ItsTheRoyalJester

Writers Jam 2025

Prompt: Anniversary

Word count not including prior: 2489

And Today

By T.R.Jester

           And so, I woke up.

 “Hello dear…” My dreary voice let out as it does every morning, but, unlike most mornings, the dear in question isn’t there. I take a deep breath, trying to remember where she could have gone this morning. “Shit…” I slide my hand down my face, nothing coming to mind. Great. Still no ideas.

The problem here is that this is the god knows what day in a row where nothing has changed. Every day I go to sleep, and wake up without the day changing, I’m stuck in a godamn time loop. No days forward, no days back. I’m guessing the blessed twists of fate put my wife hidden in my house somewhere, and I need to find her.

I head to the bathroom, not expecting to find her, but I might as well not piss myself while I do so. The bags under my eyes haven’t stopped showing up, which, you would think in a time loop I would have plenty of time to sleep, but my body disagrees. Same with my facial hair, all disheveled.

“Lookin’ good Victor…” I attempt to say without cringing at myself. I fail, but that’s not important. What is important is making sure she isn’t in here, so a quick check behind the curtain to find nothing but shreds of my sanity go down the drain. I go back to my-our room. Theres a bunch of clothes on the floor, as well as stuff that needs to be put in boxes and moved. I would do it, but being in a time loop and all, makes it feel pointless to clean, y’know? I tiptoe past all the clothes and belongings and go to the living room.

In terms of clutter, yeah, it’s not much better. The plates I need to clean can wait; she can be anywhere. I don’t know if she changes places every day, so I recheck some of the older spots, like behind cushions or in the jacket closet, but still, nothing. I lift every blanket on the couch, I try to actually put them up neatly, but eventually just toss them back. Some of our picture frames… They’re face down. Were they like that yesterday? When was yesterday actually… I reach out for one of them, but as I get close, there’s a knock on my door. I can’t. I don’t want to mess with the time flow of someone else, that or have to remember repeat conversations, it just sounds like a headache. I promise I will start talking to people again once I find her. The aggravation of all of this, I need food.

The dishes in the kitchen call my name like a siren from the bottom of the sink, but jokes on them. I have paper bowls and plastic spoons. I grab them as well as milk and cereal- I’m out of cereal. I grab oats and milk and put them in the microwave. The knocking gets louder. Someone is screaming something out there, but again, I’m not dealing with this. I just eat my oatmeal in peace and quiet. Well, as quiet it can be when someone is slamming on your front door.

 I-we don’t live in a large place, it’s a two-bedroom two-bathroom, so it’s time for the guest room. It’s the guest room until we have kids, anyway. Unlike the rest of the house, this one is pretty well put together. I don’t have much reason to go here besides looking for her, so I do my quick sweep. Closet? No. Under the blankets? No. Under the bed? Why would she be? Fucking great, another day in the paradise that is today. Might as well restart it all, maybe I’ll think of something in the next one.

And so, I woke up.

“Hello dear…” Another day, another same day. Is this loop a break? Some days it’s hard to find the effort to look. I go to the bathroom and look at myself again in the mirror. Why would I smile at this shmuck before me? What a fucking joke. I leave… but check behind the curtain again. Nope. Anything in the guest room? Let’s take a quick peak… and just my luck! she isn’t in there either.

Kitchen, I’m here. It’s break time- I quickly check under the table, and there it is! Nothing! Fucking hell, no. Today is a break day in the loop. I make more oatmeal. No reason to check if there is cereal this time, I remember now. I go to the living room and start eating. The knocks start again. The TV will drown it out. It’s a random sitcom; the main dude is trying to fill a hole in his heart. Get over it, everyone goes through some random hardship, at least you won’t have to deal with the same scenario over and over again… unless it’s a rerun. Oh god, am I in a rerun?

The knocking gets louder again. Instead, it… knocks on the windows. Huh, that’s new. I have the blinds down but still, it feels weird that there’s this break in the code. Somethings different about today. I get up, but I don’t make it far before I notice once again the picture frame face down. What are the chances she is under there? At this point it’s not impossible, maybe she was shrunk or something, I don’t know.

I lift up the picture frame, just a touch to see what’s under it. I look at what the picture is again…

I remember.

It’s the sky. Only a couple clouds, a tree providing shade on the happy couple enjoying its shade on a nice spring day. It was a picnic. We were sitting on a picnic blanket. God, I looked happy. So did she. Her hair was blowing in the breeze behind her, her long black curly hair like the storm that has my silver lining. Was it raining that day? Oh, no. I’m just crying.

