I closed the front door of the old house behind me and my nose was immediately assailed by the smell of homemade apple pie and chicken broth.

"Gertrude! I'm home!" I shouted as I took off my sneakers.

The face of the old lady who had become like another grandma for me peeked from the kitchen door. Her curly white hair was kept short over a round face that sported a beaming smile. "Emily! You're back early!"

"My boss called. Apparently someone thought well to dump a tin of plaster down the drain." I said as I removed the rainbow colored t-shirt.

"Have some decency, young girl!" she said, hitting my thigh with a wooden spoon that was probably covered in the same chicken broth I could smell, hard enough to get her point across but not enough to actually hurt me, smearing fat over my leg.

I jumped forward and took for the stairs to go to my room. I had almost reached the top of the flight of stairs when I heard her say behind me, "And don't forget to eat a slice of pie before leaving!"

I entered my room and quickly changed out of my shorts, dropping them, along with the rainbow shirt, on the bed. Then I quickly wiped away the fat smeared on my leg and the rainbow flags painted on my cheeks with some baby wipes and put on the thick cotton long sleeved short and denim jeans I used for work, along with a pair of long woolen socks.

Ready for work, I went back downstairs, where Gertrude was waiting for me. I tried to squeeze past the large woman saying that I would be late for work but she grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and dragged me to the kitchen saying, "you know the rules, after every march, we eat apple pie."

I sighed and let her drag me to the kitchen, where the large dining table able to fit a dozen people was sitting in the middle of the room, with a slice of apple pie on a plate placed on it = in front of one of the many chairs.

I sat down and grabbed the fork that came with the plate. "Thank you."

She nodded. "Much better. Do you want ice-cream on it too?"

"No, thank you," I said, before putting a piece of the still warm pie in my mouth. "Did you add cinnamon this time?" I asked.

"Yes, now that Josh went back to his parents there's no one complaining about it."

"It's good to see not everyone has shitty parents," I said, before eating another piece.

"She still won't talk to you?" she asked, obviously worried.

I shook my head. "No. The last time I called her she told me I will end up dragging her to hell. Of course she ranted for half an hour to get her point across. I don't even know why I bother anymore."

"Let's talk about something else, shall we?" She smiled at me. "How was the parade?"

"It was pretty fun. I think there were almost ten thousand people this year. We spent most of the time close to a wagon made by a group of drag queens that spent all the march singing Queen songs. At one point they hoisted Mike-"

"Emily" she said, interrupting me with a stern look on her face.

"Michelle," I said, correcting myself, "they hoisted Michelle up on the cart to sing with them."

"Oh, that was so nice of them, I bet he had a lot of fun."

I nodded, trying to push down the last piece of pie. Having finished the slice, I got up from the chair saying, "Sorry Gertrude but I really have to go now."

"Yes, yes, go," she waved me away.

I rushed to the front door and put my safety boots on before exiting the large house. I then ran to my old ford windstar that was parked on the street, hopped in and started the engine.

I had just made it past a few blocks when my phone rang. I looked at it and, sure enough, it was our secretary. I accepted the call and, before I could even say anything, her voice came shouting through the phone, "where the hell are you?! The boss has been waiting for half an hour!"

"I'm on my way, I'll be there in ten."

I heard her talking to someone on the other side of the phone, then she got back to me. "He says he's tired to wait and will go ahead at the place."

"Sure, just give me the address," I said and closed the call before she could say more.

Moments later, I received the text with the address on it and I started typing it in the gps. I was looking at the best route to take when I saw a car coming at me from my right. The world slowed down as it crashed against mine, throwing me off road and into a street light. 

As the car slammed into to the pole on the side, I was thrown off my seat to meet it through the shattered window. That was the last thing I saw before my vision went black.

When I came to my senses again, my mind felt hazy and I struggled to form coherent thoughts. My eyes could see nothing but distant blurred images. Something large and warm was holding my body in place, body which felt wet, cold, and naked.

Something hit me, making me cry out in pain. The act made me cough out some kind of liquid, freeing a breath I hadn't even realized I was holding. Apparently that was what whoever was handling me wanted, as they soon wrapped a warm cloth around me and let me down to rest.