Location: Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
Time: December 29th, 2020

Margret sat on the back porch of the Rod house puffing away at her lit cigarette. Her nephew, Jon, hated it when she smoked around the children thus she respected his wishes and smoked outside. However, She didn't expect for her first great niece, Adlai, to come outside and sit next to her.
"Hey." She said.
"Hello." Margret replied.
The two sat in silence. It wasn't the awkward or stuffy kind of silence but it wasn't comfortable either. It was the kind that occurred when you would read a book or wait for the timer of the stove to go off...that kind of occupied silence.
Aside from the howlers Margret had been sending Adlai about her grades the two didn't speak very often. In fact neither of them even knew what the others favorite color was, or even each others birthdates which was odd since they were family.
Sucking in a breathe Margret finally broke the silence, "How was school?"
Of course she asked the most generic question, but it was all she could think of at the moment.
"School was good, though you know what my grades look like." Adlai said, her eyes focused on the ground. Adlai always looked down when she spoke to Margret. She didn't know why, but she did.
"I do," Margret started, "but lets not talk about that..."
That was a surprise, Adlai was sure her great aunt was going to scold her.
"Did you make any new friends? Or have you been spending time with the friends you made last year?"
Friends...Great Aunt Margret was asking Adlai about friends. This was indeed new.
"I did make new friends. They're all very nice and help me out a lot."
"That's good, that's very good. I'm glad."
That silence has now returned. Margret is still puffing away at her cigarette, except now Adlai isn't looking down anymore. Instead she is now looking up watching as it beings to snow, a grin fixed to her face. Margret watches her from the corner of her eye, studying her as though she was some kind of alien creature. No matter how hard the old woman tried she couldn't fully understand the young lady.
Perhaps that was a sign of times, a sign that they were changing and that Margret could rest.
With a final puff at her cigarette Margret chucked it to the ground and put it out with the bottom of her heavy heeled boot.
"It's cold, I'm going in." She said before turning her back to the girl and entering the house of her nephew.
There was still much that Margret had to talk to Adlai about, but now wasn't the time. However, that time would be coming soon. Till then she would try to guide the girl in her own strange way.
As Adlai remained on the back porch she watched as the embers of her aunt's cigarette faded and began to be buried beneath the snow that fell from the dark sky above her.
There was also much she wanted to speak to her aunt about, but she wasn't fully sure how to bring them up. She knew it needed to happen soon though. Preferably before she left for school again.
Nonetheless, she would have to wait and see.
Slowly breathing out she watched her breathe form in the sharp cold air around her before standing up and going back inside her home where her mother, father, two sisters, and rabbit all waited for her.