Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society

at 8:48 pm posted by Molly

Calamity Jude series, #1
Jude wakes

Jude became awake. It wasn’t a conscious choice, certainly. The dull ache of her head and right shoulder was an irritating contrast to the bright sun on the purple wall. She wondered if she should move to relieve the pain in her shoulder and risk finding more pain elsewhere. Shift legs, brace with hand, briefly lean on the shoulder wile hips moved up, slide over and around - everything felt fine. How many times in her life had she shifted her weight to turn over in the night?
She woke fully with thoughts of outdoor fun buzzing in her head.
She looked around her room - a two drawer dresser, a box of winter clothes (some used in summer), a closet with books and more winter clothes, a memento box, spare linen. It was a room that contrasted with the clutter and dust of the rest of the house. Sitting on the side of the bed, she slid on a pair of loose shorts, her favourite plaid shirt with buttons from her Gramma’s button tin, and boots. This got her to the bathroom without embarrassment and she loved the sound of those boots on hardwood.
After showering, she felt ready for the day . “That’s a morning routine” she thought. It felt good to have such a simple start to the day. She was ready for one last spontaneous day before she started job searching.
Her roomie, Glory, grumbled past her in the hall, stopping at the closet to pour her daily vitamins into her ‘vitamin cup’. When the house was built, this closet held a full set of outdoor clothing for a family. The light wood doors bent vertically in the middle on piano hinges and rolled on tracks to open with a squeek.

Glory had explained most of the vitamins to Jude when they first moved in together. Jude was quiet. She found herself unable to state what she felt which was “Why do you think this is interesting just because I’m too polite to walk away? Why can’t I stand up for myself and just walk away?” She passed the time during the vitamin lecture by calculating how many bikes she could by for the money invested in that closet. It amazed her to listen to people with charisma and conviction state their opinion. Some did it so well that they could repeat themselves frequently and entrance people to listen and reflect anew. Glory wasn’t one of those people. The conversation this morning in the hallway was unavoidable and predictable.
“You look like death. Do you want something to stimulate your endocrine gland?” said Glory fumbling with a plastic bottle.
Jude couldn’t help but notice that Glory looked like death too. “Um, no. I just have to wake up.”
“All right, do it the hard way.”
“What, are you pushing stims now?” Thought Judy as she headed for the kitchen, dipping her shoulder and bowing her head to avoid contact.
Her coffee made, Jude made an escape to sit on the sunny cement front steps. As her foot landed on the first step down, pain seared her calf muscle, sending her body in to a convulsion.
“(#!)!” Bent in pain, covered in coffee, she could only wait for it to relent. This was a bad one. As the charlie horse eased and she was able to massage it a bit, she thought this was worse than when it had happened in bed, not holding a scalding beverage. Then again, at least she didn’t have to hear Glory deal out a subscription of self-righteousness. Those lectures usually started and ended with a verbattum account of dexot regiments - otherwise known as purging regiments.
Jude resolved to eat a lot of bananas as they have something that prevents charlie horses, like potassium or magnesium or some such. She decided that coffee smelled pretty good, and she just wasn’t a two shower-a-day kind of gal.

Now her beautiful morning was a bit more mentally cloudy. As she cleaned up the broken mug, she wondered what to do that day. Several pieces of unfinished business rattled around in her head.
On her second banana, she made a long list, stuck it in her back pocket and made for the door. Wallet, bike, ready. She flung her leg gracefully over the rear wheel as it rolled into the street, her butt slid on the saddle like hand in glove.
Ten minutes and a good sweat later and it was going to be a good day after all.

-Molly Tunrnbull-