Bright, Happy Day. Flash Fiction.

Hope everyone had a good weekend! Was great watching the snow fall and going for walks. We had about 9 inches of snow, I’m a little bummed we didn’t get the full brunt of storm Emma for more snow, but I’m still happy with how much snow we did get! It’ll probably be a long time before I see that amount of snow here again!

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“Good morning Emma.”
Emma blinked, then rubbed her eyes, “Good morning Buddy.” she stretched as the lights slowly came to life. Emma threw back the covers and got out of bed. To her left there was a faint click, as she slid back the cover of the food cubby to grab her morning coffee her bed folded into the wall. She took a sip of the coffee and sighed, “Thanks.”
“You’re very welcome Emma. Would you like to go over your schedule for the day? Or perhaps the headlines of the day?”
“No, just be quiet please.” Emma took another sip of coffee, she had never been a morning person, something Buddy seemed intent on changing.

“Your breakfast will arrive shortly, is there anything I can do for you?”
“Shower, medium please.” a panel on the wall slid back, revealing a shower stall. Emma stripped out of her pyjamas as water began to spray from the nozzles. Once she was undressed she stepped into the shower, still drinking her coffee. The water covered her, then stopped, a light mist was ejected from the nozzles, Emma spun slowly, raising her arms to make sure she got everywhere. When she was covered the spray stopped and returned to water, the spray started flaking from her skin and after a few seconds it was completely gone. The water turned off and another panel opened, revealing a clean robe. Emma slid into it, enjoying the warmth. She stepped out of the stall and looked over at the still covered window. “Buddy, please raise the shutters.”
“I must warn you that as you have not had your pill this morning, raising the shutters could cause some discomfort.”
Emma rolled her eyes, that’s what it said every morning. “I’m sure I’ll be fine, please open the shutters.” The shutters rattled as they were raised, Emma was paying extra for an apartment with a window, she didn’t want to squander it. Emma squinted out the window, the thick smog was obscuring most of the city, it looked kind of pretty, the bright lights flashing through the clouds. At least it was prettier than the endless sky scrapers. Emma turned from the window and started getting dressed, if she dawdled Buddy would be on her case again.

Emma looked over herself in the mirror, “How do I look?”
“Great, very professional.”
“Thank you.”
There was a click as her pill arrived, the food panel slid back and revealed a single white pill. Emma grabbed it and dry swallowed the pill. “I’ll see you later Buddy.”
“Have a wonderful day.”
Emma stepped outside her apartment and into the filthy hall, old graphitti covered the walls and the floor was covered in stains and dirt. Sighing Emma closed her eyes and counted to ten, when she opened them the filth was gone, the walls were clean. Emma started walking.

Every morning she looked around herself as she went, at all the clean buildings, the beautiful trees, the wide open spaces. She knew that wasn’t what the city really looked like, everyone did, but it made things easier, it made the filth just fade away, made you forget that you hadn’t been outside in nine months, made living like this bearable. She could feel the faint upswing in her mood already, building on itself as she walked. By the time she reached the office she was smiling widely, today was going to be a great day, she could just feel it.