Phirindi

1. The Universe

'The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper' - Eden Phillpotts

~

'Lidia?' I was jolted from my sleep as my mum knocked on the door. 

'Are you awake yet? You have to go to school.' 

'Ye-yeah,' I yawned, 'I'll be right up.' My eyes were already starting to close again. 

'Lidia, come on.' My mum opened the door and turned on my bedroom light. I squinted in the sudden bright light and sighed. 

'I'm coming.' I pretty much rolled out of bed into the shower, like every morning. Only under the water did I seem to wake up decently. 

And so it went every single morning. I woke up, took a shower, ate breakfast and went to school. When I came home again I made homework, read a book or watched a movie, ate dinner, read a book or watched a movie and went to sleep.

Every. Single. Day.

It was starting to bore me.

Well, we can't all have crazily adventurous lives, can we? 

School was pretty much the same every day, too, except the conversational topics differed from time to time. Today we were talking about birds. Don't ask why. We're kinda weird. 

'Don't you think birds are wonderful?' My best friend Nola was saying, 'I mean, they're so well built that they can lift up their entire weight with flaps of meat and bone with feathers on them!'

Beth(short for Elizabeth), wasn't convinced. 'Yes, but they are very small, most of the time then, and gravity won't pull on them so much. I think they were just lucky in evolution, that's all.'  

They continued discussing their ideas while I stared out the window, watching birds and insects and the occasional leaf flutter by. What could  be out there? I wondered. The universe is so humongous that there could be numerous other living creatures on other planets, in other galaxies. Magical creatures, perhaps. Things that could never exist on this planet.  

~

I had been doing homework for a while, though I couldn't really concentrate, when my mom interrupted my stream of thoughts. 

'Lidia?' 

'Yeah?'

'Lidia!' She obviously hadn't heard me. I called out again, a little louder this time, 

"Yes, mom, what is it?'

 'Dinner's ready!' 

'Okay, I'm coming!' I hadn't noticed that it was dinnertime already. I would have to go on with my homework after dinner. I stood up and flexed my shoulders. Ouch. I was one of these days again. My shoulders always hurt, but some days they would hurt more, like today.

I didn't really pay attention to the food. Mom seemed to notice. "Are you done with your homework yet?' 

'No', I sighed. 

'Well, we're almost finished. You can go upstairs if you like.'

 'Thanks, mom. I don't reckon I'll come downstairs after I've finished learning. I think I'll read somewhat and go to sleep.' I rubbed my forehead, trying to shut out the fog that was penetrating my brain already. Fatigue, you nasty bitch! 

 'Okay sweetie. Sleep well!' I kissed my parents goodnight and went upstairs, thinking that I'd better make my homework as fast as I could.