Monday
“Hello?”
The phone continued to remain noiseless, nothing coming from the other side of the line. I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked at the device hesitantly before pressing end.
I sighed and put the phone down on my bed, stretching afterwards. Muscles that felt contorted and twisted smoothed themselves out, as I pushed out each limb. Sitting up, I grabbed the phone and absentmindedly began to flick through the home pages filled with apps of all type and function.
Nothing seemed all that interesting and my attention began to drift to thoughts of what I had to do today. The day was still young but a gnawing sense of urgency was growing. I needed to get moving but I felt kind of lazy, sort of complacent and didn’t wish to move from my bed. I felt at peace, perhaps like a zen monk who’s found a sense of ease within the days troubles.
Grumbling slightly, I got up and looked at myself in the mirror. Everything good there, besides a need for a shower. I continued along in my sweep of the bedroom, noting nothing of interest. I grabbed a few things from my dresser before heading to the bathroom.
The hallway was poorly lit and made me feel ill at ease. I don’t know why but this hallway has always caused me issues of some sort, whether an irrational fear or some issue I had with the lights not working or suddenly stopping and starting working.
I quickly headed through the connecting pathway and into the bathroom, an equally dingy room but passable room due to a paint colour that I liked quite a bit. Luckily there were no electrical issues here, nothing unusual with the water or anything like that. A perfectly normal room.
I placed my clothes on the counter and began to undress from the previous day, having slept in my clothes, a habit I’d acquired some time ago due to a fervent work schedule. I hadn’t really moved past the habit and found sleeping fully clothed to be a sort of relaxing thing, if sometimes annoying due to getting caught in tangled clothes.
None the less, I felt quietly pleased with my preferences, irrational or not. Well I supposed this wasn’t irrational, merely quirky, though there was a lack of rationale beyond the once dire schedule.
Staring at the clothes pile, I caught myself and began to jump into the shower. I turned on the water and hot lava began to spill from the spout. I washed myself in the heat and began to soap up a loofa. Using the utmost efficiency, I washed and was quickly onto shampoo. A blab there, a bla-
RING RING RING
I stopped in the shower, feeling a sense of frustration and unease.
Who’d be calling me, right now?
I don’t really talk to many and stay inside,
partially due to my own introvertedness and partially due to a recent viral pandemic that had swept the world, killing thousands and injuring or sickening thousands more. While the issue wasn’t too severe, a lack of seriousness quickly spiralled into blooming case numbers. No one but the ignorant dared laugh at the virus or take things less serious than needed.
The phone continued to ring as I mentally debated myself, and I listened as it stopped.
I continued washing my hair, before getting out of the shower, drying myself and dressing.
The air was cool as I exited the warm bathroom and I found myself looking for a hoodie. It wasn’t on the bed, in the closet, or… wait.. the laundry basket! I pulled the hoodie out and put it on, feeling much warmer already.
What to do now, I thought, sitting in the desk chair near my bed, facing a computer. The screen glared back at me, flooding my eyes with led intensity. I looked to the side and then swiveled around, yawning. It was only 10:30 but I found myself bored as ever, with nothing to do for the day.
I’d just finished a recent drawing challenge, having taken an entire month to draw a drawing each day. I felt kind of proud of myself for completing another year of the challenge but now there was nothing to do, nothing on my plate, and a sense of unease and boredom began to take hold again.
I looked around the room, finding nothing to entertain myself with. Prospects seemed dim as ever. I suppose I could sketch, draw something to take my mind off things. Yeah. I guess that’s what I’[ll do.
I took the pencil from the right side of my desk and pulled my sketchbook out of my backpack.
Placing the book down, and opening to the most recent page, I took a breath, inhaling sharply. And than began to work.
Strokes emerged, and my hands worked steadily, conducting the orchestra of line.
Simple shapes appeared and then more complex ones, and finally a face emerged from the interplay of line and tone.
