Lit in Progress

Darcy. Wake up. Seriously, it’s like 8:30. Get UP. Darcy pulled the covers over her head, and turned away from the window, from which her alarm beeped incessantly. The blinds glowed with the daylight outside. She could hear cars starting, igniting like matches and rumbling off to work and school from the street below. The beeping continued: Darcy, you know it’s time, you know you’ve got stuff to do, you know you gotta wake up. She inhaled deeply.

“Well, hello there!” Susanne said. “Darcy honey, I haven’t heard from you for so long!” Her granddaughter’s voice crackled from her earpiece, “I know, Grandma. I’m sorry, I’ve just … been –”

“Busy?”

“Yeah.”

“Busy,” said Grandma Susanne, “is what everybody is. Even I’m busy.” She sat at her writing desk, her gaze drifting over the neatly stacked library books. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing, really. I mean, a lot. I’m in the middle of my third year up here, I’ve got finals in a few weeks … I’m kind of worried about them, but not really, you know? I’m still working at the restaurant. Things are pretty normal, really. Um, how are you doin’?”

“I’m getting alone fine, honey. Just keeping the garden weeded and the laundry done, you know how it is,” she said, smiling at the wall.

“Yeah, I do,” Darcy said. “Well, I don’t want to take up your day, just wanted to say ‘hi’.” Really, thought Susanne, you don’t want to take up your day, hm?

“Okay, honey, you take care.”

Click.