The first couple of weeks since moving to the USA had been awful. Shalina spoke the language well enough since her time in university, but she found nobody wanted to talk to her. The only one paying any attention to her was the man in the local convenience store, but he wasn’t much of a conversationist with his fifty word vocabulary. She really missed her friends, although most of them were probably dead now. She missed the winters by the coast, exploring the ruins of the old town. She missed having people to talk to.
Still, it was a new year now, even if the people around her didn’t celebrate it - a fact that made her feel even more isolated - and perhaps the new year would bring new friends? One could always hope. She looked up at the autumn sky, trying to make out any familiar constellations, but it was hard to make out any stars at all. She sighed.
Realistically there was no way she was going to be able to return to the desert in a long, long time so she might as well get used to it. Maybe one day she would? One could only hope.