Lamentation

As soon as Henry had opened his eyes, he had a horrible gut feeling the day was going to be bad. He couldn't explain it, but he was cautious in his morning routine.

He carefully poured his coffee, making sure every drop made it into his small, grey cup.

He carefully ate his breakfast, making sure there was milk before he poured his cereal into his over-sized black bowl.

He carefully got dressed, making sure there were no creases in his grey collared shirt or his black plaid pants.

Now, as Henry stood in front of his bathroom sink, he tried to shake the feeling.

"I just hadn't had my coffee yet, that's all it was." Henry thought to himself as he grabbed his purple toothbrush.

The sun shone through his bathroom window, bathing him in sunlight. Even as beautiful as the day was, he still felt that gut feeling that the day was due to be horrible. It was overwhelming.

As he started to unscrew the cap on his toothpaste, something caught his eye. Henry looked out of the window, and saw a bright blue Blue Jay bird right outside his window.

As a smile crept along his face, he felt something hit his shirt.

He looked down, and saw that as he was looking at the bird, he had been squeezing the toothpaste tub. The giant blob of toothpaste on his shirt stared back at him as he looked in disbelief.

"Damnit."

He wet a small rag that was next to him and wiped his shirt, only making it worse.

Henry groaned in annoyance as he threw his shirt down and brushed his teeth. As he left his bathroom he looked out the window, the bird long gone. He finished getting ready and headed towards the bus station.

Henry fidgeted and constantly checked his watch while waiting in line to get his ticket for his bus.

He had done the math, a 10 minute ride would drop him off 5 minutes away from his work. He had more than enough time, but the paranoia of having a bad day was still with him. A small headache had formed in his head from the worrying.

He got his ticket and sat on a bench to wait for the bus.

The subway was as busy as usual, swarms of people leaving and entering buses, all of them in a rush.

Henry watched as two young men pounded buckets with drumsticks. There was a new act every morning it seemed like, but this one caught his attention.

The two men were drumming the beat to "Welcome to the Black Parade". Henry had a flashback of him and his dad playing air guitar to the song when Henry was little.

A small group of people surrounded the two men, and started cheering them on. As Henry got up to join the group, he heard the overhead intercom go off.

"Bus 23 has been delayed for 5-10 minutes, I repeat bus 23 has been delayed 5-10 minutes."

Henry looked at his watch and panicked.

He walked through the group he had hoped to join, and stood in line at a customer service rep center.

Henry waited for what felt like a lifetime in the line, all the while hearing people cheer for the drummers in the background. As he finally got to the front of the line, he could see the drummers start to pack up their stuff.

"Hi, how can I help you?" A nice young lady asked.

"Hi, I was wondering exactly how long the 23 bus would be? I mean, why was it even delayed? And I thought it was supposed to be 5-10 minutes?"

"Oh yes sir, we're very sorry for the inconvenience, but someone had thrown up on the last ride, and we had to clean it up. And it's actually only been four minutes sir, but I think it should be ready so-"

"Bus 23 is now ready, bus 23 is now ready" someone said on the overhead intercom.

Henry felt a flush of embarrassment come over him as he stared at the woman.

"Thank you".

As Henry walked back towards the buses, he noticed that the two young men were gone, as was the crowd.

He got on the bus, and checked his watch. He would be cutting it close to making it to work on time.

After making it right on time, Henrys work day went as usual. He called potential clients to see if they were interested in buying the best of the best paper supply. Afterwards, he called existing customers and made sure they were happy.

The gut feeling still wouldn't go away though, and it made his headache even worse. He just wanted to go home.

As Henry was getting ready to leave, Michelle came by his cubicle.

"Hey, a couple of us are going to get drinks if you wanna come. We found this new karaoke bar, and it looks really fun."

As Henry considered this, he felt his phone vibrate.

He saw he had a text from his neighbor Richard.

"Hey I think Amazon accidentally dropped your box off at my house again. The box looks pretty beat up, I promise I found it like this" .

Henry finished reading the text, and started gathering his things.

"Ah, sorry Michelle, but my neighbor just text me and I got to go take care of something. Next time though."

"Sure!"

Henry gave her a half smile as she left and got on the elevators with the others. Henry checked to make sure he had everything, and got on the elevator alone.

As he got home, he saw that Richard had put the box in front of his door step. Richard was right, the box was beat up pretty bad. He grabbed the box and headed inside.

Inside the box was the newest princess toy he had got for his niece. Her birthday was just in two days, and he did not have time to get a new gift.

Maybe this was what his gut had been trying to warn him about all day. All throughout work Henry waited for something to go wrong, and when nothing happened, it made him worry more.

He frantically opened the box, expecting the toy to be dismembered. Instead, he found the toy in its box in perfect condition.

"Huh".

Henry grabbed the toy and sat on the couch. He knew he should've felt relief, but it only made him worry more for what would actually go wrong.

Night quickly came, and Henrys headache was now a full on migraine.

He did his nightly routine with no caution at all.

He had dinner, not caring if any grease from the pizza got on his shirt.

He recklessly got undressed, yanking his shirt off, and dancing out of his pants.

Henry took some aspirin and headed towards bed. The gut feeling was slowly going away.

"Man, today was bad." Henry said out loud.

"But was it?" Henry thought.

He realized it wasn't, but felt as if it was.

He decided to go through the events of the day.

1.He got toothpaste on his shirt and had to change.

2.His bus had been delayed, and he was almost late to work.

3.His box was delivered to the wrong house AND was all beat up.

Were these enough reasons to constitute having a bad day?

Henry let these thoughts swirl though his brain as he laid down and tried to get some sleep.

Suddenly his eyes shot open, a realization hitting him straight in the face. Today was a bad day for him. But not because of the reasons he had listed. He decided to go through the events of the day again.

1.He had seen a beautiful Blue Jay just outside of his window.

2.He got to hear the song that him and his dad used listened to all the time.

3.He rejected Michelle's offer.

Henry realized that his gut feeling in the morning was unfortunately right.

But he didn't have a bad day because of what had happened throughout the day, he had a bad day because of what didn't happen.

He didn't take the time to enjoy the beauty of the Blue Jay.

He didn't join the group and watch the drummers play.

He didn't go out with his co-workers and get drunk and sing, not caring how bad he sounded.

Henry felt an overwhelming sadness take over him. Tears came to his eyes.

He had missed out on this day. Who knew when these opportunities would come in his life again. As he drifted off to sleep, Henry promised to never waste a day again.