The Fifteenth Day

The morning wake up call. A loud blaring in my ears and I pulled down the sheets to hit snooze before another trigger. 

I spend a few minutes cuddled up in the sheets. 

My family was away at 'home' and I had prompted to stay at the apartment, when lockdown struck. Since the era of the pandemic, everything was distant, virtual and online. Well I wasn’t occupied, so it was a quarantined day.  

Alone all along...

I make my bed, freshen myself before I tie my hair in a messy bun and walk up the corridor into the living room. 

I switch on the TV. The morning news show springs up with the latest headlines: political it may all seem to be, but I just loved the background noise with the tidbits of information I gather up.

I watch as I wait for the kettle to boil. 

The whistle blows off in a matter of minutes. I pour myself a cup of coffee. And fixes a bowl of cereal with brown bread as I sit at the table watching the reporter reaching the finale. The death tolls had risen again yesterday, so did the number of active cases. The pandemic was mutating to unpredictable levels. The officials blabbered as they were trying to vaccinate the population. But, no need explanations on how a governmental intervention went and it was unto no avail. 

The news was making me nervous, why did this have to happen after all? 

It was time to check my phone. I scroll through all platforms reading, liking, sharing and giggling at the occasional memes. I have a message from my sister, and mom asking how I was. This happens when you are stuck in an apartment on lockdown era and your family is back home together. 

It’s 8:30am. 

I sip on the coffee as I type away sending ‘I’ll call soon’

A new programme on  had started in the vicinity so I turned the TV off. Now what. 

I gobble on the breakfast fast and put the dishes in the sink with the water running. 

I turn on music on the speakers with my favorite playlist as I head back to my room to collect the dirty laundry. 

I scoop up a couple of T-shirts’ and pants that needed cleaning and return them to the washing machine. 

It was just ten to nine. I clean off the dishes and then look around.

I hum to Willow by Taylor, as I drag the cloth rack to dry on to the balcony. The sun is shining bright today. Too bad we couldn’t go out anymore. 

Well well, I was starting to appreciate the fifth floor view after all. In the distance I could see the city center tower glistening in the sun. The lake glowed in enthusiasm awaiting our return.  The once busy street adjacent to our complex was now empty, except for the friendly stray dogs that loitered. The street was littered than usual.  The cleaning workforce were just the same as all of us. The pandemic had created chaos for table turnovers in many lives. Safety is the new security. 

The summer breeze push past as my hair wave with it. We were loosing loads of memories. Time as it heals, life as it takes.

I stand hanging on to the ledge, watching the world beyond me. Imagining it to be happening, while I wanted to pass on time. I sit on the balcony chair and keep on watching the floating clouds. I suddenly remember the novel I was reading and sprint to get it. And back to my chair. Exercise was not happening, so an occasional sprint across the apartment was my game.

I think of calling mum, but again it could wait- I’ve half a day more. I kept on reading through the pages until the shadows on the balcony disappeared in the mid afternoon sun. 

I laze back inside. The music keep playing and I tune it up a lil bit. 

It was a good time for a bath. I prepare a bath on my favorite bubbles and come off and hour and a half later, smelling the air. 

I hang off the clothes and check my phone again. Again, I scroll Facebook, Instagram and recheck Twitter for any new trends. 

A group message had appeared with a friend posting up a cooking pasta photograph. 

Yeah, it made me hungry and crave pasta. I pour myself a glass off the fruit juice box and start looking out for pasta recipes. I had my usual ways of preparing but I wanted something new and ‘chefier’ as dad always said. It was his own vocabulary and we agreed to it. Oh god I miss them!

I look up and down. Just figuring out the easiest and the quickest way to grab the bite. It was what the kitchen always made me think nowadays. Though I crave so much over the dishes, preparing the meals and doing the dishes took up so much time and work. Well, I’ve grown lazy at chores, I felt. It wasn’t the usual me. 

My mum would be doing all of it, neat on her own schedule. Hours, cooking the sweetest delicacies each of us loved , yet she never complained. I used to ask her ‘is it because you are a mom?’

