Morning all and welcome to Friday. Even though it was a short week, it felt impossibly long. But the best thing about a long week is that it ends and you get a weekend. Which I very much need. But before we get there, we have the morning prompt. So timers set and lets see where we go from here.
Okay I like this. I may have to break this into a full story at lunchtime.
Friday, October 17th: The book was closed.
The book was closed. I narrowed my eyes at it. I distinctly remembered leaving the book open. “Hello?” I called out. There was no answer and it didn’t feel like there was anyone in the house. I frowned. Maybe I had closed the book.
I shook my head. No I remembered thinking I didn’t have a book mark and having the image of the librarian from my elementary school pop into my head. She always lectured people at great length when they turned down the corner to mark their page. Seeing her scowling face in my mind I turned the book over the arm of the chair, careful not to crease any of the pages.
Then I stood and went to get my glass of water. It felt like I was always thirsty these days. I knew it was the treatment. I had been warned it was a side effect. I hadn’t realized that I would be on a constant cycle of taking water in, waiting a few minutes and then having to go to the bathroom. Then repeating the process at least once every hour.
I thought there was a problem but my doctor did the full inspection and my urinary track was fine, my numbers were fine and he even joked that with as much water as I was drinking I might actually be more healthy and hydrated than I had ever been.
‘Also spending more time in the bathroom than ever,’ I thought as I stared at the book. I knew I set it on the arm of the chair, open. Now it was closed and on the seat of the chair.
“Maybe it slipped I said as I crossed to the chair. I hated the creaky sound of my voice and the slowness of my steps. I felt my age doubled overnight. Admittedly I had been feeling that since the treatment began. The last infusion had been that morning and I knew I had about an hour to get home before the weight of it slowed me down. I ran my errands and returned home before needing to sit, hence the open book.
Going to get the glass of water had been a herculean effort and one I put off until my mouth felt like the Sahara and continuing dry mouthed was worse to contemplate then making the trek to the kitchen and the subsequent bathroom break. It was supposed to start getting better now that the infusions were done. Perhaps in a few days I would feel less like the 5000 year old that I felt today.
I reached the chair and picked up the book. I then sat down and took a deep breath feeling winded from the effort. After a few breaths I was able to lean back and lift first one foot, then the other to the foot stool. A shiver took me and I pulled the blanket from the back of the chair over me. It was exhausting and I took another minute to settle before opening the book.
The book did not open to the page I was reading. Instead it opened to another page. There was a bookmark marking it. I blinked at it stupidly for a moment. A sheet of paper folded lengthwise and then in half to use as a book mark. I looked at the page thinking maybe the marker was left in a later section and I somehow didn’t notice it prior. Instead I saw a chapter I knew I finished the day before.
Someone added the bookmark.
I hadn’t heard anyone enter the house. Hadn’t seen anyone, but that didn’t mean someone hadn’t. I reached for the paper bookmark with shaky hands and began to unfold it.
Ten til Midnight 