August 6

A Chapter by Calypso

August 6

“So what now?” I asked placing a frayed red Uno card onto the messy pile. April had brought an old desk of Uno cards from home and she had asked me to play with her.

The cards themselves were older than the hills and had to be held together with a rubber band.

Morgan shrugged, “We have a few options. Maybe we could kill time while we’re here by volunteering?”

I had just found out that I was promoted to level 7 last night and with the end so near I’m trying to find ways to reach the end faster.

“You can do that? Ya and when you graduate you can get a job too.”

I have been thinking of getting a job “What about now? Can I get one now?”

Morgan placed a red Uno card with a four on the pile. “I guess. Why not ask?”

“Well who am I to ask?”

“I wish I knew.”

I placed a green with a four on top of her card. “What jobs can I get?”

“Different things. It depends on your record here.”

I wanted to moan, “My record isn’t too great.”

Morgan shrugged, “Why not ask though?”

After the game was over I walked to the gym. Apparently the last of the benefits was going to a small gym on the first floor. Of course I was only allowed to exercise for fifteen minutes a day. I’m not sure what would happen to me of I went over the time limit.

In the gym there are humble lockers for both female and males with two stalls for showering and another two that houses the toilets.

There was no one in the locker room so I undressed out in the open. I wore a T-shirt from a trip with the church and vinyl shorts. Both the shorts and shirt had become tight. Not too tight, but just enough to make me feel fat.

I stood on the treadmill and started running. For a minute my legs cramped and I felt tried but I kept running they seemed to loosen up and I was flying.

I never could run fast. Everyone can run of course, some just don’t run fast enough to make dictator/ gym teacher happy.

I kept listening to Taylor Swift and thinking about Abigail. There was a part of me that wanted amuse the though of things never being awkward between us again, but I knew better. Soon things will back to normal between us, but when, I’m not sure.

The song ‘Teardrops on my Guitar’ was on and I was keeping a good pace up. Then an older woman came out of nowhere and waved a finger at me. Her lips were pursed and her brow furled.

I pulled one earphone out and gasped. “What?”

“It’s over fifteen minutes.”

I kept running for a millisecond thinking why it even mattered. The women remained so I turned the treadmill off and dressed in under five minutes.

Group therapy was up next and I didn’t care.

Janna started with a verse from Genesis and then asked us what it meant to us.

“Are you sure it works like that?” Morgan asked. “I believe that you can’t just make the Bible say what you want it to.”

“Yes that’s true, but what does it make you feel?”

“Could you repeat the verse?”

Janna picked the Bible up and looked at the verse. “ ‘Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness…’ ” She paused and looked up at us. “It does on, but the first few words are the most powerful.”

Morgan tiled her head “So it’s saying that we are made like God.”

“Yep.”

I nodded leisurely “I reminds me of 1 Corinthians 6:19.”

April looked up as if coming from her fog “What does that say.”

I thought and responded, “I’m not sure about the exact wording, but the gist of the verse is that your body is the Lord’s. It calls it a temple.”

April looked like she faded back into herself and said no more.

“NIV, right?” Morgan asked leaning forward. After speaking April had slid down into her chair.

“Yep.”

So it was left at that. There was small chitchat, but Janna seemed to do most of the talking. Even the fiery Eva had nothing to say.

With everything said and done today has been okay. Tomorrow I plan to ask Belle about a job.

prev chapter