Author's Note:
*drum roll* Ladies and Gentlemen, my other stories are STILL on hold. *cough* That said, here is my latest idea, which hit me last night before I went to bed. LOL
It occurred to me: Between waking up and going to bed, we all fill our day with some kind of schedule, some kind of normalcy, the things we normally do, that are our 'day's work'. The only question is: What is 'a typical day' to you?
Summary:
Your definition of normal depends on who you are. Here's a look at the lives of two people. One of them, you might know…
P.S. for fox4mel: I can make no promises, but I'll see if I can find an angle into that 'Russian prison' story. The truth is, I never know when an idea hits me, or what the idea will turn out to be, but maybe we get lucky. So, we'll see… LOL
A Day in the Life
One man wakes up in his family house.
Another man gets up in his apartment.
One man packs his bag for the office, throwing in an apple for lunch as he walks out the door.
Another man slips a new clip in his gun, securing the loaded weapon at the small of his back, as he grabs his jacket on the way out the door.
One man listens to the radio on the road, cursing softly at the sports results and wishing he could one day own a real sports car, maybe like the one he could see coming up in his rearview mirror.
Another man pulls his Ford Mustang smoothly through traffic, with an efficiency born not from recklessness but from skill, passing some of the slower cars on the road while he listens to the radio, allowing himself a quick smile as he hears that his favorite team has won again.
One man arrives at the office, greeted by his colleagues, before he picks up the few messages that have accumulated over night as he checks his tasks for the day.
Another man meets up with his team, going through the last details of the mission, preparing for whatever eventuality they might encounter once they got inside.
One man goes for a quick coffee break after he has handled the first couple of e-mails in his in-box, taking the time for a chat in the hallway, before he goes back his desk.
Another man keeps himself low to the ground, his gun loaded and ready in his hand, approaching the target site, while he listens to the voices in his earpiece that let him know his team is also moving in position.
One man encounters a slight technical computer problem for which he has to call tech support, in the form of two computer specialists who are unfortunately unable to save the document he has been working on, but are able to at least save the hard drive.
Another man can feel the blood flowing from the minor through-and-through bullet wound in his arm, which he received in an unexpected struggle with a hidden guard, but he is quick to give his team the go ahead signal, letting them know that he would continue moving towards the target.
One man works through his lunch break to catch up on his lost time.
Another man takes out three more hostiles on his way to the third floor of the warehouse building.
One man gives a long sigh of relief when he finally finishes the important report that his boss requires in time for the video conference which is about to start two floors down.
Another man cuts the ropes off the hostage, checking for more hostiles in the area, and telling his team that the target has been secured.
One man decides it is time for another coffee.
Another man decides it is time to high-tail it out of the warehouse.
One man gets a call from his wife, telling her that he will probably be home at the same time as usual, as the boss has been happy with his work and there are just some more files that needed to be archived before he would be done.
Another man jumps onto the waiting helicopter, handing the rescued hostage off to the woman on his right, while getting a hand up from another member of his team, as they take off just in time to leave their pursuers in a cloud of fire, as their little farewell explosive ties up the mission.
One man stretches in his office chair, working out the slight kink in his neck, but happy to have finished his work, as he is eagerly watching his computer power down.
Another man tries to ignore his team members' concerned glances, as the helicopter's medic patches up the wound in his arm, while they fly home in exhausted but content silence.
One man grabs his car keys, leaving the office with a friendly wave and a 'see ya tomorrow'.
Another man silently endures the lecture from the doctor, and from his team, that he isn't fit to drive with that shot of painkiller he has been given – a fact that he eventually has to concede.
One man arrives at his house, seeing his wife's car already parked in the garage, as he gets out of his car with a happy smile.
Another man allows his team to drive him home, having handed over his car keys to the woman who had won against her other two colleagues in the quick battle about who would get to drive the Ford Mustang.
One man says 'Honey, I' m home', as he walks into the house, putting his car keys on the sideboard next to the door before he drops his office bag and his shoes just outside the living room.
Another man thanks his team for the ride home, trying - and failing - to keep them from joining him on his way into the apartment.
One man wonders what his wife has cooked for dinner tonight.
Another man can't help but smile, as he watches his team members cluttering around his kitchen, fixing an 'all-in' team dinner, their unanimous goal set in making sure that he would be taking his meds not on an empty stomach – and that he would be taking the meds, period.
One man eventually falls asleep contently in the arms of his wife at the end of the day.
Another man fell asleep in his bedroom, settled in the knowledge that his team was comfortably crashed out in his living room, and that they would still be there in morning, no matter how long he slept.
Both men knew they would do it all over again, in some shape or form, tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after...
Just like for everybody else, it would be another day in the life, normal to them, and surrounded by the people they knew. That's what normalcy was. The rest was just a matter of definition.
And definition lay in the eye of the beholder.
The End