Sburb Time

Act 1 - part 3

Your name is Karen and you will not state your age because you prefer to keep that a personal secret. You are currently sitting cross-legged on your bed making "mmm" noises while in a relaxed state of mind. You find this form of meditation very therapeutic and cleansing to the soul.

Your room is shared with your husband that you love very much. You both share a king size bed, a very large wardrobe and an ensuite. Your walls are painted dark red which matches your bedsheets and your dark blue curtains are currently closed, making the room quite dark. The colour scheme combined with the darkness is very relaxing, just the way you like it.

Your tablet is making a soft windy noise which means someone is messaging you. For the last hour or so, you have been ignoring your family. Yes, that sounds mean, but you specifically told them "don't text me for the next hour, I'll be in my room meditating and I don't want to be disturbed." Of course, that message could be because the hour has passed. Because of this, you haven't checked your messages for a while so they are probably piled high by now. You decide to check the message.

Message: Jacob

Jacob: mum? Are you there?
Jacob: the hours up, so...
Jacob: are you gonna play the game now?

Of course! You were supposed to download the Sburb file earlier so it would've been ready by the time your hour of relaxation was up! Jeez. Time flies. Nobody else in your family thinks so but you just never seem to have any time. It's like your hours are suddenly minutes and you have a million things to do. Perhaps that is why you meditate. To relieve the stress of not having enough time.

You'd better reply to your son's message.

Message: Jacob

Karen: I'm here.
Jacob: oh good. Kira has been trying to talk to you the whole day.
Jacob: have you downloaded the game yet?
Karen: no, sorry.
Karen: I'll download it now and then check with dad.
Jacob: ok, no problem. Just be mindful, it takes quite a while to load.

You'll have to find the game disc now. You check in your handbag, which you tend to use instead of your fetch modus, and find it in the middle pocket. You also find a packet of mints, your dark red lipstick and your tazer. You put the tazer in your strife specibus to make some space in the small bag.

You place the disc in your computer, which sits on a desk next to the window. The screen lights up and the game begins downloading. A jumble of spirals flash rapidly and a bar underneath tells you how long it has to go. By the looks of things, it will be a while.

A flash of lightning casts various shadows of trees on your closed curtains. Now that your meditation hour has passed, you can open them up. When you draw them back, you are greeted with an unpleasant sight. The sky is a dull grey colour and your front yard is a mess of leaves and mud. A few trees sway wildly in the wind amidst the mess. Your husband will not be very happy. Speaking of your husband, you wonder if he has brought all of his plants inside yet. He ran outside as soon as he saw the storm coming and went straight to work carrying two or more pots inside at a time. He was only half way through when the rain started.

Another flash of lightning startles you and you step back to sit on your bed. You're not very fond of storms, they only remind you of destruction and loss of homes. Your son, just like your husband, would be jumping up and down at the sight of this chaos but you would rather curl up in a blanket and fall asleep. The idea is suddenly very tempting but you know that if you fall asleep now your son won't be very happy.

You check on your computer to see how long the game has left to load. The bar is just over half way so you still have a while. You decide to do some yoga to pass the time.

You open a new tab on your computer and search your favourite fitness trainer: Tara. You have been watching her videos and taking her advice for quite a while now and because of this, you are in a much better physical state. Combined with the mediation and relaxation methods, you are an extremely healthy person and you are proud of it.

You open the most recent video. You haven't seen this one before! Tara opens her tutorial on core workouts by introducing herself and repeating the same advice she gives at the start of every video. She then starts to stretch out her body and you do the same, copying her every move. Once you are both done stretching, you begin to do some crunches and leg lifts. You have done these many times before in the past but it still gives you a full body workout every time. Regardless, you perform the exercises perfectly and have a rest break, taking a long swig of water from your bottle. The rest break ends before you know it (there goes the time again) and you once again follow Tara's instructions. She bends her back in a cat-like way and you do the same. The stretch feels very relaxing after your core workout. Just the way you like it.

You finish the workout and wipe the sweat of your forehead. You feel like you've lost ten pounds. In fact, you are going to check. You walk into the ensuite and stand on your electronic scales. The numbers of course don't show up on the screen because the machine is broken. Damn it! You were hoping that despite it being out of order it would work just this one time. No such luck, you guess.

Bleep. Bleep. Your computer is making noises at you again. That must mean that the game is ready! You check on the screen and sure enough, the bar is full and there is a "play" option. You'd better not press it yet, you should find out if the rest of your family is ready. You grab your tablet and message your husband.

Message: Robert

Karen: hey Robby!
Robert: hello darling :)
Karen: have you downloaded the game yet?
Robert: actually, it's loading now.
Karen: oh good! I'll pass the message on to Jacob.
Robert: there's no need, I already did.
Robert: apparently Kira's asleep though...
Karen: well, she did plan on going outside today.
Karen: I guess that didn't happen.
Karen: I had a similar urge to fall asleep myself earlier.
Robert: I don't think I'll be falling asleep, I've had an eventful morning.
Karen: oh yeah, did you get all your plants inside?
Robert: yes I did!
Karen: that's a relief.
Robert: yeah, the shed got flooded but at least all the plants got in the garage before any major damage was done.
Karen: so our garage is full of plants?
Robert: pretty much.
Karen: oh, joy.

That means you'll have to clean out the garage once he moves his damned plants back into the garden. You sigh and sit back down on your bed. At least you have a little more time to relax before things get hectic.