Another day, a new beginning

"Graduating from the strand Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics, Mr. Foiler," says the teacher on the podium, announcing his name as he walks onto the stage. A medium-sized, pale-skinned man with black hair, wearing glasses named Mark Foiler takes his diploma and bows down in front of the crowd, showing joy and gratitude on his face.

He walks down from the stage, onto the exit and gets in his car, and drives to the hospital. He ran quickly towards the counter and asked "Miss, where is room 675?", to which the nurse responds "The room is upstairs, just take a left turn and walk until you see the room number." Mark nods, walks upstairs, and turns left to see the room where her dying mother lies await.

He saw a doctor walking out of the room that his mother was hospitalized in. He was nervous. He knows about his mother's illness, but he steadily approaches the doctor about her condition, hoping it would change anything. "Sir, what's the current situation about my mother?" asked Mark, "Your mom, Felicia Foiler... Is not gonna last long. She requested us to remove her life support, she is now in the last stage of Dementia, and at that point, she will forget how to perform normal human functions such as breathing or swallowing food..... You do know what that means, right?", the doctor looks at him, knowing that the answer is obvious.

Mark and the doctor walked past each other, approaching the room with such a sad expression. He opens the door without any hesitation and sat down at the chair near his mother.

She was pale and empty, not knowing what is going on around her, like a thick fog that she cannot describe- distortion and the lack of melody doesn't bother her anymore. Deep down, her subconscious knows that she will die, it truly is and utterly inevitable.

Pure silence, has become so loud it's deafening. The echoes from what once was the golden age of her memories are gone, it all became a massive sea of pure nothingness. She lied there, staring at her son, or what once was her son, she doesn't know who it is. All she sees is nothing, she cannot recognize anything, not even her own family. An awful void, so loud and piercing. Memories seep from her mind like blood oozing from a weeping wound, it just won't heal. Maybe she finally accepted that life is no longer hers; Screams, echoes, and tears burst forth flooding her world of thought.

A noise broke the silence as she slowly began to remember again. Terminal lucidity, a term coined by a German biologist, refers to an unexpected return of mental clarity and memory that occurs in the time shortly before the death of a patient's suffering from severe psychiatric or neurological disorders.

She gradually hears her son's reassurance, "Mom. I did it, Mom! I got the diploma that you were waiting for," said Mark, happy to show his achievement to his mother. "Your father would be very proud of you," she congratulated her son, hugging him tightly, knowing that this would be her very last moment.

As he hugs his mother back, the grip of his mother slowly loosens, as Mark hears the long beeping sound of the heart rate monitor, knowing that her time is up. "Memento Mori," he whispered, he always says this phrase whenever one of his relatives dies. The doctors approached his dead mother, covering her body in white cloth.

He didn't cry nor did he get mad, he knew that it was bound to happen. It was completely inevitable.

With a sad expression on Mark's face, as he breathes in and out, he walks to the nearest coffin store where the corpse will be placed. A female seller approaches him, asking what type of coffin would he like, "I'd go for the simple grey-looking one, right here," he responds, pointing at the coffin on his right. "Well that would be ¥600,000," said the seller.

Mark reaches into his bag and grabs a check which he then signed and gives to the seller, "The money would arrive in about 4 hours, it too will include the funeral financials for my mother," Mark responds, as he closes his bag and goes back to his car.

Pulling down the lever beside it and lowering its backrest, he then rests and lays down on the driver's seat- to which he grabs a pillow nearby, putting it on his neck as he looks up thinking about what he should do.

"Now I'm moving up to college, what job should I take then? When it comes to nerdy stuff, I always have a knack for superpowers and fictional characters; As if that'll ever happen. Well I might jinx it, but only science will make my dreams come true- or the government is just hiding them in Area 51, who knows?", Mark rants to himself, a habit that he usually does whenever he is alone or when someone is as nerdy as him. He reaches for the storage compartment in front of him and grabs a bag of potato chips, opens it, and places his phone at the holder attached to the windshield, and watched a video about "Quantum Mechanics," a topic which he was interested in ever since he was a teenager. "This is like the same thing, but with a twist huh? I guess we aren't too far from fiction, it might work, but for how long though?", Mark talks to himself again, eating the last chip before putting it in the bin placed at the bottom part of the seat.

After 3 whole hours, he drove to a nearby fast food store drive-thru and got his meal of potato fries and hash browns, all freshly cooked and is piping hot, which he ate on his way back home. He arrived at the subdivision gate, with a male guard approaching him, asking for the ID given to him when he bought a house in the subdivision, "Sir, please scan your ID here" said the guard, handing over the scanner to Mark. He then swipes his ID to the scanner, which beeps and glows green, causing the gate to raise and open, Mark, hands over the scanner to the guard as they nod at each other, closing the car window, and driving his way back home.

A medium-sized house, with two floors, a pool near the small backyard, surrounded by 2 meter high walls. Mark goes to the entrance and inputs his password, unlocking his house gate. He puts the key in the door, puts two keycards at the slot near the doorknob, which then opens, immediately turning on the lights.

As he enters the door, Mark imagines that his family is there surprising him, congratulating his achievements on how he worked his best in getting there. But, unfortunately, he knew the truth- they are gone, they won't ever come back, and there won't be anyone to spend his life with, considering he never was interested in having a girlfriend.

To lift his spirits, he grabs his phone from his pocket, immediately connecting to his WiFi network. He scrolls through the applications and opens the "Music" app and scrolls over the "Lofi" genre, he pressed play, then a soft and jazzy tune plays out in the background.

"Welp....

Let's get cooking..."

Mark then goes to the kitchen and grabs a frozen beef from the fridge, he unwraps it and threw the plastic into the trash bin, he grabs the meat and placed it on a chopping board, slowly cutting it into small, bite-sized cubes. He used a medium-sized pot, put six glasses of water into it, and turns on the gas. Mark then placed the udon pasta and beef broth which he pre-boiled, then set a timer for exactly 9 minutes for it to boil completely. He prepared green and white onions, coupled with a piece of egg, some bean sprouts, and chopped veggies.

After exactly 9 minutes, the timer begins to beep and Mark immediately puts in the ingredients, adding a few tablespoons of Cajun seasoning and paprika, then finally closing the pot with a lid and letting it cook for a few more minutes, watching intently as the aroma slowly enter his nose.

After fiddling with his phone, playing video games, he took out the lid from the pot, grabbed a bowl, and pour in the ramen using a ladle.

"Thanks for the food", Mark calmly says as he digs into the food he made, remembering the time where his mother would cook this dish at every family gathering.