Routine of First Light

Nice gusts surrounded my neck and blew every nape of hair in this chilly room. The air-con was working fine. Moreover, a cute girl sat on the sofa beside me. She joined watching TV. We shared opinions and guffawed together. Only two of us were here. This was exquisite.

A half hour had passed. A commercial break took part on the TV. It disturbed us in the middle of excitement.

The girl put her right hand on my left shoulder. She smiled at me. Her hands gently held my shirt. Her face moved forward. She kissed me.

I hugged and kissed her in energetic mode. I couldn't stop moving my tongue.

This feeling never lied. It was sweet and made me unable to reject anything happened right now, seriously.

The girl stopped for a while. She took off my clothes. My hands moved to her hip. I strip off her pants, including her undies. Afterward, I unzipped my jeans. We re-kissed for a minute.

The environment changed. My body couldn't stop shaking. It slowly turned scorching. I felt like the air-con wasn't functioning while my mind kept closing my sight. It was difficult to ensure.

The girl sighed each second. Her voice sounded amusing.

We had been spending ten minutes having sex. Every part of my body felt burning. My eyesight was duskier. Both of our breaths worked unstably.

Even though my eyes couldn't see anything right now, I understood what happened around me. The girl repeatedly screamed in lovely tones. Her mind had flown.

However, her cry gradually altered. The girl's voice transformed into chirp, like a bird. Louder, and louder. My ears caught the sound of waterfall bit by bit. It was weird.

Curiosity arose. It compelled me to open my eyes.

My mind discontinued blinding my vision. I awoke and didn't see the girl anymore. Then, I realized that the noise of waterfall and birdsong was the alarm clock ringtone on my phone.

The hour hand of clock pointed to the number six. It was early morning.

I lifted my body and turned off the alarm. I sat on the bed and raked my sweaty hair.

"What a nice dream," I mumbled.

I felt a little bit sleepy, hoping that I could sleep back to continue my dream. In fact, it was entirely impossible.

I opened my mouth in a wide range and yawned like a hippo. My breath smelled horrible. Maybe I ate too much turkey last night.

Rousing Ryu was my next task. I stood and walked to Ryu's bed located opposite mine.

"Wake up!" I yelled while shaking his body.

I left the room after Ryu was semi-conscious. Taking a bath, combing, and tidying up, those were all I constantly did upstairs every morning.

My daily tasks were almost completed. I went down and headed to the kitchen that merged with dining room.

Our house had a small difference from others. Simple furniture, wooden and full of nails. No gold, no diamond. Nonetheless, we had a washing machine. It was not bad at all. As long as they were strong, everything would be fine.

"Morning!" I greeted Amanda.

Amanda always looked busy, preparing meals, washing clothes, and cleaning this house. She had a role as a homemaker, replacing Aunty Fiona, her mother. I didn't know how this could happen; but clearly, Aunty Fiona had left before I lived with this family.

"Morning, Richard!" Amanda greeted me back.

I moved towards Amanda and watched her. She kept focusing on her cooking.

My eyes targeted a mini frying pan. "Scrambled eggs, huh?" I asked.

Amanda smiled. "More to failed omelets," she said.

Some eggs were ready. They smelled good, although they were failed food.

I took out some plates and glasses. I helped Amanda prepare breakfast. We placed each plate of scrambled eggs on the table and filled every glass with milk.

The breakfast was ready. Ryu, Lucy, and Will came down. They went to the dining room.

Everybody gathered, except Uncle Steven. Not once did he wake up in the early morning. Furthermore, he never joined us for breakfast or dinner in this house. It sounded sorrowful.

We all enjoyed the scrambled eggs. It tasted nice despite the singed odor.

Around twenty minutes had passed. Everyone finished.

Amanda looked at a clock showing seven o'clock.

"School time!" she commanded.

Ryu, Lucy, and Will got up. They left this room and went out. Amanda and I remained here.

Lucy and Will were still students. They went to school by a blue jalopy. Ryu was the one who drove them to school before going to work every time. Also, they went home together in the evening.

Amanda removed all plates and glasses from the table. She put those down in the sink. She started washing those.

Someone knocked on our back door. I got up and went back to open the door.

The air from the outdoors felt pleasant. It was cloudy and warm.

Nothing was astonishing, just a woman standing in front of me. She's Caroline Pinell, our next-door neighbor, a tall woman who lived alone and loved lending us a hand at any moment.

"Hello, Richard," she greeted.

"Hey," I greeted back in short term.

Caroline gave me a newspaper. She knew I habitually borrowed hers since we never had any paper in this house. Besides, she rarely read it.

"Thanks," I said while taking the newspaper. "How's it going?"

"Pretty good. How about you?"

"Never better."

Caroline smiled. "Can I use your toilet for a while?"

"Sure."

"Thank you."

It was unusual. Caroline seldom asked anything, particularly using someone's toilet. However, that wasn't in the slightest problem for anyone here.

I welcomed Caroline before closing back the door. We walked inside together.

"Any problem with your bathroom?" I questioned Caroline.

"Yeah," she answered. "The trip lever. It's broken."

Caroline and I kept moving until we could see Amanda who was washing the dishes. She had finished half.

"Hi, Amanda!" Caroline greeted.

"Hi!" Amanda said in a spontaneous gesture. She stopped to turn back and looked at Caroline, "Got any problem?"

"Just a little," Caroline grinned, "another morning trouble."

Amanda smiled. She continued cleaning the plates.

I sat back on the chair and started reading the paper. My eyesight moved step by step, focused on each word written.

Caroline left us. She went to the bathroom near a washing machine location.

Someone walked down the stairs. The interval of movement was very slow. It was easy to notice through my ears.

However, I didn't care and just paid attention to the newspaper. I found an interesting topic.

I chuckled. "Again, the Dockerney."

"A new victim?" Amanda asked while washing the dishes.

"Yeah," I answered. "Another suicide."

"I knew it," said Amanda.

Dockerney Company was very famous. People liked to talk about it sometimes. But, one thing we needed to know was never getting in touch with it.

Uncle Steven showed up. His face looked nasty with a lethargic left eye. Dry alcoholic saliva moistened his lips. His messy hair and beard supported his daily appearance since he constantly woke up in the late morning and rarely took a shower before going downstairs.

"Nothing left?" asked Uncle Steven.

"Everything's done," said Amanda.

He opened a fridge and looked inside. His hands began to mess.

"No more left," Amanda reassured. "It's late March, Dad."

"Damn!" he grumbled.

In all honesty, I really disliked this one of all the survival methods we did. At the end of every month, we had to do food savings. We invariably limited the consumption for five or six days in those moments.

Uncle Steven left us. He went out in a cluttered look.

Amanda finished cleaning the dishes. She went to a washing machine, collected all the dirty clothes, and put them in the washer. After filling detergent, she turned it on.

I stopped reading, as I didn't find any more attractive. I put the paper on table and stood up.

"Working time. Bye!" I spoke to Amanda.

"Bye!" said Amanda.

I left her, walked towards the door, and went out.