Absent minded

The previous day when Monke and Po returned from the hostage exchange, he locked himself up in his apartment.

The first thing he did was lose extra clothes on him, now he was left with his plain grey boxers, black school sox, and a white vest. His watch stayed on his wrist until he got to his bedroom where he placed it in his jewelry drawer.

He paused and observed his surroundings for a second. On the opposite end of his bed was a flat-screen television mounted on to his wall and over it was an analog clock. Its ticking reminded him of a brighter time, it reminded him of the time he lived with his mother in the inner circle. His mother liked the simpler things in life, digital clocks, 7G internet, self-driving cars, and the so-called tuning drugs the government offers people were all a no go for her.

Monke swept aside his closet door and went in to get a gown. Although his mother was gone from the world, most of her teachings remained with him. Some sacrifices like becoming the criminals which she despised and even killing people on top of that were a necessary evil to propel Monke closer to finding out who killed his mother and why,

He took a long walk to his kitchen, switching on the television while he was passing through the living room. It was exactly 13:00 and even if he didn't switch on the television it would've switched on itself. This was because this was lunchtime across the whole country and therefore the television would broadcast a prerecorded lunchtime message on every station. If you were rich enough to afford streaming services and foreign channels, the country's program would still interrupt it.

In the 60 minutes that follow, the first 20 minutes are dedicated to reading out the country's vision 2136 pillars and goals. The next 10 minutes go to the latest cuisines and healthy eating. What would then follow was a children's variety show which marked the end of another day in primary school? The last 30 minutes were special because they can be ignored unless you are a school Tv.

Middle scholars, high scholars, and tertiary scholars received their briefings at the morning tithes.

Monke had no intentions of listening or watching at all, although he was unable to either turn the tv off or mute it, he could still put on his old fashioned Bluetooth headphones and enjoy some music.

He pulled out a bowl from the sink and rinsed it a bit before wiping it with a cloth. Minke then brought it to his nose to smell it and it was odorless, he smiled and set it aside on top of the little stone island standing between him and the living room.

He returned to the peninsula with some cereal and a carton of milk both on the same hand, he grabbed the bowl and went on his way to the living room. With his legs on top of the table and his body lazily slouching off of his large couch, Monke drank milk from his cereal with a straw while waiting for the 30 minutes to elapse and watch some anime or an action movie at the very least.

On today's cuisine talk, Monke was taken aback by the use of collin's root in a soup being made. Collin's root was one of well known genetically modified plants used in almost every medicinal product. It had a bitter taste and thus a very bad ingredient at least according to Monke's mother.

It was only natural that he removed his headphones in order to hear what the lady was saying. Although he tried his best to concentrate on the issue at hand, he kept fading off and thinking about the events that occurred earlier in the morning.

The only thing he caught was then when dried, wrapped up in cabbage leaves and boiled can the root produce a mouth-watering aroma of the most amazing spices mixed together. She said that after this state no matter how appetizing it got, consuming collin's root in excess can have some side effects. She also proceeded to say that this method can bring out the best in any bland meal.

When Monke tried to have a sip on his cereal milk his stomach declined it. He tried a few more times but after seeing steamy collin stew in the tv his stomach saw the cereal as nothing but grub.

This was an emergency because he was still hungry. Monke got up and ran to the kitchen to try and find something else to eat. He tore through cookies, chips, and even fruit without even feeling the desire to bite on any of them.

Depressed and hungry Monke started to hum along to the daydream theme song playing on the television. It brought to him memories of him Po and three other friends of theirs, Motheo, Tefo, and Omatla. After humming it to completion, Monke only had one thought in his mind.

'I'll call Po and one way or the other we will have that soup.' After making that mental goal Monke abandoned his house and went to look for a phone because he lost it a few days ago. He went door to door knocking until he was finally on the 10th floor, a whole 12 floors away from his home.

The person who lived in this house was a teacher with her niece, the niece was home while the teacher was in school. Most people didn't open for Monke because they either saw him through the peephole or recognized his voice. This girl however didn't recognize the voice nor did she check the peephole. When she finally recognized Monke it was too late to close the door.

Monke asked kindly to borrow a phone and she let him. He called and found out that Po also didn't have collin's root in his house. After talking for what felt like hours Monke finally got off the phone. But instead of going back home, he slept in this house which is why he never went to school the following day.