Thursday, August 19, 2010

Home

Ceilí's last step carried her a little too far: first her toe and then knee met the wall at the bottom of that perpetually dark stairwell.
Great start to another great day. It's been 3 weeks and 5 days since that light bulb broke, and still they haven't fixed it. Someday I'll decide how long this landing is.
Only 2 mice were sent tumbling and scurrying away as the rusted metal
door at the base of the apartment complex screeched open. Ceilí slid the notepad out of her bag and made a note of the lack of the normal rodent presence with a pencil she materialized from her sleeve.
8/20/2010- 6:18:42- 2 mice at outside stair doorway of Watershed Heights.
It was only the 53rd page she'd started this morning. The others were full of notes, each taking up no more than 3 lines, all starting with a date and time, and ending with some little detail of the world. If this wasn't Ceilí's normal routine, she'd have been late to work by an hour.
8/20/2010- 6:19:50- XX26 exits laundromat. XY02 enters grocery.
Stop it, stop it, stop. I promised myself not to plot people while I'm busy. That's what weekends are for.
The broken fountain on the roundabout just outside Watershed Heights was finally empty after that intense rain several nights ago. That was fair game.
8/20/2010- 6:22:03- Fountain on roundabout empty.
Years of personal commitment made these notes second nature. They didn't take long to jot down, and Ceilí's handwriting, though quick, was of admirable quality. It had won her 2 awards in middle school and 1 in high school. Those awards had given her at least a slight advantage towards college. Castfall University wasn't the best education, but for the scholarships she earned, it was by far the best by price.
True, this was not what I expected when was going through my classes. One of the world's best professors and 5 years of concentration in chaos theory don't have the same ring when you're bragging about them to 20 teenagers who don't care and just want to get done with the last period of the day. At least the bus is on time.
8/20/2010- 6:25:38- Bus 52 arrives. 4 exit, 3 including me enter.
That entry is fair, I was already writing about the bus, the people are simply details.
The bus puffed a dense cloud of smoke and set off down Calloway Boulevard towards the public high school. The smoke waved goodbye in the morning air before gradually fading to nothingness.

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