Bullets From the Heart – Part 8
Had a pretty great weekend.
I had a Saturday at work exactly as I wanted my Saturdays to be. Slow, with pleasant breaks between calls and a chance to collect myself and calm down a bit. I worked out at my desk, doing lunges, push-ups, planks, and stretching. I also brought a bunch of treats with me to work which also happened to be on diet.
It was a good reminder that not everything about my job is bad. Answering calls is something I wanted to get away from, but as long as I’m here, I’m glad that it isn’t as bad as it could be.
I also got a good chance to work out this weekend. My wife signed us up for a gym membership now that I’m equipped with a stable income. I need to take a break here, because what that means is extremely important.
My wife and I relocated to the Kansas City area last July. It was a huge decision, as Kansas City has a much larger cost of living. Housing, utilities, food costs, etc. All of it tends to be a lot higher in a big city. Yet we did the move anyway, because it afforded us several things.
Last night, I got to avail myself of one of the most important things that the relocation has given me: a 24-hour gym facility.
Let’s not mince words; gyms vary. A lot. In my old hometown, those gyms were horrible. Shoddy equipment, barren locker rooms, horrible spacing, and overall just a general lack of amenities and professionalism.
Fast-forward to Sunday evening. I spent an hour swimming in an olympic-sized lap pool. Each lap was enormous, costing me a ton in both exertion and stretching my lung capacity to the breaking point. I loved it. I need to stretch myself. I need to challenge my body in an environment that will forgive the mistreatment I have heaped upon it. Having such an enormous lap lane available 24 HOURS A DAY is more than a little wonderful. I’m a night owl, and so far in my time in KC, I haven’t had anywhere to exercise once the sun went down.
Further, and this is not to be underestimated, I got to enjoy a hot tub after I swam almost ten laps (which took 40 minutes, resting between laps). So not only did I get an exceptional aerobic and anaerobic workout in an aquatic setting, I then got to move over to a hot tub and relax muscles that are normally dying for such dedicated care. It was heavenly.
Oh, and they have massage-head showers afterwards. Complimentary towels, soap, shampoo, etc. Seriously. I cannot imagine any situation being more welcome. None of that, none of that, was even remotely possible in my old environment. And that’s the tip of the iceberg, the most reasonable of gyms and gym membership fees.
Yeah. Screw eating nasty fast food and straying off diet. If I can go to that gym each night to relax, I foresee a lot more weight loss in my future.
I’m smiling right now, even though you can’t see it.
Bullets From the Heart – Part 8
“Wake up Lara.”
I screwed my eyes shut harder, pulling my warm, dry robe over my face as I tried to burrow my way deeper in the wet mud below me. The mud didn’t feel cold, either. I could tell that it was freezing, that I should’ve long since been truly dead of exposure, yet all I felt was a pleasant coolness against my cheek.
“hmm sleepin” was all the rebuttal I could manage. I’d never heard that voice in my life, yet it felt like I’d heard it every day for each of my nearly seven hundred years. I groaned against the mud, awake despite my best efforts to keep sleeping. I swung one baleful eye past the wall of my robes and spied the form leaning over me.
She wasn’t quite translucent. The sun was blocked by her form standing over me, but the sun made curious golden light shine around her edges. I looked at the familiar figure of Susan for the first time, and lobbed a handful of mud at her. It sailed through her harmlessly, and Susan wore a smug smile as I hunkered back down behind the thin barrier of cloth.
“go ‘way!” I grumble-yelled at the figure. Susan ignored me and I could almost feel the smug smile on her face grow wider.
“You need to wake up, because you have to eat food. We’re hungry.”
At her words, my stomach let loose a rumble that would’ve made a perturbed dragon pause. I curled into a ball around my stomach, cradling it as searing pain shot through my awakened mind. I also tasted bile in my mouth, not missing the words Susan had used.
‘We’re hungry’. We. The awful moments at the end of the soul subjugation where Susan allowed herself to be devoured and instead of being simply added to my own soul, she slathered herself across my entire existence. She was now as much a part of me as I was. It didn’t feel like I had won that particular fight.
“Well, unless you have a way to get food in the middle of The Fracture that isn’t irradiated or rotten, it seems like we’re about to starve.”
Susan paused at that, frowning slightly at my description of the hellish wasteland that used to be half a country. I felt her reaching through my memories, sifting them like files in a cabinet as she sought the answer for what she had missed. It was thoroughly disquieting, as though some alien being had run their fingers across my brain. I almost screamed at her to stop, but centuries of experience did have their uses. I’d find a way to rectify this situation, I just needed to be patient.
“Well, you smug prick, what do you have in mind?” I let the question slip out with as much caustic scorn as I could manage huddled into a ball with my face hidden.
Susan’s smug expression changed into one of feral delight. As I caught a peek of it from around the corner of my robe, it reminded me of a bird of prey.
To be continued…
Fracturefully,
Justin
