Harper's Hill, Chapter 10: A Stranger's Armchair

Sitting in Emily's house, the house of a stranger, Nicole started to observe her surroundings.

She noticed that the living room was dated. She sat in an old leather armchair that faced a big couch that looked extremely comfy, but also faded, as it was obvious that all of the furniture in this room had seen several years of use. It seemed that maybe this house hadn't been redecorated properly since the 80s.

However, there were small touches that added warmth and softness — a cozy blanket draped over the back of the couch, a scented candle on the table, and some cute fake flowers in a hand-painted mug instead of a vase. It wasn't anything like her home, where technology was creeping into every corner.

"Do you guys not watch tv?" Nicole asked as Emily walked back into the room with a glass of water, noticing that there was no television in this room.

"We do, we just watch stuff online," Emily said, handing the glass to Nicole and sitting down on the couch across from her. "The cable in the East is shotty, so it's easier for me to just watch stuff on my old computer. My brother and his girlfriend usually watch stuff on her laptop, but they also keep pretty busy and don't sit down to watch a lot of tv."

"How's the internet?" Nicole asked, figuring if the cable was shotty, then the internet probably was too.

"We're lucky because in this part of town, we get pretty good internet," Emily explained. "Yeah, sometimes downloads take a long time and I have to let stuff buffer, but at least we have service. The other side of the East, farther away from the hill, they have like no internet at all."

"Really?" Nicole asked, surprised that people could exist in a place where there was no internet.

"Really." Emily smiled. "My brother's girlfriend, Riley — she works at the East Side Unity School... it's the only school on the East side. However, they barely get internet there. Certain classes don't get service at all. The place feels pretty stuck in the past considering you can't even use the computers in the library for research." She paused. "Sorry, one of the two computers in the library."

Nicole listened as she took a sip of her water, amazed at the life that was lived over on the East, just over the hill. Just about 10 km away from her own home. "It's that bad?" She asked.

Emily shrugged, leaning back into the couch. "I mean, you've got optimists like Riley who say that this old-fashioned way of teaching and learning is going to influence the students in an amazing way," She explained. "And then there's realists, like me, who think that this lack of technological advancement will just make it harder for these students to adapt to the real world when they leave the East side... if they ever do."

Nicole didn't know what to say, and she felt bad for the people who lived here, but she tried not to. She didn't want to seem like she felt she was better than them, though her privilege was obvious. Emily felt the awkwardness in the air and clapped her hands suddenly.

"It's pretty late, how about I get you home?" Emily asked, standing up.

Nicole finished her water and put it down on the table gently before standing up. "Are you sure? I could call my Dad..." She offered slowly. She really didn't want to, because her parents would give her so much shit if they knew where she ended up tonight, but she also didn't want to make Emily do something she didn't want to do.

Emily smiled and shook her head, heading towards the front door. "Nah, it's okay," She said as she slipped on her jacket. Then she moved to her sneakers. "I love driving. It's pretty much my day job."

Nicole still had her heels on, but she put her coat on and followed Emily out of the house. "Oh, really?" She asked. "What do you do?"

"I just drive over to the West side and pick up groceries for a bunch of people that live around here," She said. "It's easy and I know it helps people out a lot, so I like it. Plus, like I said, I love driving."

The girls were sitting in the car now, and Emily put the key in the ignition and started the engine. "Whereabouts in the West do you live?" Emily asked.

"Oh, Maplewood," Nicole said, looking out at the other houses on the street as they backed out of the driveway. "Number 43."

"Maplewood..." Emily said. It sounded familiar but she didn't know why.

"Yeah it's the next street past Clover? By the Smithson Library? Do you know where that is?"

"Yeah," Emily said, turning on the heat in the car. "I actually have gone to Smithson before. One of my customers wanted a book from there so I got a library card and borrowed it for them. Surprisingly, you don't have to be from the West side to have a card and borrow books."

Nicole frowned. Was this was people thought of the West side residents? "No, I don't think that the town would ever do that. You know, purposely try to exclude the members of the East side like that."

Emily just chuckled, failing to mention that the Smithson Library was the only library in town that allowed residents from the East to borrow books. The other two libraries in Harper's Hill were further into the West side, and were both exclusively for residents of the West side. But she didn't want to break Nicole's perfect little West side bubble, and she'd probably never see her again, so it didn't really matter. "What do you do to keep busy?" Emily asked, glancing over at Nicole as she headed up the big hill that separated the town.

"I'm a student," Nicole explained, "Communications. I think I want to be on the news one day." She cleared her throat and put on her best "newscaster" voice. "Good evening everyone, I'm Nicole Leigh. Welcome to the 6'oclock news."

Emily almost stopped driving.

"Sorry. What did you say your last name was?" She asked.

Nicole's smile faded. "What? Leigh... why?"

Suddenly it all came rushing back. The night that Emily had stalked her family on Facebook before meeting Uncle Alex. She could see her Uncle Nathan's profile picture in her head. She could see the bright smile of an older girl, sitting down in a family picture in the front row on the left side. Now she knew why she recognized Maplewood.

"I think we're cousins."