Fiction Friday - The View

Thanks to D.B. McNicol for the image.

Looking out the kitchen window, Linda sighed and sipped her coffee. It was a pretty landscape, when it was clear. Their house on the hill afforded a sweet view down through rolling hills toward the valley below. Sadly, the growing industrial boom in the area meant increasing smog and a hazy horizon.

She turned away from the window and sat down to do the crossword. No point looking out at that mess.

Logically, it had been inevitable from the day they moved in. The job Duke had been offered at the plant in the valley was too good to pass up. When they were house hunting twelve years ago, there were several suitable places in town. This hillside development was just going up at the time, so they obliged their realtor by checking it out. The view and the park-like gardens laid out within the community were a big draw. Linda fell in love with the place, and Duke conceded to the longer commute into town.

It was worth it. A move she never regretted. The gardens were well-tended and were lovely to walk through in any weather. The view however, was now only pretty around midday when the sun was overhead.

Duke made a good living.
The kids had graduated from a quality high school.
Life was good, Linda knew.

And yet, every morning, that hazy horizon taunted her. It was a bad sign for the future. Maybe not her future, but what kind of world would Kim and Topher be raising families in? If they ever married. Kids these days.

Maybe that was the trick: No long term commitments because there's no guarantee that tomorrow will be worth the future you invest in today. In this crumbling world, Linda decided, it's better to be old. Old, and sitting with a newspaper and a pen, trying to remember the name of that South Pacific waterfowl.
 
Every Friday, a new flash fiction story, inspired by reader comments. Feel free to leave a prompt for future use in the comments below. I'm down to my last prompt. I hope you liked that story, based on the prompt "hazy" given  by Jz (of A Reluctant Bitch).

If you choose to join in for Fiction Fridays, post a link to your story below in the comments. Next week's prompt is: "an experience with a pet and how it changed you". This is the last of the prompts given me in the comments. After this one, I will start going off the rails with random online prompts or outside inspiration. If you join me next week, be sure to come back and share a link to your story!