Morning Mission

An experimental piece.

A man possessed, he weaves through household obstacles, barely noticing that they are there - one goal fills his mind and he intends to fulfill it come hell or high water.

His large and rather hairy bare feet move rhythmically across the stone floor, pitter pattering as they go, as he draws near to his target his pace changes to a slow jog. His toned legs stride and beer belly wobbles. 

Children shout for his attention, a dog wails from somewhere in the distance, birds sing from the trees outside of the window but he will not be distracted.

He narrowly avoids a collision with his eldest child, Georgia, though cannot escape the stone cold look of death she bestows upon him for this near-tragedy, he seems not to notice this look of contempt and carrys on about his task. A ball of fluff, also known as the cat, Poppy, is his latest challenge and yet he seems un-fazed as he jumps to avoid a nasty squishing episode, the cats yowls a relieved noise and returns to grooming herself.

He enters the grease stained kitchen, a little breathless now, not even wasting time looking at the pile of dishes from last nights steak dinner. Slipping slightly on marbles, put carefully back in their place by the youngest of his children, Benjamin. He regains his balance, not even letting out a groan, his goal is so close. Beads of sweat, perhaps from the sheer excitement of this obstacle course, appear on his brow.

 

At last, the water boils, hands pour, spoon stirs and bottom sits. Morning coffee has arrived. Chaos all around and yet in his head he is free and ready to start the day, ready to face the world.

Reviews

[bluedolphin]

I really liked the twist in the ending. When I first started reading I thought it was going to be a horror story (I guess morning before coffee can be scary). I cringed when he went past the kids...
Excellent job on grabbing the reader and pulling them in describing what ordinarily is a mundane morning task!

[Kaitlin W. Blaylock]

LOL. Nice humorous piece. At first you think there's a tragedy going on, but the ending...with the coffee...funny!

[Max Arnold]

the guy really likes his coffee. who am I to judge?

[Gandré]

I enjoyed this very much. Where have you been. Glad to see you again!
Lara

[octane143]

Lol! You had me going all the way to the end. I was asking myself what could possibly be so important to endanger the children and the cat? Then...ahhhhhh! I can relate! What a wonderful piece! It's so descriptive and your humor is very evident. I just read this outloud to my 14 year old son and he laughed so hard and said "Mom that sounds like you in the morning, except instead of one cat you get to dodge dogs!"

Lol I can't express enough how much I and my son thoroughly enjoyed this. I'm going to save it and rear it outloud tomorrow to my daughter (12) and see if it elicits the same response!