A Mundane Day

The radiant sun shone serenely through the glass windows. Local birds chirped merrily outside and the streets busy with the typical workers and local kids, honking and beeping of cars and random shouts from the local vendors.

All this went unnoticed by the figure that was curled inside her blankets lost in the world of dreams. What she didn't heed was undoubtedly the mug of cold water in her dear mother's willing hand who stood comfortably by her bedside with a smug expression on her expressive face. The mug held right above her face and soon she tilted it slightly and a drop dripped onto the face of the sleeping figure which she rubbed off with her hands and went right back to sleep. This rose the fury in her mother.

“How dare she...”

And with one flick of her flexible wrist, the entire mug of the undrinkable water was poured down onto the defenseless girl’s face. She jumped out of the wet bed with a startled scream which probably scared off the merrily chirping bird outside her visible window.

“Why did you do that Mum?!” She asked incredulously but still half asleep.

Her mother’s face instantly morphed into that of an angry bear.

“How dare you question me after sleeping comfortably like a log till the late hours of the morning and making me do all the work?” Her mother started shouting at her and continued to do so.

The 21-year-old could only blink at her furious mother not able to properly grasp onto what was happening at the moment. Her half-sleepy half-awake state of mind still in a mess to properly understand what was going on and why her dear mother was so furious first thing in the morning. She stayed there and listened attentively to everything her mother was shouting at her and then when she finished slowly trudged into the bathroom for her morning routine. And that woke her up completely which brought back events from a few moments ago, refreshing her memory.

“What was that all about?” She thought out loud puzzled by her mother’s aggressive behavior.

Ann walked wearily into the living room to merely find her sensitive mother busy with packing lunch for both of them. She hurried over and started assisting her mother. She regarded her mother with an apprehensive gaze to see if she was alright and she did look like she had calmed down. Ann packed her things for work, pecked her mother’s cheek and left for work.

As she walked to the bus stop her mind again went back to her furious mother and her aggressive actions in the morning.

‘Even though mom gets angry quite easily and quite often I have never seen her this furious in a long time. I wonder what bad happened...’.

She trailed off as she reached the bus stop and got onto the first bus that came since every bus that stopped there had a stop at her workplace. She went and sat down in the vacant seat she could find plugging in her earphones blocking out the world around her. She was a daydreamer, a lazy daydreamer to be apt. Her dull eyes with a faraway look in them and mind always in some faraway land. Any person that walked by her could see she doesn’t see them.

The local bus stopped at her workplace and she got down from the bus at a leisurely pace. To her everything around her was boring. She walked into her office building at the same pace and stood by the elevator for it come down. She walked in pressing number 8 and went and stood in the corner as usual. ‘It’s a good thing they provide an elevator here...’ She thought. Shuddering inwardly at the thought of taking the stairs to the 8th floor. She watched people pile in an out of the elevator as floors passed. By the time she reached the 8th floor, the elevator had been almost empty. She let out a sigh and walked out. The name of her company could be recognized in big block letters displayed on a glass background. The security opened the door as she walked in kindly greeting the security which he returned happily with a smile. ‘Little things make these people happy...’ She thought. She went in and placed her forefinger in the biometric machine that records the attendance of the employees. It screeched a familiar sound and then an all too familiar voice iterated,

“Sorry Please try again.”

This process repeated a few times with her wiping her fingers and trying once more. Finally, after a good two minutes, the soulless machine iterated

“Thank you. Have a pleasant day.”

She sighed in relief and then navigated through the hallways to her seat. She never liked being in plain sight hence preferred enclosed spaces. She carefully laid out her work things like a laptop, notebook, pen, etc. From her bag and sat down. Her co-workers started entering one by one some greeting and others conveniently ignoring her dull existence.

“Ann” She overheard someone address her.

She rotated in her chair and scarcely addressed her co-worker from the department she worked for. A wicked woman in her thirties.

“Morning Jane” She greeted her in a neutral tone.

Ann never enjoyed the woman's presence from the day she started working there. The woman, Jane even though always had a sweet smile on her face her words said otherwise about her sweet nature. Her words were always sharp and indirectly insulting. The shallow place was filled with two-faced people, to say the least.

Ann never got much work. Her works typically consisted of filing, updating or photocopying, nothing extremely significant. She most likely received more free time than the rest of her coworkers. And was spent reading, writing and listening to music on her phone. While during lunch, she sat with Jane and another elderly co-worker. Life sure was boring for our dear Ann. After lunch, she would go back to her typical routine and lucky if she managed to get some work by any chance. The dull hours pass by in a blur and when the clock strikes half past 5 she packs her stuff and walks out of the office. Every so often she travels by the same bus she took to get to work that morning.

Evenings are usually crowded, and she rarely gets a seat. The buses in the evening comprised of the middle-aged woman heading home from work with their ordinary talks and gossips. Sometimes about their neighbors, co-workers or even a girl, they saw on the street and other times about a reality show they watched recently. To Ann all these never made sense. Before long her bus stop came and she climbed off, traversing the busy road and walking home again at a leisurely pace. The blaring horns of the cars were quite disturbing.

She usually reached home around half past 6 after buying the grocery and other necessities from the grocery store nearby, sometimes after her mother reaches or sometimes before. Did I forget mentioning she has a brother three years elder to her? She does. But him being there and not being there is the same thing as far as she is concerned. He comes out of his private room for food and then goes back to sit in front of his laptop. At home, she read and listened to music with the minor addition of house chores and pointless banter with her frustrated mother. Quite a dull life. Nothing unusual seems to happen in her life. And then she would go to bed at around half past 11. Happy to be back in her dream world.