Apocalypse for Breakfast

Apocalypse for Breakfast

My alarm blares like an apocalyptic trumpet; the unwelcome light seeps through the crack in the curtain, revealing the bleak and cramped room I call my own. 

It's so warm in here, my skin is sticking to the sheets

I turn off the alarm, only to blink and hear it again. Noisy wind engines hum persistently, reverberating against my bedroom window. It's the condensers of the neighboring building. In the mornings, the blend of this sound and the light floods the room. Window against window, there’s no space between the buildings.

They’ve already turned on that damn air conditioner; this place feels like an oven 

Dragging my weary mass to the kitchen, I heat water to brew coffee.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asks 

“Nothing”, I say. Doesn't she know is always nothing by now? 

“Then why…”

Through the kitchen window, I hear fleeting voices, mixed with cars, buses, and pedestrians. A boy is already juggling at the traffic light. “Oops, oops! Almost dropped it!” he jokes.

“Let’s stop. I’m exhausted. I can’t… Let’s change the subject and be happy.”

“Happy? Maybe you can.” She is such a smart mouth.

I hear the downstairs neighbors speaking in a strange language, a string of rounded syllables with no consonants, as if muffled by the other morning noises.

I am out of sugar

Construction workers are tearing down the wall of the adjacent building.

What will they build? Will I lose the sunlight?

I make a buttered toast on the griddle.

The morning coffee is the best part of my day

I sit on the living room sofa with my toast and a cup of coffee. Birds chirp and the wind whistles; the branches of the tree next to the construction sway.

Is it a protest or acquiescence?

At the bakery across from my living room window, a distraught woman yells on her phone. Someone owes her money.

Do I have time to read something before I finish my coffee? Oh! Damn, I left the book in the bedroom. Never mind, then

I always leave a little coffee to drink after finishing the toast. I wait too long before taking the last sip.

Coffee is cold

Then I start my day.