underwater world

She woke up in a daze. Her head hurt, badly. She didn’t want to open her eyes. The room was muggy and hot. Her body was damp in her thin cotton nightgown. She looked at the clock. 9:oo. Too late to go to class now, and besides she hadn’t done the reading. Shit. She walked out into the living room. Niko had folded up the blankets and straightened the futon: there was a note that said “I went running, call if you want to get breakfast later.” He had done the dishes, too. All the glasses and the late night snack she had made the two of them. She walked into the kitchen and immediately felt nauseated. She sat on the cold linoleum for a moment before dragging herself back to her bed. She slept a few more hours.

She woke up hungry. Hungry for something greasy and fast. She stumbled into the bathroom and took 5 pills: two prozacs, one allergy pill, and two aspirins. She peeled off her nightgown and tossed on a light sundress, not bothering with underwear or make-up. She combed her hair briefly through her fingers and flipped it into a pony tail. She went to the front door and considered for a moment whether she looked too unruly to be outside. She shrugged to herself and opened the door.

Her bike was gone! It was stolen! Who would steal this bike? The gears don’t work and only the left break functions. Oh, wait. She had left it at school the day before. Its probably still there. Crisis averted. She hopped in the car and went to the drive-thru, a fried chicken sandwich and large sweet iced tea. Her head still lightly throbbed; she was so thirsty. When she got back to the house there was a small box on the porch.

She picked it up and looked at the Fed-Ex paper attached to the front. Two day delivery from New York. She carried it upstairs and threw it on her bed. She took a long sip from her plastic sweet tea cup. She began to peel the tape up on one side of the cardboard. Then the other. Then she separated the flaps and peeked inside.

No note. She pulled out some packing paper and picked out a small box wrapped in bubble wrap. It looked like a Christmas ornament. She unraveled the packaging to reveal a small box containing a New York snowglobe. The large white snowflakes sat on the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. She shook it—instant blizzard. Then she let it go calm again. Clear. Calm. Then blizzard again. She wanted to keep the little people in the mini buildings on their toes. Calm, storm, calm, storm, tiny rattle...

She grabbed her cell phone and sent out a text:

Thanks. That was really sweet. I don’t feel like talking today though. But thanks.

She stripped off her sundress and crawled back into the sheets, and slept until evening.