2 CHAPTER 2: The Question

[Sasha Shadows]

Finally, my home sweet home.

After locking the door but opening several windows to let in the fresh air, I switched on the ceiling fan (I can't afford an air-conditioner yet) before slumping onto the soft second-hand couches. The clock on the wall showed 10.30 p.m., but it wasn't set correctly. Maybe it was due to the battery, the clock appeared to run faster (the exact time for now is 7.15 p.m.).

The reason why I had yet to change it back was, to be honest, I was lazy to do that as every time when I reached home, I felt extraordinary fatigue. However, the power of my growling stomach would sometimes turn me back on and I would manage to a sitting position, scratch the back of my head, get off the couch reluctantly and head towards the kitchen with more hungry growls and grunts. Although my eyes were half shut, I could still distinguish the place where I was standing.

Soon, I opened the fridge and cold breeze welcomed me. I shivered a little while searching for anything I can cook.

Meat, a little rotten veggie, eggs, meat, butter…

Maybe I can take out the frozen packet of scrambled meat, defreeze them, and cook them with three eggs and butter. Then, I won't need to use sunflower oil tonight.

Right, I had stored a jar of mayonnaise in the fridge too. May as well take it out for good use.

_____

At last, I still ordered pizza for my dinner. In fact, I can have this meal for free because the pizza boy got lost while searching for my house. Yes, he's late for a goddamn of 45 minutes and I nearly let out my inner green-eyed monster because of my non-stop growling stomach.

Once I thanked the pizza boy, I closed the door with my spare left hand while the other braced the pizza box in a waitress pose. Soon, the hot temperature began urging me to lock the door faster as my right hand would swell due to the steaming pizza heat penetrated through the paper.

With my mouth muttering 'ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch…' for God knew how many times, I finally placed the pizza box onto the dining table and opened it, letting out the cheesy smell to suffuse in the air. "Wow!" The Hawaiian Supreme with extra cheese bloomed beautifully in the box.

Although I'd be using my hands to eat the pizza, I still headed to the kitchen to get a plate. As it was extremely hot for my hands, I wouldn't wish to see the tragic scene of greasy stains pasting on the table, or worse, on the ground. So, the plate would be the best saviour.

If there were crunchy garlic breads available to be dunked in the mushroom soup, this meal would be splendid. But to prevent food wasting, I'd ordered only pizza.

As I search through the plastic bag, tiny packets of chilli flakes and Parmesan cheese powder are provided alongside with the set to increase the taste diversity. "That's more like it," I mumble with satisfaction while tearing a chilli flakes packet and sprinkle the contents onto my second slice of pizza. "Hmm, shomethang ishtill misshing." I spoke to myself while chewing onto a mouthful of flavoured, cooked flour.

Since I couldn't come out with a conclusion of what I really wanted, I decided to stand up and let my feet take me towards the answer. One of my hands was still holding onto the half-eaten slice. Not long after, I stopped in front of my fridge and the idea finally popped out.

"Ah, soda water!" I exclaimed in joy before stuffing the remaining piece into my mouth. "That'th the thang!"

_____

The whole house was then full of pizza smell. And unluckily, the darkening sky reminded me to close the window because one, thieves and robbers were active during this hour and two, mosquitoes, the blood suckers or whatever you call them were going to hunt during this hour as well.

Besides that, the front porch light of my house was lit automatically too, which meant it really was dark already.

I took a glance on the clock and was nearly shocked at the sight of the time. Indeed, it was showing me midnight hour and it took a few seconds for me to recall the fact and convince myself that this wasn't real.

"I really have to reset it now," I muttered as I grabbed a chair from the dining room before stepping onto it to reach for the circular framed clock with both hands. "Gotcha!" I shouted in a whispery way while trying to settle down.

The chair was a little bit shaky when I began to squat. As soon as my butt rested on the seat, I took a few steps away to fish my mobile phone from the table. The big font of international time shown in the home screen allowed me to reset the clock correctly. I hope that it won't run away again from track as I wasn't that type of a hardworking person to even wake up from sleep, unless I had to update my novel in the morning.

After everything was settled just as I expected, I took out my mini laptop from the backpack and unslept it. Yes, I left it in sleep mode since the class was over because I wanted to proceed on my unfinished novel. The updated version of my novel appeared on the screen and a grin brightened up my face.

Satisfaction was what I can feel again. The only thing left was to finish the last two chapters and wrap all the things up eventually.

Although there were only two chapters left, this is still time-consuming for me to think, to edit, to ensure the flow was steady and smooth and to keep up a good writing style. In fact, each chapter deserved to be treated with these mentioned statements above. Let alone they were the forty-ninth and fiftieth chapter of my book.

I'd decided to check the forty-eighth chapter for any flaws and grammar mistakes tonight. Since I'd spent most of my time outside today, I was done grazing my brain juice to think of any more interesting scenes to add on in the next part.

So, I may as well roam the internet world tonight after editing the forty-eighth chapter.

Subconsciously, I opened another new tab using Google Chrome and logged in to Facebook. Once I'd finished this, I would jump into this world after shutting my writing world down.

It was ironic to admit that I have 1000 friends on Facebook, but only a few in the real world. I couldn't explain how much I missed my middle school friends until now. Ever since, I'd moved away from my hometown, I lost all their contacts. And they were not much of an internet roamer because they all had their lives outside this virtual world. Unlike me, the girl who faced the computer more than people almost every day.

At last, I'd accomplished the mission in editing the targeted chapter. After saving the updated data, I entered Facebook and began to scroll through different posts and pages.

Again, nothing special.

There were only posts of road trips, or hate posts contained only words and emojis. Hence, I click onto my own profile and enter my own home page. It looked quite simple and a little nerdy as all the things I'd posted were books, books and books. As can be seen, I would never share my real thoughts online.

I had trust issues with everyone.

Suddenly, a question appeared under the Did You Know bar caught my eye. "If I were invisible for a day, I would…" The idea of being invisible was indeed interesting and this ignited the memory of me keeping the IMPOSSIBLE LIST which I'd written on the first day of college.

If I had to demonstrate, most of the answers suited this question, even if it only lasted for one day.