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Friday, October 16

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     Marcus slept in the next day, and didn’t wake up until after Jessie had left for school. I should appreciate the feeling of sleeping in on a weekday, he thought, but it’s too hard. I know I should be working right now. Instead I’m just gonna sit around all day and do nothing. He rubbed his temple as he got out of bed. The stress alone is gonna give me a headache. He wanted to immediately just head back down to his liquor cabinet and start the day by taking a load off. But he knew he couldn’t repeat what he did yesterday. Even if he still felt discouraged and borderline hopeless in his situation, Jessie was right last night that he at least felt less depressed than yesterday. If I don’t want to immediately get drunk as a way to solve my problem, then that’s a step in the right direction.

     He saw that he had a text from Jessie in his notifications, sent right around the time she normally left for her bus. “i know looking for a job is stressful, but at least u get to wake up whenever u want! maybe doing simple and easy stuff around the house would be better than looking for a job today. idk. just my thoughts. but that way u can still be active and get something accomplished which would be good for ur motivation 😊 either way, love u, hope u have a good day!” Marcus breathed in and out slowly, and couldn’t help but smile. Even if he didn’t feel like he’d be able to get through the next few weeks, or months, or however long it took for him to find another career at his new size, he was glad that he at least had Jessie by his side. I’ll love her more than she’ll ever know.

     He realized that she was right though. Smart for her age. Distracting myself for the next couple days would probably be good for me. I have some time. Especially with the disability payments. Yeah. I’ll be fine. After getting up and getting dressed, Marcus headed to the kitchen to make breakfast while watching the morning news. He thought about cleaning it as he was getting some eggs from the fridge, but at his reduced size, the counters came up to his eyes, so wiping them was one of the things around the house that took a bit more work. Why do I have to wipe them down? I don’t want to have the climb up on the counters and get down on my hands and knees just to scrub them. It was the only way he was able to safely reach the back of the counters near the wall, since his reach with his stools and ladders weren’t adequate enough. But he stopped his train of thought before dwelling on the negativity any further though. Me and Jessie didn’t clean it last night, so it needs to get done. Even if it’s a little bit harder, she's got practice til 5, so I have 7, maybe 8 hours until she gets home. Plenty of time to give the kitchen a good clean beyond just putting away food. Actually scrubbing the counters, sweeping the floor, organizing things around. Marcus had never been married, but he imagined that coming home to a clean, tidy kitchen was the kind of thing that the cook of the household would appreciate. And Marcus still cooked a lot, but Jessie had definitely taken up some of the slack ever since he started shrinking - it was just easier for her. Obviously Jessie was his daughter, not his wife, but maybe she’d still notice. It felt good to Marcus for someone to notice something he’d done without mentioning it, just like everyone feels. That’ll be my job for the day, he thought proudly. One step at a time.

*    *    *    *    *    *

     “Aw, it looks so good in here,” beamed Jessie as she shrugged off her backpack and gym bag on the kitchen table. Marcus grinned at her reaction. Exactly what she was hoping for. “I guess you got my message this morning, you never texted you love me back.” 

     Her dad chuckled nervously, giving her a side hug around her thigh. “Sorry, I’m not great at that kinda thing. I’m glad you noticed. You were right, it felt good to have a task to day for the day.”

     “Looks like we should think of something for you to do every day,” Jessie responded, heading to the pantry to pick out a snack to eat.

     “I don’t know if there’s really enough stuff to keep me occupied though. Like this,” he said, his arms out as he motioned around the kitchen, “took me almost an hour. But if I did something like vacuuming tomorrow, I’d be done in less than 15 minutes. I might need to get creative.”

     “That’s OK, I can help you be creative,” Jessie reassured him. “Tomorrow’s a Saturday anyways, so I’ll be home all day. Maybe you can help me with something instead and save the vacuuming for Monday. Like you could help me with homework, I never feel good about the essays I have to write for English.”

     “What about Sunday though?”

     Jessie sighed, but kept her smiling demeanor. “We’ll worry about Sunday when it’s Sunday, OK? We don’t even need to worry about tomorrow yet, it’s still today. And today, you did this,” she said, looking around the kitchen. Her phone buzzed, and she saw that her friend had texted her. “Anyways, I’m gonna go to my room, let me know if you need anything,” she said cheerily, then headed off to talk with her friend. Marcus stood there, and looked around the kitchen one last time. He still could hardly see the tops of the counters, but it looked good from where he was. He had been productive for the day, that was good. Now he just wondered what kind of work Jessie would suggest he do tomorrow.