my mum forgot her buspass this morning. she got all the way to the stop before she realized it, and ran every step of the way back to the house. she burst in, in a loud yet breathless panic, and screamed, “sophie, please, i forgot my buspass, i ran all the way, get up, dive me to the stop!”

first it’s important to know: i don’t have my liscence, just a learners. second: it was six in the morning and i had gone to bed two hours earlier.

i didn’t think at all, i just got up and went for the door. mum said, “here, wear this…” and handed me my father’s shirt and shoes. i ran for the car, got in, and she threw the keys at my head. the little automatic-pilot in my head drove me all the way to the bus stop, where the bus was just pulling up, and home again without incident. safely back in my driveway it took me forty seconds or so to figure out that i was sitting in a car, it’s engine running; that i should turn it off and go inside. as i stepped out of the car the wind picked up and i realized that i was standing in the middle of my driveway, in nothing but a completely unbuttoned white men’s dress shirt, and a pair of men’s size ten sneakers. i went back to bed.

i got up again, just in time to go to work for nine hours straight without any breaks, doing two jobs because one of the guys who was supposed to work the floor was sent home because he was arguing with the other floor person and felt he had “too much rage”. but it’s ok cause one drunk customer tipped me (the cashier) four dollars on a sixteen dollar (tax included) meal, and the owner of epochs (a jewlery store across the hall) who does some of our paperwork gave me two free balls for my tongue-ring that glow under a black light (he said it was something about wanting to have his balls in my mouth…).