A Small Journey

[Ikuar]

The blank, white page before her seemed to be saying many things. Things that only a girl like her could really understand. Her hands rested gently on the gray keyboard of her laptop, tapping incessantly and impatiently as she searched her mind for ideas. She idly tucked some of her hair behind her ear, a habit she thought would bring ideas flowing in. The idea of writing to her was like painting, something she also enjoyed doing in her own free time. A blank canvas laid before her waiting for the colors to be splotched onto it. Words, those were her paints today.
She traced a picture of a character in her head and bit her lower lip, which was chapped slightly from cold weather. Desperate, Lisha looked around the room, slightly dimmed with only the lamp lit. She was sitting on she and Devon, her husband’s, bed with the burgundy colored sheets wrapped around her shoulders. Music emanated softly from her gray and white laptop. Regina Spektor’s, The Call, was playing.
The inspiration she longed for wasn’t there though. She had some sort of idea of thing she wanted to write but her fingers failed to put the words together right. Or was it her mind that was failing her that evening? Slight hail beat against their small apartment which was conveniently located next to a small, family owned Chinese restaurant. She imagined Dev was there at that moment grabbing dinner, on his way home from work. On the other side of the apartment there was a big clothing store and pizza place. It was a fairly busy street because across from it was a shopping complex. The lights were always on outside and half the time she didn’t get much sleep. Sad to admit, poor Lisha was a light sleeper.

Her weary sigh didn’t come unnoticed as Dev entered the room with a bag full of foam containers possibly holding their dinner.
“How is the novel coming?” He ventured as he stepped further into the dim lighting of the room and set the bag on their bed.
“Nothing. I feel like I’m not getting anywhere with this. It’s like my brain refuses to work or form words. My character doesn’t even make sense.”
Dev lifted a container out of the plastic bag with a yellow smiley face on it. He pushed it towards her and then proceeded to seat himself next her, soon finding himself staring at the same blank page. Except this time when he saw it there was tiny black text.
“The?”
Lisha gave him a sideways look, “The end.” She closed her laptop. She pushed it aside carefully and then lifted up the container. She could already smell the fried rice and sweet and sour chicken, her two favorites. Of course there was always the surprise of an egg roll and maybe one of those little things with the cream cheese inside. Dev refused to tell her what it was actually called. She opened it and smiled softly when the warm steam hit her face.
“You never fail to get what I like, Dev.”
He kissed her cheek and then sat back, opening his own container. Both held plastic forks and Lisha had to admit that those were barely durable enough for her General Tso’s chicken.
“So did the hail kill you?” She took a bite of some sweet and sour and waited for him to swallow so he could answer.
“You missed the funeral. I’m just a zombie.” Dev groaned afterward and reached into the container for an egg roll. “Ah, brain egg roll, my favorite.”
She watched as he aimed for his mouth holding the yummy little egg roll. Then he glanced out of the corner of his eye, meeting her soft brown ones. He smirked and then aimed for her mouth instead.
“Eat up.”
Lisha picked up her own egg roll and aimed for his mouth, “Say ahh.” She replied and then took a bite of the one he put in her mouth.
“That’s pork?” She asked while he was taking a bite of hers.
“They don’t label them.”
“I should be able to tell the difference between pork and chicken.” Lisha pulled hers back and took a bite of it.
“You never can tell in an egg roll.”
Lisha sat back against the beige pillows which she considered to be overstuffed but comfy. Her head leaned against the backboard of the bed and she reached for one of the little sweet and sour chicken pieces. She could hear the hail beating against the window outside and focused her attention on that in hopes of inspiration.
“I wonder if the baby will like Chinese.”
She caught Dev’s glance and shrugged, “I don’t know but we’re not having a baby right now. I want to settle into my career first.”
“The career you’re struggling to begin?”
“It’s begun. It’s just going slow. Did you bring any soda back?”
“Put that laptop somewhere safer and I’ll go get it.”
The container was moved off of her lap so she could get up and move the laptop onto the desk where she’d probably pick it up somewhere in the middle of the night to work on outlines. Dev was already on his way to the kitchen where he’d left the soda bottles.
“Maybe you should write about something real.” He sat her soda on the table beside her and then moved back to his side of the bed.
“Like what?” She asked.
“Like a private tutor and a student.”
Lisha sat there with the egg roll she’d been munching on sticking out of her mouth. She made a funny face and then shook her head, “No. I’m not going to write about us.”
“Aw, Li! It would make a wonderful story. Or maybe you could fantasize it. Like you could be some sort of… elf or--”
“No. Not an elf.”
“I’m just trying to help, don’t knock it before you try it. There could be something in there that might inspire you. Do you remember that time we went to Italy and that’s when I--”
“Please don’t go there. No one wants to read about how you lost your swimming trunks in that huge lake where you’ll never see them again.”
“To me that was cool. Well not getting out but the fact that I lost them outside of the states was awesome.” His small amusements almost made Lisha wonder how he made it as a genius, private tutor. Not only that but he had once been her tutor and helped her graduate after a few years of struggling on a certain subject. She had to give him credit.

That night Lisha laid awake with her hands folded under her head and her eyes focused on the ceiling fan above her. Dev had fallen asleep two hours earlier so she could no longer focus on talking to him. Her mind was racing to figure out what she could possibly write. And how long would it take? She let her mouth twist in frustration and her eyes slowly wandered to her laptop, which was blinking as a sign that it was still on. Like Dev had said, there was so much she could write about. People, events, animals. Again she licked and then bit her lower lip, chapped still and slightly irritated. Then a thought came to her. She tossed aside her covers and rolled out of bed, tiptoeing to the desk to pick up her thin, light as air, laptop. After perching herself back on the bed, resting against the pillows she flipped it open and began to type.
“The fog that morning had been thicker than normal mornings. But after storms, of course the rain would make fog look thick and it came with humidity as well. Underneath the fog a small fox trotted wistfully through the dense forest. Her fur and body slid easily under the thicket, making her way to another fox like herself. Her fur seemed darker from the rains, normally bright orange it was now a brown color and her ears folded back a little. The worry in her round, black eyes was hidden by determination…"

It was six a.m. when Dev woke up to typing. It wasn’t very loud but he knew what the sound was and who was doing it. He rolled over and was a little surprised to see Lisha sitting there with her reading glasses on typing away like she didn’t have a lot of time left to do so.
“Lisha…” He said in a gruff voice. “What are you doing?”
Lisha jumped a little bit and then pulled off her glasses, rubbing tired eyes with the back of her hands. It was clear then that either she’d woken up hours ago or hadn’t slept at all. She moved her finger over the track pad and saved her work.
“I’m writing.” She answered softly.
“I can see that.” Dev pushed himself up and leaned his elbows against his lap, head in his hands. “Why at this hour?”
He watched her eyes for any sign of thought but she was still staring at the screen, the light of it reflected against her pupils. Her mouth hung open and she sniffled a little bit, eventually rubbing the underside of her nose with her index finger.
“Because I had an idea.” Her small reply came. She reached for a white mug on her bedside table and put it to her lips. She shakily sipped what smelled like coffee and then sat it back down.
Dev’s eyes practically popped out of his head, “Li!” He barked, “Did you sleep at all? Are you drinking coffee? Why are you drinking coffee? You shouldn’t be drinking coffee, you know what it does to you!”
“It’s only a sip to keep me going.” Lisha said with a slight wheeze. Her eyes were watery.