The alarm rang and Frida’s arm turned it off with the speed of lighting. She was not ready to get up, not yet. The bed was so soft and comfy. The pleasant warmth made her limbs heavy and unwilling to move. Not yet.
Ten minutes later the alarm went on again. She could not delay it any further. She had to get up and it was non-negotiable. Work is work.
Frida turned off the alarm on the phone and opened her eyes. The room was too dark for her to see anything but slight contours of the furniture and walls. The days were getting so short in winter that she was not surprised it was still so dark.
With creaky knees and hurting joints Frida swung out of bed and took the short trip to the en-suite.
‘There must be something wrong with the light bulb …’, Frida told herself while looking right up at it and seeing just a faint hazy light. For sure it was going out, these new modern light bulbs, not only were they horribly expensive, but they did not last as long as the old ones used to either.
Frida was too tired to bother changing it now so she proceeded with brushing her teeth. After years of routine she knew exactly where each object was so she did not even notice that she was grabbing objects without actually seeing them.
The good thing about the light bulb malfunctioning was that she could not see her face clearly in the mirror. She found that, the older she got, the less she wanted to see herself.
All the white hair, the chin hair, the eye brow hairs, the lined and soft skin, all way too much, she was better off without facing that each day. Good on you light!
To save on electricity she often did not turn on all the lights she needed in the morning, so Frida was quite familiar with walking in near darkness. She carefully walked to the kitchen and, only here, it was clear that something was not right.
After she turned on the lights, yes plural, there were four led spotlights that should have flooded the kitchen with light, it seemed they did not work well either.
It felt like the standard of electricity had gone down also, it did not power light bulbs as it used to in the past. Lights used to be nice and bright while now they were dull and foggy. She needed to get on to the electricity company to find out what was going on.
Frida sighed deeply and made her coffee. At least that was still delicious, although it had started to give her a bit of acid reflux.
Looking outside her window Frida was unpleasantly surprised to see that a dense fog covered her entire neighborhood. The houses out front could barely be seen, the trees that usually housed many tiny birds were now just a few crooked twigs.
‘What unusual fog …’, Frida had never seen anything quite like it, it made her happy she was working from home that day, it would have been too scary to go out into that creepy fog.
Frida sat down to have her coffee and all of a sudden she jerked awake at the sound of the church bells ringing in the distance signalling mid-day.
Confused she gave her mind a few minutes to catch up. She almost laughed when she realized that she had fallen asleep while having her coffee, but she was so worried about work that she ignored the funny side of the situation.
Frida took out her phone and to her surprise there was no message. They had not missed her at all. Her heart sank, she gave them all her days and energy, and they did not even notice she was missing.
Just then, as she was sinking deeper into herself, the phone pinged and a message appeared.
‘Brunch?’
Frida was confused, how could she have brunch on a work day. Her friend Melody had no sense of duty.
‘Today?’
‘Duhhhh, what else is there to do on a Saturday? Brunch and unplug! I will come by to pick you up!’
Saturday?
Reality came flooding in shedding an abundance of light on Frida’s mind.
It was Saturday! She was just so tired that she had lost track. Sitting there and thinking things through she understood she was beyond tired, she was burned out. She took the decision right then and there to ask for some time off, but now then, the only thing she needed to do was brunch and unplug.
As she walked to her bedroom to change she was happy to see that the day had turned out sunny and the trees in front were full of noisy little birds.
So great that fog had lifted … it was really quite stifling …
Here yesterday was raining and - so dark! There must have been really thick cloud-cover but really it seemed like dusk all day. It has been quite the opposite today, thank goodness! I like the interplay in your story between inner and outer light/darkness.