The Girl Woke Up Naturally Sad
-Claudia Ciobanu
The girl woke up naturally sad, but then she remembered, and she started to smile. He must be in the shower, she thought, I will just go and have a coffee.
She went into the kitchen, opened the window to let the spring air in, and prepared a strong espresso. She turned on the radio and listened to the news about the traffic and the weather. Not that she really cared about that, but it is always good to have people's voices around.
She started thinking about what she would wear that day, when the phone
rang. It was Martha calling about the party later that night.
"I hope you guys will make it tonight."
"Sure, we are looking forward to it. He may be a little bit late because they always have those end-of-the-day-meetings on Friday, but we will both be there. We will bring wine."
It is nice to have a party waiting in the evening. Then you can go through the day with the expectation that something pleasant will happen. You can keep that at the back of your mind when you do all the routine tasks at work, when you spill coffee on your white skirt, when the metro ride home is too long. It finally doesn't even matter how the party will turn out to be because parties exist in the evenings only for you to be able to go through the days.
It is nice to think of him still in the apartment, finishing his shower, fixing his breakfast, reading the newspaper. It is nice to talk about him to friends. It is nice to wait for him to come back from the city. The girl had a good day at work. She managed to finish the grant application by lunch, then she went out for lunch with some of her co-workers. She had gotten pretty close to them, although they never spent time together outside of work. But they knew details about her personal life, they knew she had him, although they had never met him. They kept making jokes about her future marriage, at which she would smile. After finishing her day at work, she went for a long walk and then passed by the supermarket to buy the wine. He wouldn't have time to get it because he would have to come to the party straight from work.
She wore the blue dress because she knew he would like it. She had bought it a month before when she went out to spend a day in the city alone. She had been nervous about his reaction because the dress was a little too tight and short, but he loved it. She looked good in blue.
She arrived at the party on time. She poured a drink for herself and started talking to people. She knew most of them and when they asked about him, she explained he would be a bit late because they always have meetings at work on friday nights. He should not be more than an hour late.
Martha's parties were generally good. She chose the proper food and only invited people who knew one another. As people drank more and more and started laughing louder and louder, the girl became increasingly silent. She would occasionally smile, but she stopped doing even that after a while.
She just sat there, in her blue dress, which felt tighter and shorter than ever. When she couldn't breathe any more, she escaped to the bathroom. They found her later with her wrists slashed. They tried to let him know, but they could never find him at the apartment, and nobody really had any contacts of him.
Nobody had in fact ever met him.
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