SWNOVELS Chapter 2: Life is Boring
Nadia scrambled in her bed fighting with the pillow that was pressed over her face. She forced open her eyes. “It was only a dream,” she reassured herself trying to gain control over her erratic breathing. After Nadia gave herself a reassuring pep talk about nightmares and rogue, villainous pillows, she rolled over to go back to sleep just as a fierce argument pierced the air.
Nadia’s bedroom was the only bedroom on the first floor of her parent’s house, which she liked. However, the family room shared one of her walls making it very easy for her to hear every small or, as it was that morning, large argument.
She growled and flipped over to look at the clock.
8:28 am.
After a short battle to untangle herself, she threw back her blankets and swung her feet onto the floor. She staggered out of bed, with a massive groan of irritation, to see what caused such a boisterous argument. She only made it a step before she tripped over a large pile of clean, folded clothes on the floor. Nadia swiftly kicked the clothes, mumbling about putting them away eventually, as she made her way to the family room. She discovered her two sisters Hazel, age nine, and Cassandra, age fifteen, were having a battle over the TV remote. This was a typical occurrence in the morning since the summer had started and neither sister had anything to occupy their time with except arguing with each other. However, when Nadia fell into the room they both stopped fighting and started to laugh instead.
Unlike her two sisters with their thick, beautifully straight hair Nadia had been blessed with frizzy, curly hair. That morning Nadia had a bushy mess of hair sticking out at all angles. The disaster that was Nadia’s hair was so big and funny looking that both sisters were distracted from their argument long enough to agree on a TV show to watch. They decided to watch a re-run of an old murder mystery TV show starring Angela Lansbury called Murder, She Wrote. Nadia smiled at how funny it was that her sisters liked Murder, She Wrote even though they were too young to have seen it when it originally played. They were both too young to have seen the first couple times it started to re-run.
She walked back to her room to get dressed and face the day. Monday’s were her day off from work and she planned to do a lot of nothing. Nothing meaning get ahead with her homework or read a book. She flipped on her computer to check to see if she got any emails in the short time since she checked it last and discovered one interesting looking email. At first, she thought it was spam. After she opened it, she was certain it was spam. It read:
Nadia,
Thank you for choosing yes. Please remember we are not responsible for your decision to say yes and therefore any misfortune that may befall you is of your own making. Once you have arrived for this once in a lifetime adventure you will meet
your guide and guardian. We suggest you trust and listen to this knowledgeable and highly vetted person. They will also be able to tell you of the prophecy and how we have placed much hope in you. That being said, we will not make you do anything from this point moving forward.
Nadia smiled at how ridiculous and business-like the email sounded, but she was also mystified.
“How did the pop-up from last night get my email address? More importantly, how did it get my name?” She thought that it must have been some new Homeland security, Big-Brother-is-always-watching thing. She was a little unnerved as she finished getting ready. She put on her favorite old pair of blue jeans and a paint-splattered, t-shirt. By the time she felt ready to be part of society, she had all but forgotten about the email. She was debating instead about what exciting tidbits her day could bring when her computer alerted her to another email. Nadia was convinced by the new email she was victim to some elaborate scam by the grocery or big box stores. The email had a list of things she would need to pack before she ‘left’.
Clothing
Lightweight 1-2 outfits
Heavyweight 1 outfit
Knife for hunting
Flint
Blanket or sleeping bag
Enough light weight food for a week
Canteen
The bottom of the email surprised Nadia.
All the above items must fit into or on the backpack that should arrive momentarily. Please do try to stay alive and good luck.
Yours Truly,
The Council of Elders
Right before she closed the email the doorbell rang, causing Nadia to jump and knock over her computer chair.
“There is no way,” she whispered as her sister Hazel answered the door.
“Nadia, you have a package,” Hazel yelled as she shut the front door.
“Wait, who delivered it? Find out who delivered it,” Nadia frantically stammered as she ran from her room, past her sister and out the front door. Aside from some birds that were startled by the sudden movement, there was no one outside. No children playing. No cars driving by. No one.
“Hazel, who delivered this box?” Nadia said as she came back inside. “Did you see their face? Did you see what company they worked for?”
Hazel was a little taken back by Nadia’s reaction, but answered as she handed the box over, “It was a guy, I think. I didn’t get a good look at him. The box was so big and I didn’t really care. What is it?”
“I hope it is not a backpack. That’s all I can say,” Nadia mumbled under her breath as she opened the box.
To Nadia’s relief she was right, it was not a backpack at all. It was a box of books she had ordered online. She took them back to her room as Hazel, disappointed in the contents of the unexciting package, went back to watch TV.
Nadia dumped the box out on her bed and screamed. She had dumped the books on top of an olive-green backpack that had not been on her bed moments before. Hazel and Cassandra pushed each other down the hallway to find out why Nadia had screamed.