I continued to refine the drawing, playing with shapes, erasing faults and continuing to tease out form. The drawing was taking shape.
I looked at the drawing and felt a little proud.
I began to draw another portrait, in three quarters.
Again simple shapes appeared, before becoming more complex ones, taking form and turning into a face. I drew quickly, allowing the spontaneity of line and mark to flow through me and into the drawing.
I put the pencil down before picking up the sketch book to admire the drawings.
Fine work, I thought to myself, That month paid off.
I put the book down before getting out of the swivel chair to grab a drink. I made my way into the hallway, down the stairs and into the kitchen. The room was dark, and I flicked on the kitchen light.
The empty room felt despairing, and I went to the fridge. I opened the fridge and looked inside, feeling a little vacant. The fridge was equally vacant, and I closed the door. I suppose I’ll drink water, I thought, and grabbed a glass before returning to the fridge. The outside compartment had a water dispenser, and I filled my glass.
I took a sip. Refreshing, the cool water was the epitome of refreshing and I drank greedily. Mmmm.
I refilled my glass before flicking the kitchen light off, making my way upstairs, through the hallway and into my room.
I felt a little panicked while doing this. Was boredom getting to me, why was I so keyed up? Ugh. This is exhausting. I sat in the swivel chair.
I felt a sense of tiredness suddenly and began to yawn. It’s only 11:00 and I’m feeling so profoundly tired.
I guess I’ll have to take a nap at some point, maybe soon. I wasn’t really doing anything right now, I guess there wasn’t any harm in taking a nap now, of all times I could. I continued to ponder the idea, and began to spin in the swivel chair. I felt dizzy, and dizzier. I stopped suddenly but still began to spin. I felt a little sick and moved from the swivel chair to my bed. Should I sleep? I don’t know.
I began to drift off while pondering.
---
RING RING RING
I woke up suddenly to the sound of the phone ringing, once again. I was so startled that my chest pounded and raced, feeling as if it wouldn’t ever slowdown. The ringing and pounding began to coincide. I felt I couldn’t really breathe for a second, before catching myself. I let out a breathe slowly.
I picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
Again, no answer.
“Hello?”
I began to put the phone down, pressing end, when I heard a faint
“He-ll-o”
The call ended. I felt a profound sense of unease.
This day was strange, or felt strange. And continued to be so, what with this phone call and all. What a weird way for the month to start, I thought.
I yawned and rolled over, almost falling of the bed. I caught myself and then sat up properly. I stretched before getting up and sitting in the swivel chair, flicking on the laptop on the desk. The fan whirred and hard drive clicked and the machine came to life. Soon the screen began to glow.
I stared at the boot screen, and than at the OS loading screen and finally at the password screen.
Blip blip blip
The text on the screen had a few dots that moved, disppearing and reappearing.
I typed in my password. Wrong
I typed in the password again. Wrong.
Fuck
I typed in the password again, this time taking care to press each key. Success.
The screen turned black before turning to the desktop background, a painting of a tree by Stefan Kolesnikov, in gouache. Abstract and realistic shapes fused into a terrifying audacity of colour and light. A winter landscape took root behind the tree, giving way to banks of grey-white snow and other detail. I admired the background for a moment before mousing through the apps that were on my desktop.
Nothing seemed all that interesting.
I clicked on the browser and typed in reddit, making my way to the worldnews subbreddit.
I’ll read some news, hopefully things are well today.
The news seemed dire as ever, with the viral pandemic having taking a turn for the worse, with many developed nations around the world hit hard. Nothing else seemed to bouy things. Climate change, border skirmishes and regional tensions, a few wars ongoing. Things seemed as bad as ever.
I clicked off of world news and onto a different subreddit, looking for something to entertain myself and lift off the casual sense of despair I felt after reading such terrible news. There didn’t seem to be much and I closed the browser.
What to do now? I thought to myself, before swiveling a little in the chair.
THE END
