She's a stranger knowing life is strange

 Carol cringed just looking at her Amazon App. Honestly, she needed to turn off her damn phone and stay unplugged for a while, but Christmas was coming, and so were packages from UPS, USPS, and good old Amazon. 

Honestly, she was losing sleep, but at least she had Tammy to complain to. Carol's knee was giving her trouble ever since it snowed and got cold. Also, she feared slipping on the ice.

"Why didn't you guys just draw names, like we did?" Tammy asked about the holiday crisis.

"Well, it's not that simple, and you know it," Carol practically snapped as she watched her coffee grow cold. "The girls need things, especially Millie." She sighed. "I don't know what ever got into my mind to let her go off and live with that boy."

"Oh, they look like they're doing fine," Tammy assured her.

"I think she might be pregnant," Carol said out of the blue.

"Really?" Tammy made that sound quite interesting. "I didn't know."

"Well, she says she wants to go back to college." Carol was in a huff when she said it, "But I don't think that girl knows what she wants. Adulting is evidently not as great as she thought it would be." Carol took a sip of her lukewarm black coffee. 

"But a baby?" Tammy looked at her as if that wouldn't be a good idea.

"Maybe it's me just..just wishing for one." She was straight-lipped. "It's true, I feel life is at a standstill and then Wham, I'm in the hospital with something serious and-" She winced. She knew she had to keep working. She didn't like that her husband had retired. He was at home all the time now. And he was always watching the same old TV shows and falling asleep on the couch.

"I know it's me. It's all me." Carol usually felt she was still a teenager in an old body. She didn't really want to do old things, now did she? She didn't want Millie feeling this way either, one day. "There is just so much you can do."

About then, she got an email from Amazon. A winter coat was on sale. She'd never had a really good winter coat. She clicked to buy it. She knew nobody was going to think about getting her anything for Christmas.