Soak Up The Sun

I've Got A Crummy Job

March 2023

Sophie blew out the candle on the cupcake she'd bought herself on the way home from work. She wished she could re-do her whole life over again and sent it out into the void never once daring to hope or expect an answer. She'd long since given up on wishing. Given up on anything, in fact.

Another rotation around the sun. 30 years on this planet and not a thing to show for it. Friends but none she'd call close. Family busy doing their own thing besides the odd welfare check from her sister and mother. A job that was going nowhere. She'd spent 10 years too long in retail. A flat that was rented with a landlord that still hadn't shown up to fix the mould on the ceiling. A boyfriend? Chance would be a fine thing.

"I like you. You're great but I just don't feel that...spark?" Sophie rolled her eyes in the pitch black. What a load of shite. The spark wasn't real. She'd never felt it in any relationship. It was just a way for people to get out of dealing with a real relationship. Wasn't it? This spark was just something that happened on TV. The electricity from a simple brush of their finger against yours. Shite. Total shite.

Sophie listened to the rain pound against her roof. That'd be the next fucking thing to go. The roof. She felt a lump form in her throat as hot tears rolled down her cheeks unwarranted.

She'd never felt like she'd really found a place for herself. Even in her own skin. Like she was just existing. An imposter in her own body watching someone else live her life. Numb. Her Doctor had named it as depression and she was taking pills for it. But they didn't seem to be working. She'd always felt this way. 2 steps behind the rest of the world never able to catch up. She scrolled through her instagram seeing post after post of engagements, weddings, new houses, births, new jobs...when did she get something new? Why couldn't she have normal things like everyone else? Where had it all gone wrong?

She downed the rest of her glass of wine. It left a bitter taste on her tongue as she fell into a fitful sleep. Her dreams were strange. Memories and feelings and images that were half formed and fuzzy as if viewed through a milky lens.

March 1994

Sophie gasped disoriented as her flat was filled with a loud buzzing. She looked around blearily. Where the fuck was her phone? The sound wasn't coming from her phone. She squinted. An alarm clock? She hadn't owned one since she was a teen. She hit the top button slowly. Silence. She gazed around her apartment. It was...different. It was stylish, beautiful even. She stumbled to the living room in a daze and she froze. A TV that was thicker than it was wide...she hadn't seen a TV like that since she was a teenager either. She pinged the wire ariel experimentally. Real. This was all real. Posters and magazines arranged on a coffee table neatly. She checked the date on them all. March 1994, 1994, 1994....what?

Her door opened and she jumped as a young woman dressed in a sharp business suit walked into her apartment. She screamed and quickly rolled up the magazine into a tube to make a makeshift baton. She brandished it in front of her.

"If you come any closer I'll break your nose." She said shakily.

The young woman smirked and rolled her eyes.

"I highly doubt that. Now let's get started. I'm short on time you see. Too many people making stupid wishes these days." She said haughtily as she looked at her pointedly.

"What? Who are you?"

"A genie. A granter of wishes. A fairy God Mother. Call me what you like. I don't care."

Sophie frowned.

"But you're younger than me?"

The woman made an annoyed sound in her throat.