A Day Like Any Other
Originally written July 19, 2019
The day starts like any other day. My alarm wakes me up at 6:00 a.m. After some light stretching to warm myself up, I go into the bathroom and start my morning routine.
I try to be as efficient as possible. I don’t want to waste my day.
First, I brush my teeth while I use the bathroom. Next comes my face.
I splash some water on my face to make sure I’m fully awake, and then I use the face wash. Then the cleanser. Then the serum. Got to keep my skin clear. I haven’t had a single breakout since I was a teenager, and I intend to keep it that way.
I pull my hair back into a ponytail. Simple, yet elegant. Finally, it’s time to start my day. Well, really start my day that is.
I’m the only one awake in the house, so I move as silently as possible over the carpeted floor of the hallway and into the kitchen. The house is mostly clean from the night before, but Ben and Ken get a little rowdy in the night, so sometimes their hair is everywhere.
I sweep up a small pile of hair and make sure there isn’t a speck of dust on the ground. I wouldn’t want Lisa and Tom to get their feet dirty first thing in the morning. After that, I take the dishes out of the washer set the table. Once everything is in place the way it should be, it’s time to start making breakfast.
At 7:15, I hear Tom’s alarm go off upstairs. A few minutes later, the shower comes on. That means I have about twenty-five minutes to finish breakfast. It’s Wednesday, bacon-and-eggs day, which means I have a few minutes to kill before I have to start cooking. I wouldn’t want their breakfast to be cold and hard by the time they get down here.
Within the next fifteen minutes, three more alarms go off upstairs. First, Lisa gets up and starts getting ready for work.
Then it’s Adam, who has to make sure he’s ready for school. For Adam, that means he just has to throw on some shorts and an old t-shirt and he’ll be good to go.
Alice is the last to rise. She doesn’t have class at the local university until 10:25 today, but she wants to look her best for that cute boy who sits two rows in front of her.
After exactly seven minutes of rest, it’s time for me to start cooking. Tom and Adam will be downstairs first. They’re easy. They like their eggs scrambled and their bacon burnt black. I put their bacon to the side to let it cook and start working on Lisa’s breakfast. She’ll be down shortly after Tom, and she likes an egg on an English muffin. I start frying her egg and toasting a muffin. I time it perfectly, so the toaster will pop as she walks into the room.
Alice is a little bit pickier. She likes her bacon soft, but not flimsy. Her eggs need to be done over-medium, a little bit burnt around the edges but not so much that it tastes like dirt. I save hers for last because I know that she will be upstairs getting ready for at least fifty minutes. Plus, I get nervous making her food and I don’t want to mess it up.
Tom, Adam, and Lisa all come down as expected and sit down for their breakfasts. Tom’s coffee is hot and waiting for him, complete with two sugars and one cream. Adam’s daily energy drink is poured into a glass. Lisa’s room temperature water hits the table at the same moment her butt hits her chair.
Breakfast goes very well. I receive compliments from everyone. That even includes Tom, who is usually very tired in the morning and doesn’t speak to anyone until he’s had at least three cups of coffee.
As they enjoy their breakfast, I take Ben and Ken out for their morning run around the yard. I still have some time before I need to prepare Alice’s meal, so I let the dogs have one extra lap before I usher them inside. They run over to eat their food and I head back to the stove.
“Regina! Look out for the—” Adam yells. But it’s too late.
I do not see the dish soap coating the tile as I turn the corner. My feet slip very quickly. I fall toward the corner of the counter. My arm hits and slides down. I expect it to hurt, but I only feel a slight bump as it happens.
I stand up, brushing it off.
“Oops! I’m sorry, I will get a towel and clean this up right away,” I say. I do not hurt, and I do not want Adam to blame himself for spilling the soap. I see that he has another energy drink in his hand, which means he got up to get it for himself, likely knocking the soap onto the floor with his arm.
“Now Regina, I don’t want to alarm you,” Lisa says softly. “But your arm is bleeding.”
I look down, expecting a couple drops of blood to be rolling down my arm. What I see stops me in my tracks.
I stumble backwards, catching myself on the same counter that had caused this damage.
There is no blood. At least not blood as one would imagine.
There is a line of brown liquid pouring from the cut in my arm. It almost looks like... oil. Not only that, but the skin is pulled back quite a bit and I can see inside of my arm. Where there should be muscles and bones, I see only metal. Gears and wires and a steel frame make up the entirety of my arm.
“Th-this c-can’t be right,” I stutter. “Tom? Lisa? What’s happening? What’s wrong with me?”
“Not again,” Adam groans. “Now we’re going to have to have her repaired again. That means we’ll have to do all this ourselves for a whole week.”
Tom sighs and walks over towards me.
“Adam! Remember that before the accident, she was your sister,” he says. “Now Regina, just stay calm. It’s all going to be okay. I’ll call the shop and get you fixed right up.”
Tom reaches his arm behind me and into the top of my shirt. It’s like he’s searching for something at the base of my neck.
“Tom? Tom what’s going on? What accident? Tell me what’s happ—”
#
The day starts like any other day. My alarm wakes me up at 6:00 a.m. After some light stretching to warm myself up, I go into the bathroom and start my morning routine.