I was going to prepare baked cheesy chicken pasta. First, I fry the chicken and then get the pasta boiling. Then I want a mixture sauce so, spend some time getting it red and hot. Finally its the cheese in the making. I mix it all up and grate off mozzarella on the top. Oven on, bake tray in and close the door shut. 

It was 1:30pm when I finally sat down with my plate of hot pasta. I switch off the playlist that was well on for the entire couple of hours and plug in on to watch a film. I wasn’t getting the head on it. So, I just tune in on my copy of 'Friends' series and start re-watching a couple of episodes when Rachel and Ross were on a break. It was high time to turn it off, when I started licking off my fingers. I check my phone again.  I wasn’t meant to have any messages, neither anyone special to look out for or even lookout for me. I didn’t really understand why until I was scrolling social media again, and again.

I wash off the dishes and walk up and down the corridor for a few moments to get my tracks on. Then I loiter back into the kitchen to fix a meal for the friendly couple of dogs down in the adjacent street block. I pack it up and slipper up as I wait for the elevator doors. I spend a half hour watching as they  munch off until the crumbs disappear. And chat off a few words with a couple of our neighbors due to the social distancing. Martha was trying to get her cat Dolly, a vet’s appointment that was late. Well, obviously everything was out of schedule these days. 

I come back up and finally I am bored. I watch the seconds hand tick around the clock and could now hear it clear in my head as I focus. Only when I started hearing my own heart beat in my ears that I snoozed out of the illusion. It was a nice quick few minutes off my day.  This was way too long now. The morning had gone quicker with the few chores I had and now it was jobless time.

I want a force nap, so I clamber on the sofa itself. But, I had slept in late today that sleep was nowhere closer right now.

Again I take up my phone. 

I scroll gossip for a nearly two hours. Three YouTube videos, a couple of film reviews, fashion trends, strange food recipes and an old episode of the Ellen show. 

A nice time trying to be productive. I did look up some technical prospects as well. 

It was nearing 6pm. Well? Social media can take time. 

I walk off to the balcony and collect the dry clothes. The sun was setting in the eastern skyline. A purple glow. I shut down the door and slowly close up.  I turn on the lights and again the TV for the evening coverage. Again, its about the global pandemic and the active cases. It was really important but on the antithetical extreme it was frustrating to be locked up and listening to it all the time. 

I fix a couple of boiled veggies and egg for an early dinner and a fresh mango juice from the last mango on the fruit basket. I had to shop for groceries tomorrow, I recalled. I  lay on my back and watch the television in unconscious response.  I look up at the clock. Well, it was the most I’ve seen for the day. Then I check my phone. Yes, call mum. 

I ring her up and catch up with her. And some time later with ‘Good night darling, I will be coming soon. Be safe’ she is gone.

I am alone again. It was the loneliest reminder. 

I read a couple of pages from my paperback novel. A romance had just died down and that got me bored to continue reading. 

I wash up, do a little fake sprinting runs. Cook up a grocery list to order online and then push back my sheets and crawl slowly into bed.

Still sleep wasn’t even closer. I check up my phone social AGAIN. I send up my lunch cooking picture to my close-friends group. Then again as earlier scroll up and down all the different platforms, looking at how to make the best banana bread, then the top ten sheet cleaning hacks, a singing macaw and Korean street food. And a global catch-up was done.

Finally my eyes start to strain.  I click the screen off and keep it away for this day...

It was still ten to ten. So, I toss up and down looking at the clock. As it stroke ten I settle in calmer.

I was getting tired watching the clock for the day. 

I pull down the sheets as it was getting hot and turn up the fan. I wait a couple more minutes before I sink in.

It was a really, really long day. It was the 15th day in the row of my lonely lockdown. Fifteen more for the month of lockdown announced. And yesterday was the same and tomorrow is literally the same.

I was hoping for better. 

But this was the usual day of pandemic since 2020. No outs and only a live in and live on. So, for now…

 ‘What a relief; Good night’

I shut my eyes tighter.