Day 241

A loud knock at the door woke me from the best dream of my life.

Before I even have the chance to wipe the sleep from my eyes my family have let themselves into my apartment with the spare key they had cut for ‘emergencies’. Aunty Shirl, the skinny piece with her long straight sandy blonde hair is first through the door. Uncle Benny is next and boy is he loud, he never turns off, he is just that guy that is always on. Following shortly behind him is uncle Steve, he’s a giant prick but he’s pretty cool to have around. Mama Rose walks in and straight away starts telling me how I should redecorate my apartment and invite Feng Shui into my life.

My girlfriend Dalilah is still fast asleep while all this is going on, she and I were up all night watching movies with my buddy, Rick.

Uncle Steve has put the kettle on for some coffee, Aunty Shirl is on the phone rambling on to someone about a jackpot.

I try to calm the room and ask what everyone is doing in my apartment and they all scream in unison “We won $20,000!” How could they all have won? I think they’re crazy for a moment and I need a coffee to try to deal with all this hyped energy. I mean how early is it? It’s only…...oh okay, it’s actually 2pm.

Mama Rose is now coating her lips generously in bright red lipstick and powdering her nose “Sweetie, remember we all went in together on that quick pic? Well we had 5 of the main winning numbers and won Division 3. We won $20,000!! Get dolled up so we can take a group selfie and post it on Facebook. But make sure you take the photo from above so it doesn’t show my double chin.”

Aunty Shirl has now started cleaning up the mess from the night before. Even though I ask her not to, she is persistent and won’t rest until it’s done. Her beautiful hair flows from side to side as she sweeps across the kitchen floor. Uncle Steve could afford to look more excited, yet he just sits there by my window taking in the sunlight. Uncle Benny on the other hand hasn’t stopped singing like he’s doing a countdown of all the greatest number 1 singles, he must be really excited.

Rick decides to show up and all he wants to do is watch Netflix and tell everyone about the money. Mama Rose is now deep into her celebrity gossip spill, I swear she knows everything (well that’s what she thinks). Not long after she starts telling me how to declutter my life, uncle Benny hits us with a random headline, talking about the motorcyclist accident last night and now giving us the weather forecast for the rest of the week. I swear my family are a strange mob. But I love them, they’re always around for me when I need someone to talk to.

Suddenly the vibrations from my phone on the bathroom tiles find me sitting next to my bath tub, coffee in hand and well a little lost to be honest. It’s just my parents texting to let me know they’re going to give me a call on Zoom soon. I think I should try to get a journal entry in for today before they call me. I go to my desk by the window and pull out my little black notebook where I have been journaling everyday since going into lockdown.

Day 241 of living in COVID isolation. I am tired of staring at the blue walls around me, already I have counted all eight hundred and seventy four small tiles in my bathroom and given names to the geckos that come out at night.

I miss my friends, going out and enjoying the weekend with them. At this point I even miss my family, they all live interstate and I haven’t seen a single one of them since lockdown restrictions got tighter.

Look at that cactus on my windowsill, he’s so cute, I call him Steve. Actually throughout this pandemic I named a lot of things in my apartment. My broom is aunty Shirl, my radio is named Ben and my computer is Rick. There’s a women’s lifestyle magazine my mum left here ages ago, I think it’s called Roses. My bed, now she’s a beauty, my queen sized sealy sleeper covered with Egyptian Cotton sheets, the real expensive kind, I call her Dalilah.

Today I had the strangest sensation about money. Must be wishful thinking because I sit here in my orange overalls I bought a year ago, haven’t had the luxury of shopping or even being able to afford anything new since I got laid off. Thank Thor for my parents still paying my rent.

I ordered a meal to be delivered for this evening, I put on my mask to go outside this apartment for the first time in a week.

My phone buzzes again, my takeaway is outside. I leave my little black book back on the desk and go to meet my food in the lobby. Hopefully he just leaves the food on the bench or he may be able to smell that I haven’t showered in 4 days.