The Day Began With....

Lona’s morning had been more pleasant than normal, for many reasons; many small reasons that ended adding up into an altogether-way-better-than-usual morning. Firstly, and most importantly, Lona’s day had begun thirty or so minutes late because she had slept through her alarm clock. Considering that she was already tardy for school, Lona took her time preparing for the day ahead. Instead of arriving to first period with her hair dripping wet, Lona was able to use the blow dryer after her shower, which was 10 minutes long today, rather than the usual 3. Lona also allowed herself time to fix some lunch, specifically, a grilled cheese sandwich; Lona normally ate the cafeteria food. While waiting for the bread part of her sandwich to get nice and crispy, and also for the cheese part to get nice and melty, Lona thought back to when the idea of having a homemade lunch in a brown paper sack was not so novel, that was along time ago, when Lona’s younger self would wake up early, eager to get to school and learn, learn, learn for seven whole hours; back then, waking up early meant time enough for Lona to make a lunch. “Why don’t I get up early for school anymore?” Lona asked herself. “Am I getting old or am I just lazy? It’s not like I’m late everyday or something; I’ve just been cutting it pretty close recently....maybe I just need a day off?” Lona stared at her sizzling sandwich in the pan. Her stomach growled; she had forgotten to eat breakfast, funny; especially because she had been preparing her lunch for most of the morning. Without any further thought, Lona ate her sandwich, her meant-for-lunch-but-now-her-breakfast sandwich. “Guess I can’t go to school now.” Lona thought, “I don’t have a lunch, and I need a lunch at school to keep myself energized.”

So, with that bit of unsound logic Lona called in sick to school, painted her nails, got dressed, and decided to go out for the day. Lona didn’t really know where she was going to go; she had only developed her plan to the point where she left her family’s apartment. Lona rode the elevator down to the lobby level of her apartment building. The doors opened into a shabby foyer, which was empty. There was no place for a door man or for a front desk, not even a nice light fixture or something. It was just a longish room with ripped wall-to-wall carpeting, in gray. Lona noticed something a little different about the lobby this morning, it was a small detail in the grand scheme of things but Lona noticed it immediately. Mixed in with the overpowering odor of musty carpeting (which was normal) was the out of place smell of cafeteria food; bland, overcooked and metallic. Lona wrinkled her nose. The smell reminded Lona of her school’s lunchroom, where she was supposed to be at some point during the day. But she wasn’t going to be there, and for a moment this reminder made Lona feel guilty for skipping, but not very guilty. Lona tried not to breathe on her way out the door, which was all the way across the room from the elevator. She wasn’t going to allow any reminders of school ruin her day off.