[DISCLAIMER: The one who wrote this chapter is the Author Rednal.]An alarm blared several times before the phone was slapped and grabbed off the soft cotton sheet. Rednal groaned and squinted at the device. Thin, white letters displayed the time as "7:15 AM", and below it was a tiny note that said "Make breakfast. Food is Food is Food."
Rednal tapped the screen three times and dropped the phone back to the mattress. "Fineeeee." She rolled out of bed. It"s not much of a fall, but when her forehead and scarred knees collided with the carpeted floor a soft groan was released. "Meeeeeeeh." The groan went on for several seconds before she rolled onto her back and began some stretches.
Several satisfying cracks were heard before she laid flat against the floor to stare at the dark ceiling. It had been a warm night, but the morning brought a slight chill that was refreshing. The sweat along the back of her neck had dried. Chestnut eyes glanced at the phone on the bed and slowly blinked before settling back on the bland ceiling. "Maybe...five more minutes." Even the birds still seemed asleep. The chirping outside sounded softer than usual. "Or ten..."
It"s a second after acceptance when light slipped past the messily closed shutters and produced a thin strip of light that cut their face in half. It"s a slap in the face, another reminder that it"s morning, and even with an arm thrown over her face...it"s an irritant. "Okay. Fine. Breakfast."
Rednal rose from the ground with a grunt, and barely stopped herself from stomping down the stairs. She hopped over the last two steps and dragged her feet along the carpeted floor. No one else was awake, so there was no need to rush, but as she tipped a box of cereal over a bowl she still listened for footsteps.
Morning isn"t the time to talk, it"s the time to be in your warm sheets with your face pressed to the mattress. Talking only reminded her that she"s awake, and what an awful reminder that would be.
Gripping the cold bowl of cereal to her chest with a lukewarm bottle of water under an arm, Rednal began the journey back upstairs. But wait....right before she left the dining room, a banana was spotted on the farside of the wooden table. A few dark brown spots riddled the smooth yellow skin, but not enough to repel her from eating it.
"Someone...went...grocery shopping. I could...ask...but...they"ll probably say I can have it..." She squinted at the item while stepping closer. "But...is someone making banana pudding?" She shook her head. "Probably...not..." After a look over her shoulder and a cursory check of the living room, the banana was s.n.a.t.c.hed off the table and slipped under her other arm.
She skipped over the first two steps and then tiptoed up the rest. The bedroom door was nudged open by a foot, and after setting the items down on a small table, Rednal hurried to ease the door closed. It"s after a few seconds with her ear pressed to the door that it"s clear she"d succeeded. "Mission complete. Item acquired."
A smile spread across her face. "They won"t notice one missing banana." A nail is pressed to the firm yellow stem and slender fingers peeled each layer back to reveal the prize inside. "No one counts bananas." The unclothed pota.s.sium is shoved into their mouth. "Right?" She pressed her ear to the door once more as she chewed. The last piece is finished before she even crossed the bedroom to her computer.
Three slim cushions were laid on the floor in front of a short platform where a black laptop is settled. Rednal plopped down on the red cushions and pressed the computer"s power b.u.t.ton. It took a few minutes, but the desktop appeared along with more than three dozen icons.
A blue icon is clicked and after a few seconds Rednal dragged the white cursor over the words "Cleaning Up The Future: Exiles". While that loaded, Rednal grabbed the bowl of cereal and began munching on sweet, honey-dipped oats and corn flakes.
Half of the bowl is devoured by the time a white doc.u.ment page pops up. Rednal licked her thin lips as she scrolled down the doc.u.ment. Brown eyes skimmed the many black letters saved to the page.
It would be faster to click the bottom of the doc.u.ment and be shot forward to the end of it all, but scrolling reminded Rednal that this doc.u.ment had started out blank, but look! She had written words and made the doc.u.ment stretch to two, eleven, fifty...no seventy pages. And it wasn"t a days work, not even two days, but months of time dedicated to that single doc.u.ment and look what was accomplished.
It was their second book, but it still amazed Rednal. "In a few months...you"ll be finished and you"ll join your brother." A glance at the paperback novel that sat beside the laptop brought another wave of pride and delight over her. Over the front of the solid book read, "Cleaning Up The Future: Public Perceptions", a lengthy t.i.tle that matched the thick size. "Soon."
Finally, the scroller reached the bottom of the doc.u.ment where a blinking black line waited. It blinked continuously, but sometimes, when she squinted at it for long it seemed to be blinking out a message in morse code. "Here! Human! Here! Hurry! And! Write!" It said. "I"m! Showing! You! It"s! Here!" It was very demanding. "Begin! Hurry!"
It almost felt better to glare at the bossy bold line and defy it for a few more minutes. Rednal continued to chew the corn flakes and tilted their head to the side while watching the black line insistently flash orders.
"Hurry! Write! Aren"t! You! Ready?! Write! Here!" "Actually.." Rednal set the empty bowl aside, then returned her attention to the blank section of the doc.u.ment. "I should brainstorm." "Hey! It"s! time! Now! Write!" She reached for the bottle of water and, while taking a sip, glanced at the time on the laptop. "7:40 AM"
"Hmm...it"s still early. I should start at 8:30. I should find some music and think about what"ll happen next. Then I won"t have to stop and think later on, and I can dedicate the rest of the day to this...Yeah. Good plan."
"No! Wait! Write! Write! It! All! Here!" Rednal slowly moved the white cursor toward the red X at the top right corner of the doc.u.ment.
"No! Wait! Hey! Don"t!" The cursor is shifted slightly to the left and the doc.u.ment is minimized. A quick double click on an orange icon and a new window was opened. After a couple of quick movements against the keyboard, music began to play and Rednal pulled two of the cushions from underneath their backside and laid them behind them. With a soft exhale, she laid back on plump floor pillows.
The soft melody combined with her position on the ground actually did bring an idea to mind. "I guess he would be laying like this while being strangled." Rednal brought her hands to rest against her slender neck and gently squeezed.
"W...Wait!"..."No..." "Hel...help!" .... "No, too cliche."...."They...they"ll...find you!" Rednal"s arms flopped onto the carpet and a short frustrated growl filled the room. "Whatever..."
Once again, she ended up throwing an arm over her eyes and laying silently across the floor. The orchestra playing from the computer speakers eased the anger that simmered just beneath the surface whenever one woke up early on a day off. It caressed her ears and calmed her soul.
After a few minutes, a soft snore escaped the still form. On the lower left corner of the computer screen, the numbers seven and four were joined by an eight. It"d only been eight minutes, yet the plans for the day were at a standstill.
Who would succeed in the end? The ambitious, strict author side or the living, breathing sloth side that pretended to be human?
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Author"s Thoughts
Hi Guys Elyon Here! This is the POV of the Author Rednal. Her story is called "Cleaning Up The Future." It"s a very interesting read and you guys might find it to your liking.