“Oh, um there was a spider in the box of books. Don’t worry about it. I will be out in a minute.” She ushered them out of her room. Nadia turned and stared, opened mouthed, at the backpack trying to decide if she had lost her mind. “Where did you come from?” she whispered to the backpack half expecting it to answer as she cautiously looked inside of it.
The bag was full of the kind of items anyone that wanted to feel like a badass would have while camping. It had a double-edged 8-inch hunting knife that was serrated near the hilt with a thigh holster. It also had a flint with a strike on it, a matching olive-green canteen hanging from the side of the bag and a sleeping bag tied to the top. Nadia found a small amount of food, if you could call very flat hard crackers, a few bags of dried fruit and what looked to be spices, food. She stood next to her bed for a long-time packing and unpacking the items that magically appeared in her room. She glanced at her first-story window, wondering if someone had broken in, in the very short amount of time she had left her room to answer the door. She checked the lock knowing she never opened it during the 120+ degree summers. She toyed with the idea that maybe Cassandra was playing a joke on her. But she knew her level-headed, slightly boring sister was never that elaborate with anything. The hum of Nadia’s computer brought her out of her revere. She glanced at the email with the list of items and made a split-second decision. It did not matter where the bag and items had come from, she thought with a mischievous smile forming on her face. I wanted an adventure and what else do I have to do today?
Nadia left her house to indulge a little in the fantastical. She was going to purchase the items she didn’t have and pack the rest of the items just in case. If nothing else, it would break up the monotony her bank job and freshman college classes afforded her. She wondered idly if she really was losing her mind as she had a conversation with herself.
“Was my tediously, boring life getting to me? Or maybe the 120 degrees, oppressive, Arizona sun had fried my already over worked brain.” Nadia was surprised that she was actually getting excited for the fake quest, though her confusion still outweighed her anticipation.
She spent the whole day and quite a bit of money, she really couldn’t afford to spend, on items that she would need if she were to ever go roughing it in the woods alone. She giggled to herself as she dumped out the bags, scattering her new purchases all over her bed. Her excitement and confusion had given way to pure amusement. Even though she had purchased items to go in the mysterious backpack, she did not really believe anything would come of it. She gave the excuse that she would need the items if she went camping that summer.
She took all the items out of the mysterious backpack to re-arrange them again. At the bottom of the bag she discovered a note. She threw the note aside to get all her new goodies packed up. She put the old food back in with the new fold-up frying pan, plate and a pocket-knife type tool that had a spoon, fork, and knife in it. She also threw in a bag of teriyaki beef jerky and a dehydrated chicken dinner of sorts or what she called ‘space food’. In one of the many pockets, she put in a bag of Skittles and some hard candy. In another pocket, she put all the items a clumsy person, who was constantly injuring herself, would need like band aids, superglue, antibacterial ointment, and so on.
She dug out her old binoculars from her closet, a small sewing kit, and threw in a compass. She rolled a couple of new pairs of socks, three pairs of blue jeans, four t-shirts, a sweatshirt, and one pair of gloves before adding them to the bag. She walked into the kitchen and filled-up the green canteen and the canteen she bought with water. She had to jam in a wind-up flashlight, sun screen, a tooth brush and travel size tooth paste, a hair brush, a new set of hair ties, travel size shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and finally, a good book just in case her ‘adventure’ was boring. She was amazed that it all fit even if the edges of the bag bulged a little. She knew that if she didn’t start the ‘adventure’ soon she would start stealing items from the pack to wear or eat. She zipped up the backpack and lifted it to see how heavy it was. It was not as heavy as the backpack that housed her computer and schoolbooks, but it was as fat.
She set the bag against the side of her bed and grabbed the note she had thrown aside earlier. Nadia opened the note gingerly, nervous she was going to tear it. The paper seemed to be made of homemade materials that felt old and worn, moments away from falling apart. It was also coarse to the touch and slightly green. The writing on the inside looked handwritten but it was so neat and level that Nadia thought it might have been typed. She noticed there was a very fine red dust on the letter that she tried to brush away as she read. She suddenly felt very tired, but very satisfied with the success of the day’s activities. The letter was a great finish to her fantastical day filled with a mini quest or at
least the allusion of adventures to come. The note said:
Nadia,
Now that you are packed and ready for your adventure to begin you are going to need to sleep dreamlessly. You may wake feeling that you are in a dream, but follow what you know to be true.
It was not that late, but Nadia suddenly felt bone tired. She tried to focus on the letter as she swung her legs onto her bed, lying back fully clothed. She thought about kicking-off her shoes, but the idea made her even more tired. She attempted to re-arrange her pillows with one arm as she held the letter closer to her face.
Remember to trust your intuition and…
Nadia started to dose off despite her best efforts. She dropped the letter onto her new backpack and fell into a deep sleep sprawled out on her bed. She was still smiling about the elaborately and obviously well set-up ruse.