A Good Day

Mona hadn’t bathed in two weeks, and had only reluctantly forsaken the constant comfort of her well-worn pajamas for her less assuring jeans and t-shirt. Getting dressed was a hateful necessity reserved only for buying groceries or going to funerals. Her neighbors were nosy and she wasn’t in the mood to get into another screaming match with them about her going outside half-dressed, so she’d put on her jeans to appease them.

Just the same they were stiff with body odor and stains, which Mona considered a personal thumb on the nose to anyone who cared. Besides, she didn’t have anything else to wear. Her other clothes weren’t safe anymore and had been stored outside in the garage, where the vermin could have their way with them.

Mona’s hair hung in long impossible knots so snarled that she’d broken combs in two in her attempts to fix it Now the remnants of those broken combs decorated her hair with plastic rainbow teeth.

Because of the prying eyes of her neighbors, she’d become accustomed to living in dimly lit rooms. Now her vision was restricted to what little of the world she could see through the permanently narrowed slits, which had once housed luminous, hopeful eyes.

The morning sun infested the walls with angry fingers summoning Mona to her bed. Now was the time for sleep, when the safety of darkness succumbed to all the things she sought seclusion from and the only safe place was beneath her moth-eaten blanket until darkness returned, enveloping. Though in truth, nothing could protect her from the onslaught of perniciously happy people whose aim in life seemed to be making her see how truly miserable her life was.

The phone rang. It was already beginning.

“Hello.”

“Hi there, my name’s Bob from the Mayflower Life

Insurance Company.”

“Go away Bob…”

“Ma’am, if you’ll just give me one minute…”

“Razor, I think I’ll use a razor.”

“Hello?”

“Looks like it’s gonna to be harder this time, gonna have to cut through scar tissue to do the job right.”

“Uh, I’m sure you wonder what will happen to your family in case something happened to you...”

“I’ll have to soak the skin really good to soften it before I start cutting. Ever slit your wrists, Bob? I’m an expert. I’d love to show you how it’s done properly…”

Click.

Mona smiled as she reached for the tattered notebook on her nightstand table. She put a check on the blank page.

One.

Soon this page would be full of checks just like all the other pages of all the other notebooks that towered up from the floor like dozens of wobbly columns.

She went back to sleep, but as always her rest was interrupted by someone knocking at her door. Mona opened it only enough to admit a shadow and nothing more.

“Go away.”

“Hi, my name is Crystal, and I have an offer you won’t believe...”

“Crystal, the only thing you could offer me is your head on a spike.”

Mona smiled as she watched the woman run away.

Two.

It was going to be a good day.