Unspoken Words

The shop looks new and I can't recall having seen it before, even though I walk up and down this street everyday. The clear glass front reveals a look inside. Clean grey tiles on the floor, white shiny plastic tables, and comfortable-looking fake leather seatings. I push the door open and ignore the two kids sitting on the right. At the counter I'm greeted with a friendly "Hello, what can I get you?"

I spent most of my day at home, doing this and that - none of it productive or important. The morning I was busy sleeping and I believe it was hunger that woke me up. I found out that I had nothing left to eat, so I had a cup of coffee and another cup of coffee. Around noon I found a bag of salted peanuts in one of my bags. I must have bought them and then forgot to eat them. That was my lunch. That and a cup of coffee.

I don't even remember what I did all afternoon. And I realize that's a very sad fact of the day. I was hungry, but I didn't feel like going out. Ordinarily I like grocery shopping, but I just couldn't help it. I had also run out of laundry detergent, so a walk to the nearby supermarket would have been a good idea. But good was not good enough today. I wanted to do nothing, and that's what I ended up doing all afternoon.  

It was only in the evening that I felt a sudden urge to be active. I was listening to the new album by the Roots, called Undun. It's a fourteen track bomb of an album and it's filled to the rim with mellow beats and rhymes. The first song, man, it starts off quietly, some tunes and some vocals, and suddenly boom! Black Thought's voice like a rapping slap in the face. So good, you can't help but smile and nod, smile and nod. 

"A two-piece meal with fries and a diet coke". I realize that those where my first spoken words today. Well, I think, sometimes it's like that. Soon I receive my food and I walk the loaded tray to a table close to the exit. Fried chicken and fries at eleven at night. Why did I even bother to go for a diet drink? The sound of a rusty ventilation system is comforting, and I wonder what happened to the 'happy' in my happy new year.