Echoes

Okay

"I don't know what it is," Hope said with a heavy heart as she stretched her back. "Everything is just... bleh." She pushed off the yoga mat and raised her shoulders high, releasing the tightness in her core after all the crunches and twists in Claudia's routine of the day. Her tight ponytail of red hair brushed the small of her back.

Claudia held the same position, but managed to turn her shoulders nearly perpendicular to the ground--no doubt the benefits of a fitness lifestyle adopted long before Hope would have considered coming to the gym.

But yet another demonstration of Claudia's greater flexibility and strength only drove Hope further into the malaise she felt. "Seriously. I work out, and it's just--lift, lift, lift, done. Do this, do that, done. Workout of the day, done. Whatever. Who cares. I'm so done."

Claudia's shoulders descended, then she leaned way back on her knees. Face between her arms, mouth pointed at the floor, her voice came out muffled. "What about your blog? You had that one post blow up. Any others?"

"I haven't posted much of anything in a couple weeks." Hope stretched her back, imitating Claudia's pose. "You know, a little something now and then. A lame 'So this happened today' post, or some apology for not writing more often... even though I know I'm not going to write anything again any time soon."

"Sometimes we hit plateaus when we exercise," Claudia began. "I bet similar things happen when we try new skills or reach for new goals. The body adapts to what we've been doing, and you have to push harder to break through--"

"I don't think I have any push left."

Claudia rose to a kneeling position. "Come on, Hope. You're doing great. You hung in there with the kettle bells and weighted lunges. You knocked out a bunch of squats."

Hope sighed and wondered how comfortable it might be to stretch out on the mat for a nap. "Same as all the other days."

"No, babe, you don't get to claim that. You don't know how hard it was to keep from laughing while watching you suffer for the first few weeks."

"Screw you too!" Hope laughed and shot Claudia a friendly glare.  "We done?"

"Yeah, nice work today."

"Ugh, don't remind me about work. I have a huge stack of records on Bill's old accounts to weed through. Yet another cloud of tedium in the swirling mediocrity that is my life. At least Derrick's coming over tonight."

Claudia smiled. "Coming over coming over? Netflix and chill? Or... like, actual Netflix and sitting on the couch just chilling?"

Hope laughed. "That's a subject I don't even want to touch. Derrick's after me to go all the way, but I told him I want a ring before that's ever gonna happen." Her eyes lit up briefly. "Doesn't mean we won't have any fun, of course..."

Claudia smirked, obviously relieved to see Hope smile. "Well, at least you have that to look forward to. I'm gonna get my run on. Get some good sleep tonight, 'kay? See you bright and early tomorrow."

She turned to leave, then paused. "Hope, I'm worried about you. I just--Is everything okay?"

Hope's shoulders sagged and she rolled her neck. "Yeah. Everything's okay, Clawz. Go on with your bad self."

Claudia gave Hope a fist bump, then jogged toward the indoor track.

"Everything is entirely, uniformly, frustratingly okay," Hope muttered. "And that's the frickin' problem."