Geozaki
Baby Dragon
Wednesday, December 15th, 1999
5:00 am
The repetitive beeping noise was suddenly cut off as Emily's hand heavily flopped onto the top of the alarm clock that sat on the bedside table. She grumbled and turned over, wrapping the covers tighter around her as she drifted back into a light sleep...
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE-
Once again the alarm was silenced with a clunk as Emily tiredly hit the alarm clock. She mumbled something which, in her half-asleep state, she thought was a coherent sentence but in reality, it had been a random jumble of slurred sounds.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE-
Emily fumbled to silence the alarm again, this time, finally opening her eyes to read its display. It took a moment for her eyes to wake up, and slightly longer again for her brain to process the symbols that the clock was displaying. But after a moment Emily deciphered the symbols, they read '5:18 am'. Despite this revelation, Emily stared blankly at the clock for a short amount of time. She watched as the numbers ticked over from '5:18 am' to '5:19 am'. Then, suddenly, she sat bolt upright in her bed, the covers fell away from her shoulders as she did revealing the black pyjama top she was wearing. Emily's hair fell messily down to her shoulders and she took a deep breath inwards before stretching and exhaling heavily. Emily rubbed her eyes sleepily and looked around her bedroom. It was still dark outside and likely would be for some time to come. Emily reached her arm to her bedside table and fumbled with the lamp that sat on top of it, attempting to find the switch to turn it on. Emily closed her eyes suddenly, covering her face with her hands as the lamp suddenly illuminated the room and the sudden brightness hurt her sleepy eyes. Emily slowly opened her eyes again, allowing them to gradually adjust to the brightness of the room, before opening them fully. After a few moments of trying to convince herself to leave the warmth and comfort of her bed, Emily finally crawled out from beneath the duvet, stretching again as she stood up, an act which caused her top to ride slightly upwards, exposing a small amount of her back and belly between the hem of her top and the waist of her teal pyjama bottoms. Emily tugged her top back down as she finished stretching and made her way over to the chest of drawers which contained her clothes. She pulled out some clothes and threw them on the bed ready for her to change into. As she finished pulling out some clothes a noise caught her attention.
BEEP BEEP BE-
"I'm awake dammit!" Emily shouted irritably as she pressed the 'Alarm Off' button rather than the 'Snooze' button she'd been clumsily hitting all morning. She looked down at the display which now read '5:27 am'. Emily huffed, realising that, as usual, she had less time than she would like to get herself ready for work. She was working both her jobs today, which was a lot of work, but with Christmas fast approaching she was very grateful for every single hour of work she was being given. Emily hastily pulled on her clothes, which consisted of a dark maroon vest, over which she wore a plaid shirt, the primary colours on which were dark blue and white with some red and black streaks here and there, and a pair of dark blue jeans. After pulling on her socks, Emily made her way out of her bedroom and into the kitchen. She placed 2 slices of bread into the toaster and grabbed her backpack, starting to fill it with the day's essentials while she waited for the bread to toast. She packed her phone, purse, bike lock, keys, a fleece jacket and a book, she also slipped a piece of paper into her back pocket. The toaster popped up, signifying that the bread within had become toast. Emily pulled out the slices of toast from the toaster, stopping them onto a plate just as they started to burn her fingers. She spread some butter on the slices and picked one up, placing the corner of the slice of toast in her mouth as she filled the kettle with water and set it to boil. Emily finally bit through the corner of the toast before reaching for her travel mug. By the time the kettle had finally boiled, Emily only had half a slice of toast left, which she finished before reaching for the kettle, After all, you should always allow the water to cool for about 2 minutes when making coffee. Emily pondered if the 2-minute rule even mattered when you used instant coffee or if it was exclusively for fresh coffee as she placed 3 spoonfuls of instant coffee into her large travel mug, followed by the water from the kettle and a generous glug of milk. Emily put the milk back in the fridge and the lid on her travel mug. She then buttoned up her shirt, before heading to the bathroom to brush her teeth, then she returned to the kitchen, pulled on her black walking boots, grabbed her waterproof jacket and pulled it on over her shirt, zipping it up. Emily zipped up her backpack, pulled it onto her back, grabbed her travel mug and walked out of her flat.
