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Contemporary Fiction

Wake up. Take your pills. Turn on your console and disappear into your video games. Eventually remember to eat something. Finally go to bed and sleep. Repeat. I don’t even know what day of the week it is anymore. It’s been so long since I shut myself away in lock down that I’ve stopped really even keeping track. Sometimes, like today, I do wonder what day of the week it is, just to know. It used to be so easy to keep track of. Not so much since the lock down started. Feels like it’s been a year. Maybe even longer. I can’t tell anymore. Every day just feels the same anymore.

The charger to my phone broke a while back. A month or two ago? I don’t even remember now. It’s been off for most of that time because of the dead battery. Can’t use that to figure out what day it is. Can’t use the time and date feature on the console, either. Internet has been out for a couple weeks now. Did I forget to pay that bill? It is possible. Specially with the power acting as weird as it has for the past week or so. For a while I was using my daily pill boxes to keep track of the day, but I eventually stopped using them. I just take the pills straight from the bottles now. Easier that way. Noticed those are getting lower than usual. Hope the next delivery is soon. Need those pills.

Looking out the window, I don’t see any cars driving past. Could mean it’s Sunday. Could just be a slow time of the day, too. I stopped getting mail a couple weeks ago. Don’t really have any major bills, and no one really sends me any letters, or I’d be able to rule out Sunday with some certainty. Could also check the postmark date. No, that wouldn’t help either. That just uses the number, not the weekday. Without a calendar, that wouldn’t do me any good. Haven’t had a calendar in years. Never needed one. Always just used the phone. Made the physical thing kinda pointless. Except for the cute pictures, maybe. Of course, just used the phone for that, too. Besides, I think they put that stuff on the stamp when they send it, not when they deliver, so it still wouldn’t help me much, if any.

Looking out the window again. Don’t even see anyone walking around, not that that would really tell me anything. People walk around outside all week long. Well, they used to. They haven’t so much since the lock down started. Wish I lived near a church or a bank, anywhere with one of those electronic signs. That would tell me the day of the week, maybe. Unless it was all messed up, with the wrong lights lit up in all the wrong spots. Those things always mess up. It’s usually a clump of the lights that just stay on and flicker in that annoying way, always just in the way of being able to read anything on the sign. Why do they use those things if they mess up all the time?

What day does my grocery delivery show up on? Was it Tuesday? No, Thursday. Doesn’t really matter, really, unless today was the day it showed up. How long has it been since the last one? Can’t even remember anymore. It’s really weird that I haven’t seen any cars go by. Sunday, maybe? No one would be driving if they were all at church. Except maybe the people that don’t go to church. Or the people going out to get snacks for whatever sport they’ll be watching later. Wish the antenna for the tv still worked. Haven’t seen a news broadcast or a really old game show since they made that weird conversion to the signals. It was that one where you had to get some special adapter for your cable line to watch the stuff they normally pumped through the antennas. Never got one of those things. Never wanted cable, so I didn’t see the point.

Starting to get hungry. Food stock has been getting lower than usual. Did I miss a delivery? I can’t even remember anymore. I hope I didn’t miss one. I hope they didn’t think that I don’t need them anymore. They bring my pills with those deliveries. Guess if I did get a delivery soon, I could look at the fill date on the bottle. No, I’d be in the same situation as the postmark. They put the number instead of day of the week on those. Still don’t have a calendar. Had a laptop once that had a calendar built it. Haven’t seen it since the lock down started. Let my friend borrow it. Too scared to go get it back. Body wouldn’t be able to handle getting that sick, if it happened. Really need those pills. Don’t want to run out.

Think I hear another siren today. This one is far off. Can barely hear it on the wind. Wonder if they are just testing the sirens all around the area. Heard them a lot a couple of weeks ago. Didn’t they used to test the sirens on a certain day around here, before everyone got stuck inside? Monday, I think, maybe Wednesday. Doesn’t really matter. Siren I hear isn’t close enough to be for this area. Would also hear all the other sirens again if they were testing. No help there.

Starting to get tired. Maybe I’ll eat something then go to sleep, try to figure out what day it is tomorrow. Maybe something will happen that will help me figure it out, for whatever reason. Will probably just be quiet out there, again. Been quiet out there for a good number of days, now. Why was I even trying to remember the day of the week anyways? Can’t remember now. I know I had a reason. No clue what that was. Maybe I’ll remember tomorrow. Oh well. Tomorrow is another day, whatever day that is.

March 09, 2021 14:19

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2 comments

Susan Hicken
18:39 Mar 16, 2021

Very relatable! Covered all the ways to try to discover what day it could be! Interesting how the brain works through problems!

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Madam Runawaii
21:38 Mar 15, 2021

This is exactly how my thought process looks like when I have no caffeine.

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