w..i..p

Even though the sky was incredibly overcast that day, the sun was radiant, almost in spite of the clouds. It shone with such tremendous force as to be almost blinding. It was bizzare the way that the light seemed to sap the brilliant, cheerful color from the flower beds across the street and the vari-colored buddhist prayer flags which decorated the balcony. Some clouds shifted and light flickered through the window.1

Travis woke from his dream. 2

He lay there and stared at the cream paint on the walls. very little noise could be heard from outside due to the double brick walls of his house, so only his breathing made any sound. With every breath he could smell the musty scent of his sweat and the accumulation of it in his bedsheets. He made a face; disaproval, disgust tinged with slight embarrassment. 3

He moved his left arm towards a large water bottle, sucked on the end and forced himself to swallow a large gulp of warm water. He took his left arm again and once more reached out across himself, This time to the small white bottle of pills beside the ash-tray. He fumbled awkwardly to get one of his pills out, but in the end spilled them all over the bed. He sighed and cleaned the mess and took his medication before putting the lid back on the pills. He lay back down and closed his eyes.4

He opened them again. What day was it? It wasn't pay-day. He sighed and closed his eyes again. It wasn't pay-day. He didn't have any appointments with his doctor. in fact, it wasn't pay-day nor did he have any appointments with his doctor for a whole week.5

He sighed again. There was nothing to do. Travis had nothing to do. Travis did nothing. Which is to say, that he did many little things of small consequence. He scratched himself. He did stretches. He counted the dirty fingerprints on the walls. At one point a wasp flew around his room and he hid his naked body from the critter by diving under the blankets. He attempted to go back to sleep, but was wide awake. In the end he just lay there on his back the blankets pushed down to the centre of his body. He stared at the ceiling for 2 hours.
The first fifteen minutes he thought of getting up out of bed, perhaps walking into town. But he had no money and there was nothing to do that was free in town. Except the Library. He could go into town and perhaps get some books to read, to keep him busy. 6