Once outside Emily pulled the plastic cover off her bike, folding it neatly and placing it on the floor before putting a big stone on top of it to stop it from blowing away. Emily shuddered, it was crisp and cold and the gentle breeze cut through her clothing with ease. As she pulled her bike away, Emily looked up at the sky, it was crystal clear and the stars were breathtaking. Emily mounted her bike and rode away from her flat. After approximately a half an hour ride, Emily pulled up by a hardware store. She parked her bike beside the store, pulling her backpack off to rummage around for her bike lock and keys. Emily locked her bike in place, grabbed her travel mug and wore her backpack on one shoulder as she approached the front door of the hardware store. Emily fumbled with her keys until she found the right one and unlocked the door. As she walked inside the alarm started blaring. Emily calmly walked over to the alarm panel and typed in the code to silence the alarm. She then returned to the door and locked it behind her. Emily turned on only the set of lights that ran behind the till and looked up at the analogue clock which hung behind the till, it read approximately '6:48'. Emily breathed a sigh of relief, upon confirming that she wasn't late, she was in fact a whole 12 minutes early. Though Emily started work at 7:00, the shop didn't actually open until 8:00, this was to give her an hour to turn everything on and make sure the shop was ready to receive customers.
Emily set to work turning the various electronics on, checking the stocking on the shelves and cleaning anything that looked a bit mucky or dusty. She finished everything she needed to do by 7:50. She did a final check before turning on the rest of the lights in the store and unlocking the door. As she unlocked the door, the sky had just started to brighten up.
10:57 am
"Have a lovely day," Emily said with a smile as the most recent customer she'd served walked out of the shop. Emily looked around the store from the till, she could only see a couple of customers browsing. She glanced up at the clock, there wasn't long to go until the end of her shift. Emily looked away from the clock and spotted a man walking into the store and approaching the counter behind which she was standing. The man didn't seem to notice her and was busy squinting at a piece of paper in his hand. After a moment Emily piped up. "Can I help you with something, sir?" She asked politely. The man looked up at her, slightly startled as she spoke. After eyeing her for a moment, the man answered Emily's question with another question. "Is your boss here?" he grunted. "I'm afraid the manager won't be in until Monday, if it's not something I could help with myself I would be happy to take a message for you," Emily responded with a smile. The man shifted his weight. "I need some advice on a project." The man explained. "I may be able to help with that, what sort of advice do you need?" Emily asked calmly. The man smirked and muttered. "I need some advice on abrasives," Emily nodded and pointed down an aisle. "Just down there we have a collection of different abrasives, what type of finish are you looking for and what other materials will you be using during this stage of your project." Emily looked up at the man, whose smirk had faltered, she awaited his response. "I... I think I'll just have a look myself," the man stuttered before walking off towards the abrasives. Emily watched him walk off for a moment. As much as she was glad she wouldn't have to deal with him, a small part of her was a little disappointed that he hadn't pressed her further. Emily was no DIY expert by any means, but she had spent some time doing some basic research so that she would be able to offer customers some basic advice should they need any, it also came in handy when she came face to face with customers who assumed that she wouldn't know what she was talking about. During her time working at the store, Emily had heard all sorts of reasons as to why she wouldn't know anything about DIY, many pointed to her being a woman and spun some sort of 'girls don't understand this type of thing' story, some people explained that they found it hard to trust her due to her British accent and she was once told that the fact that she had blonde hair meant that there was no way she could retain information about something as complex as woodworking.
Emily's face lit up as a flustered man walked in through the door. "Sorry I'm late, Em" he declared apologetically as he made his way behind the counter. Emily glanced at the clock, it was just gone 11:10. Emily shrugged. "Don't sweat it, Ed" she responded with a smile. She grabbed her backpack, jacket, keys and her now empty travel mug. "Sorry to dash off so quickly, I've got to be at other work in 45 minutes," she explained as she walked towards the door. Her colleague nodded in understanding. "Good luck!" Emily called back as she left the shop. Emily stopped by her bike, placed her travel mug in the holder, unlocked her bike and placed the lock and her keys back into her backpack. She pulled her jacket on and slipped her backpack onto her back. Emily looked up at the sky, which was now grey and gloomy, not a single patch of blue was visible through the thick cloud cover. The wind had also picked up quite considerably since earlier in the morning. Emily rode a short distance to a nearby sandwich shop and popped in to buy herself some lunch which she gently placed in her bag before getting onto her bike and riding off towards her next job.
