Fiction created from a news headline

Activity 3.11 – New story from newspaper headline

*Note to any local people who read this:

The news headline was "Pedestrian killed at railway near Maitland". This just happened and there are few details yet. A 78 year old man, no name.  Investigation is ongoing. I do not know the people involved, I have NO details, no reason for how or why it happened which is why I wrote a fiction piece about a possible someone at the house waiting, not the man killed so tragically. 

This is fiction.  

The woman breathed a long sigh as she settled in her wing chair by the front window. She closed her eyes and breathed two slow conscious breaths, head leaned back. She treasured the break. These 45 minutes to an hour was usually the only time she had to herself. She loved the old man, her father-in-law, but he was demanding. His needs were constant not that it was his fault. She didn’t blame him. Worsening Alzheimer’s held them both captive. But he walked everyday and it being Apple Blossom Drive with a dead end he was safe. She saw him away, up the hill, and she saw him when he returned. It was good for them both.

She picked up her book, slipped the bookmark out and settled back to read. Her cup of tea steamed on the table beside her. Bliss. She fell into the story and never heard the train, nor the elongated urgent blast of its whistle.

Three chapters later she began to glance out the window at every page break. She was in such a half aware state when the first OPP cruiser screamed by, lights flashing and siren wailing. She leaned forward and peered up the road at receding taillights. Another cruiser streaked by, and then the Paramedic van. She heaved herself to her feet and went to the door, flinging it open. In her many years here there had never been a police emergency. Her heart began to pound, panic shortening her breath. She stumbled out the icy driveway in her slippers peering up the road. A few neighbours had done the same and they migrated together in a worry huddle, the fog of their anxious breath mingling.

They still stood close when a cruiser eased back down the drive and stopped by their group. A young male officer got out of the car. He straightened his duty belt before turning to the curious faces. There was reluctance in his posture; a hesitation as he stepped toward them.

“Mrs. Garner?” he asked as he scanned their worried eyes.