Good morning everyone. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. Mine was a mix of chores and pure indolent sloth. It was glorious. And just what I needed to recharge for this week. So saying that, let’s just jump into out morning prompt. Timers at the ready! and we are off.
I had a hard time stopping when the timer went off. I think I am going to take a few extra minutes and push further just so I get the thoughts out of my head before I set this to the side and start on the day’s work.
Monday, September 18th: The bird was watching me.
The bird was watching me. I could see it through the window. It was a little strange as it was just sitting thee on the fence post. I thought it might be a sparrow but then it turned slightly and I saw a flash of yellow in the brown feathers. I didn’t know much about birds, but I was pretty sure that sparrows didn’t have yellow racing stripes down the side.
‘Maybe it’s a racing sparrow,’ I thought to myself. ‘It’s probably just looking at it’s reflection in the glass.’
Still it was unnerving how the bird seemed to me looking at me, tilting it’s head slightly as though it was questioning my actions.
I finished my toast and decided that I might want to start my day. I put my plate in the sing and ran water in my small juice glass before taking myself to the shower. As I lathered my hair with shampoo I mentally ran through my list of errands for the day. It was going to be a busy one. I tried to shake the feelings of misgivings, that something was wrong.
‘It’s the bird watching me,” I told myself as I rinsed off the last of the suds and turned off the water. ‘That’s what has me spooked, just the bird.”
But if I was honest I had those feelings since the night before. I went to bed feeling as though I was on the verge of something even though I was expecting nothing but a normal boring old day. Still it felt like I was anticipating trouble and because of it my dreams had been murky and strange.
I tried to shake the thoughts away. I checked the clock and realized I was running late. If I wanted to catch the bus and not be late to work I needed to run. And run I did. I grabbed my things for the day, slinging my bag over my shoulder, locked the door to my apartment and stepped into the hall way. It was once a large well appointed home. Then it was carved up into apartments, four on the first floor and four on the second, with one large attic apartment for the owner above. The owner never really came out when I was around. I rented the apartment through the agency that ran the rental but I, like every one of my neighbors knew the owner lived on the upper floor. I was told he came out, but I expected he emerged only when the renters below left the building.
I dismissed thoughts of the building owner and hastened my steps through the entry way and out of the front door. Once I reached the sidewalk I tried to speed walk, giving myself the illusion that I was not in fact running, but just walking to the bus stop. As my running speed was no faster than my speed walking speed I knew that it was my top gear but at least didn’t jolt me out of my breath as badly.
Not for the first time I promised myself to go to the gym in order to begin training. Training for what I didn’t know. I wasn’t the sort to run marathons. I wasn’t the sort to play sports. What I wanted to be able to run from was anyone who decided to attack me. I wasn’t really the sort that people attacked. I didn’t have any enemies and no evil nemesis lurking about. I was a temp for the most part. At the moment, I was a temporary receptionist while the main one took maternity leave. Eventually she would come back and resume her job and I would be a temporary something else.
I was forgettable, not someone anyone planned sinister plots around. Yet I thought it might one day be good to know I could outrun someone plotting evil. I reached the bus stop just a the bus rounded the corner. I had time to take a deep breath and at least convince myself that I was not out of breath before it stopped and the doors whooshed open.
Ten til Midnight 