Charlene Cook

A Curiously Big Day in the Life of David Smalls

David looked wearily up from his soapy mop to glance at the large white traditional clock hung on the warehouse wall. 'Half-past seven,' he thought as he continued mopping. He pictured his bed and the anticipated sweet relief of his head hitting his pillow to sleep after a long nightshift. David had been working at the warehouse for nearly seven years. He found his job to be monotonous and repetitive, but it paid his bills. David had few friends of mention and no living relatives. His parents, who had lived about a kilometer away, had both passed away last year, his mother in June and his father in October. David was still in the process of dealing with their estate. David had already assessed that he would be lucky to see $20,000 after everything was said and done, to which he felt indifferent. His mother and father were not rich and had lived on a fixed, modest income. The grief of losing his parents was something David was no yet ready to face. He had bottled those emotions up and effectively buried them deep down to perhaps be dug up and examined at a later date. At almost 50 years old and after spending his entire life in a small town without any real job or relationship prospects, David considered himself relatively fortunate to have his health and the few friends he did. Depression had never been a concern of David's when his parents were alive. Lately, he felt a slight malaise—a sense of boredom that he had never really felt before.