She sat there, in the subway train, going north from Dundas Station to Sheppard, playing Dance Dance Revolution on her cell phone. Finally, that was the last of all her exams. Three hours long, of course she fell asleep sometime between the forty minute mark and the second hour mark, at least that forty minutes she was awake was enough time to finish. Which high school teacher was it that said that she’d be needing all the time she gets on university exams? Whatever, it must have been ‘her’, the one that thought I was just plain stupid to even get this far. Shows her. It’s not easy, but it’s not as hard as they made it out to be.
“Game Over!!” flashed on the tiny screen of her Motorola phone. Realizing she’s not really playing all that much attention, she put the phone into her bag, resigning herself to just listen to her mp3 player. Life was becoming boring, tiresome, and routine. She was getting sick of it all. Only ten minutes or so more, and she would be home. Home for some real sleep. Sleep… It feels as if it’s been an eternity since she last got enough. Even on weekends when she didn’t have assignments or work she' have to put on another social face. "Seriously, why is it so hard to get some down time?"
And then it hit her. She felt like she fell a mile, and jerked her head back up. She had dozed off. Just in time, the next stop, Sheppard Station, was just announced over the intercom. She gathered all three of her bags. A carry-on, a wheelie, a backpack, and her purse, of course. She got up, made her way to the door, and waited till the train slowly came to a stop. Walking over to the escalator, making her way to the eastbound platform, and resigned herself to drowsily wait for the train, strangely enough, both sides just happened to be unoccupied by a train. Both sides’ destinations were east. She’s having doubts about having decided to stay with her class mate for the month to be near the campus and for study purposes. Should have stayed home, then there wouldn’t be all this to carry, she wouldn’t be having that muscle cramp above her shoulder bone.
She rolled her shoulders and her head from side to side, and felt the air around start to move. And herd the distinct roar of the train make its way behind her. Damn, theories of relativity, that fifty/fifty chance, it wasn’t on her side today. Making her way into the train, she found her self a corner seat by the window, and made her self comfortable, waited four stops for Don Mills Station, making sure to stay alert now, if she fell asleep now, she wouldn’t be able to get real sleep when she gets home. She actually lives a little east of Don Mills Station, in a little apartment of her own. She used to have a room mate, who, a month ago, decided to move in with her boyfriend. She wouldn’t be able to take the bus, it’s too late, about two, now she’s regretting spending ‘a little’ time to celebrate after the exams with her friends. At least she didn’t drink too much, keeping in mind the last time.
Luckily, her neighbour, a lady who happens to adore her, is kind and offered to give her a ride back to the apartment. “Hello, Miriam, hi, it’s Selene, I’m here.” Miriam, her neighbour lady, had asked Selene to give her a call when she gets there. Selene could swear, her head was spinning, and she was just so tired. Guilt suddenly swallowed her, Miriam probably had an even tiresome day, six year old twin girls and a job, calling her out to pick up some girl in the middle of the night now seems like a stupid agreement. They met one night last summer, Selene was waiting for an elevator, ready to go out with some friends, and when the elevator doors chimed open, Miriam had one of her daughters in her arms, sleeping, and the other held onto the opposite hand, dragging her feet in exhaustion. Selene, for some reason or another, decided not to ignore it, she offered to carry the sleeping one in while Miriam unlocked her suite. Miriam had made a joke about day cares, Selene not quite paying attention offered to care for the children in the day while she was out at work.
“I’m so sorry for making you pick me up, I should have just stayed the night there and come in the morning,” Selene immediately said getting into the minivan.
“Nonsense, my mother-in-law came to visit, you know how it gets when the relatives visit, everyone stays up all night and sleeps all day, she just came today, the girls are still playing with what their grandma brought them,” Miriam said in her Chinese accented fast talking way, with a smile. “So do you have any plans for the summer?”
“Yeah! Sleep!”
“Sounds like a good plan to me, you look terrible! We’re going to take my mother-in-law site seeing, take her to our China Town, and Pacific Mall, and Kensington market, she’ll see,
“Your plan is almost as good as mine.”
"You know what honey, you should try some good old meditation, or take a walk with nature! This busy city life with school stress and everything gets everybody exhausted pretty badly. maybe go camping, or go to some lakeside cottage, go on vacation. You know, maybe I can ask my mother-in-law to take you with her for a little while when she leaves, new experiences you know, they do magic! Besides, my husbands family is from a very small farm town back home, maybe that's just what you need, you know. You should come meet her, she'll like you, I'm sure you'll like her too!"
"Umm...I don't have the money to go travelling just yet, maybe next summer, but all the other stuff sounds fantastic." They talked the rest of the short way, and finally, Selene was able to fall into her bed. Not caring to change, wash up, eat, or anything else, just sleep, tonight, not even her thoughts will be able to keep her awake.
I will have the full story posted Monday Morning...
My Excuse is silly and stupid...
Left my memory stick at work...lame
RSS Feed (xml)
No comments:
Post a Comment