the end of a fenced backyard where she raised half a dozen chickens, cultivated some herbs, and did hers and her client’s laundry. This was Audrey’s main source of income, washing and ironing people´s clothes.

She finally got up, her hands ached a little, but she was still grateful for the pile of clothes she had to take care of that day. She needed to hurry as they had to be delivered tomorrow. It was a good thing the city council opened a new bus line; the bus-stop only two blocks away from Audrey’s house made things a lot easier for her to carry the heavy basket of clothes back and forth. Oh! How grateful she felt. Nina, the very spoiled cat came running into her begging for some food. She had been found on the street by Audrey one year ago and it was now her inseparable companion during working hours. After feeding the animal, Audrey returned to the bedroom to wake up her daughter, who was heavily pregnant expecting a baby-girl.

With much love Audrey gave her daughter a mug of sweetened, black coffee as well as scrambled eggs; then as usual they engaged in a lively conversation about the near future. They had so many plans. A couple of weeks ago they bought a brand new mattress (Audrey was so pleased), after much debate they both decided Audrey would sleep on it when the baby arrived. Either in the kitchen or in the living-room; you see, the double-bed and the old wardrobe already took all the space available in the bedroom.

Well, after some chatting, off Audrey went to feed her chickens and collect some eggs - she could not forget to take a couple of fresh ones to her good next-door neighbour who was feeling poorly as of late. Audrey knew so many good people and for that she felt very thankful. There was also this neighbour across the street, she always came around in the evening; oh ... how they gossiped, laughed and did things together. With the plump, friendly lady from up the street, Audrey set up a small business; so they called it. Three times a week, they took little crops of herbs to the market and sold them there. On those days Audrey had to get up at three o´clock in the morning to wash her client’s clothes and hang them on the line. The city market was a forty-minute drive from where they lived; so they had to take the first bus in the morning to get there early enough to sell everything. ‘How adventurous a life I have’, she thought smiling during those journeys.

Day in day out, Audrey carried out her duties with so much pride, on those early morning starts she sang folk songs, looked at the moon and thought it so beautiful; in fact, Audrey saw beauty in everything, found pleasure in every action and felt so privileged for such a wonderful life with so much to look forward to every single day.

Original story by Abigail Dantes (2017) based on the gorgeous illustration from Agnes Laczo and the various male and female ‘Audreys’ I have come across in life. To see more beautiful illustrations like this please follow @agneslaczo’s blog.