Aimless Town

A Good, Normal Day

Jill woke up to the smell of frying eggs coming from the kitchen. She rubbed her groggy eyes, and thought about last night. She smiled. 

She freshened up and brushed her teeth. Jack still wasn't there. She decided to pretend to go back to sleep. Even now there were butterflies in her stomach. "Why am I still excited over this?" Jill thought to herself.

Jill could hear him softly open the door. She wanted to peek, but knew it would be a giveaway. She heard him set a tray beside her. The smell of food made her mouth water.

A hand gently rubbed her back. "Jill" Jack whispered very softly. "That won't even wake up an insect honey." Jill thought.

Jack continued rubbing her back gently. It felt so good. A soft sigh escaped her lips.

A very soft, melodic music started playing the background. Jill could have swore that the singer sounded like Damian Marley, but not quite. Still, it was a very pleasant tune, and Jill opened her eyes. 

Jack was sitting beside her, dressed in a blue t-shirt and black track pants. At seeing her awake, he smiled.

"Good morning." he said.

"Morning babe." 

"Want breakfast in bed?" Jack asked, gesturing to the tray which had a plate of scrambled eggs and toast. Jack was no fancy cook, but was good at simple dishes.

"Absolutely." Jill said, sitting up. She moved the tray closer, and picked a piece of egg up with the fork to bite into it.

"Wait, you haven't even brushed!" Jack feigned surprise and horror.

"Nevermind, I'm hungry." Jill giggled. Jack stared open-mouthed, then composed himself.

"I know you were awake." he said.

"Yes, I was." she paused. "And I know you knew too."

"You are still happy though? I couldn't make it perfect for you." Jack looked down at his palms.

"Anything is perfect with you, my love." Jill said, putting a morsel of egg into his mouth. 

"Just wait for tonight. I have got something up my sleeve. You are gonna love it." He grinned. Jill reached out and pulled back his sleeve.

"Not literally!!" he cried and facepalmed, and they both laughed.

"Art gallery at 8, is it a date?" Jill asked.

"Sure, promise I won't be late." The rhyme came up spontaneously, making them both chuckle.

After the enjoyable breakfast, Jill left for the art gallery, to work on her painting. Jack didn't know that she too was planning to surprise him, with her rendition of New York City. Meanwhile, Jack wondered what he could do for Jill. He always felt that he wasn't doing enough for her, and wanted to change that this time.

He opened his smartblock and scrolled through the different activities that were available in the town. As a video-game developer, he had thought about making a short, sweet game for Jill, but after 2 hours of experimenting, he found that the coding language and softwares here were far too different from his own. Traces of panic entered his mind, and Jack paused to think.

Then he remembered, he could make some beats instead. Although he didn't enjoy it as much, creating background music for his games had helped him develop some skills in creating music using a DAW (digital audio workstation). The basic principle of DAWs were similar, and Jack thought he might be able to find something that he could work with.

While he found a DAW that was mostly similar to the one he used, when looking up tutorials he found an ad for training and collaborating with the music hub in town. And that's when it struck Jack.

He would make a song. A love song.

It might require some fast and hard work. And working with others. But Jill would absolutely love it.

He booked a cab on his smartblock and hurried out.