11:46 am
Emily pulled into the Corduroy Lumber Company and parked her bike in a little space that was reserved for her within one of the sheds that dotted the lumber yard. She dug her phone out of her bag to check the time and, upon realising she was early, she put her phone back in her bag and started to eat her sandwich. Once she was finished she placed her bag beside her unlocked bike. No one ever came into this part of the company's land besides herself, the owner and his daughter so her things were at no risk of being stolen here. Emily walked over to a small shelf on which there was a small radio with a note attached to it and a small notebook that was open on a specific page. Emily picked up the notebook and read the page it was open on. Due to the way the company operated, Emily's duties varied from day to day, her responsibilities were written in the notebook which was left for her at the beginning of every shift in case neither of her bosses were around when she started. Once she'd read the list she turned her attention to the radio and inspected the note which read 'As promised, the batteries have been replaced.' Emily smiled to herself and picked up the small radio and walked out of the shed heading towards the first job on her list.
2:12 pm
"... as a result a weather warning has been issued for-" The voice on the radio was cut off by a loud crack as Emily split a log into two smaller pieces. The two halves of the log fell down either side of the stump it had been placed on as the axe cleanly split it. Emily pulled the axe out of the stump, grabbing another piece of wood and placing it on the stump. "... there are high chances of extremely heavy snow and it's not recommended that anyone-" The radio became audible again as Emily lined up the next piece of wood but was cut off abruptly once more as she swung the axe down again. Emily let go of the axe, leaving it embedded in the stump. The piles of split wood on either side of the stump had become rather large so Emily set to collecting the split wood. As she gathered the wood, the radio moved on from its weather report and had started playing some music, which Emily sang along to quietly as she collected the wood. Once she had her arms full of wood she carried it over to a nearby shed. Inside the shed, the walls were covered in shelves that were mostly full of similarly cut chunks of wood. Emily neatly stacked the wood before returning outside to collect another armful. Emily repeated this process until all of the wood around the stump had been cleared away. When Emily exited the shed on her final trip something glided past her face. She looked upwards and smiled to herself. A light flurry of snow was starting to fall from the sky. After a moment, Emily moved back to the stump, dislodged the axe again and continued to split more wood.
"What are you still doing here?" Emily turned as she heard a deep voice a short distance behind her. She smiled as she spotted her two bosses, Daniel and his daughter Wendy, walking towards her. "Just working through my jobs, boss!" Emily reported with a playful salute. "You should head home," Daniel told Emily, but before she could answer Wendy pitched in. "We've been trying to get hold of you for hours..." Emily patted her pockets in search of her phone before realising she'd left it in her bag. "Why, what's wrong?" Emily asked, suddenly becoming somewhat concerned. "According to the weather reports, we're due for a snowstorm very soon," Wendy explained. Emily looked up at the sky, the snowfall seemed innocent enough for the time being. Then Daniel spoke "I know you had some errands to run after work today, and I can't offer you a lift as the car's still at the shop," he explained. "But I haven't finished my work," Emily announced, showing them the notebook with her to-do list, only about half of which were crossed off. "We'd hate for it to be our fault if you weren't able to celebrate Christmas properly because you were stuck here. Daniel explained. "Don't worry about finishing your work, we'll sort it," he added with a smile. Emily nodded, then gave both Wendy and Daniel a hug. "Thank you," she said gratefully before running off to the shed with her bike inside. She pulled her backpack on and rode her bike out of the shed. "And Merry Christmas!" she shouted to her employers before she rode off.
3:02 pm
Emily parked and locked her bike outside the bookstore and walked inside, pulling a small piece of paper out of her back pocket. Emily's hair and clothes were dotted with hundreds of tiny snowflakes, the snow had become quite a lot heavier since she'd left work. The paper contained a list of the things she needed to get on her way home. Out of all the places she needed to go, the bookstore was the furthest from her flat and so she figured she'd work her way from the bookstore and creep closer to home until she was done. Emily made her way through the aisles of books, collecting a few as she went. She wasn't paying all that much attention to her surroundings as she examined the shelves, searching for the books on her list, whilst also being open to any that caught her attention. After a few minutes, the snowflakes that had attached themselves to her had melted away, leaving her clothes and hair a little damp.