Maybe I should have listened to my stupid self… Maybe I should just go to bed. Today was always a bust anyway.

And so, I woke up.

“Hello dear...”  How many times have I said that “today”? Fuck if I know. Alright, usual start. Today is the day I find her. I can’t keep living my life in a circle. Check the bathroom, behind the shower curtain, behind any crack I can find. I don’t bother looking in the mirror, he hasn’t changed. I can’t afford to care; I need to find her. One more “day” without her and I will go crazy, well, crazier than I already am. She will be here somewhere; or else.

Not in the bathroom? Fine enough, let’s check the other bathroom. Curtain, cracks, ignore the mirror, there is nothing for you there. I look in the kitchen, in every cupboard, in the dishwasher, in the oven, I don’t know what I would do if I found her in the oven, I just need to find her and have her here so I can break the loop.

Living room. Is she under the couch? under the entertainment center? behind the lamp? Nothing. Fuck. Fuck! I don’t have many other godamn rooms in this house for her to be in, and if she isn’t in the guest room, she’s gone, and I’m just stuck in this personal hell. I grab the lamp and smash it into the wall; the lampshade is a chaotic bend of wire that blocks the glass bulb from tearing up anything more than my hands. I don’t care if it hurts, I’m finding a sign. Every pillow I upturn is chucked against the wall, at this point im almost ready to throw the TV when my favorite thing in the whole world happens, that knocking.

“Go away! What do you want!?” I don’t care what happens to them anymore; there was nothing out there for me anyway. I might as well swing for the fences, right? And guess what? The knocking stops! Just for a couple of minutes, as I catch my breath from screaming as loud as I could. After just a sweet moment of peace, a couple of smaller knocks can be heard. They need to leave. I will make them.

I walk up to the door, unlock it, and pull it open to where the nob almost leaves an indent on my-our wall. “What do you wa- “The sun is blaring. I guess I haven’t looked at it in a while. My hands protect my eyes from the monstrous ball of vitamin-D as they adjust. When they do, I see Darel… My neighbor, a fifty something year old man that I used to hang out with. He has a deep brow, but even now I can see the horror in his eyes.

“Vic… What happened to ya buddy?” He slowly reaches towards me like a caged animal. I almost gnarl at him. He sees my hand is beat up. “Did you… You locked yourself up for like a week… the only reason I didn’t call the police is that I heard you tearing up your house every dang day.”

“E-every day? No… it was just today…”

“Well, Vic… You haven’t left the house in a week, and I have been hearing that commotion for about the same timespan…”

“A week? No, it… No, it couldn’t be.” He slowly puts his arm around me and walks me back inside. It’s all a mess; I can see him trying not to judge me. He winces at me with an award-winning “it will be ok” facade. He sees the picture frame turned over, the picture frame. My-our picture frame, I reach out for it before he pulls it back and looks at it. Even I can tell everything clicks for him.

“Now… I get it was the anniversary of when you and her… yknow…” I try to snatch the picture frame. He raises a hand in front of me with a finger held up like a stop sign. “But you have been rotting in here… When was the last time you left the house?”

“No, I… I’ve been stuck! I need to…”

“Let’s get you some food, on me. Just a burger or two.” He grabs my wrist before I have a chance to refuse and drags me out. My mailbox is full of magazines I have been meaning to cancel. The world outside… Once again, I see it. The sky is a little cloudy, like it could rain at any moment, but right now it’s not. The breeze is nice, I guess, but… I don’t know where she is.

“Hey… Darel, you said I was in there for a week?” He gets in his car, a small red one.

“Yeah, I didn’t know if you were busy or dead or what! I’ve been knocking and knocking, one more day and I would have barged in!” He pulls some bandages out of his glove box and fixes up my hand before driving down the road, taking glances at me. My hands are shaking like a fucking nervous wreck.

“It felt like longer… it felt like years.”

“Yep… That will happen. Days just start to blur together.”

“No, you don’t get it! Its… She was gone! I could have sworn she was just here!”

“It’s been a year… Man. You can’t do this to yourself. Here’s what’s going to happen. Ok? We are going to get you some actual food, I’m going over to your house to help you clean your shit up- “

“No. Darel, I can’t ask you to-“

“-And then we figure out how to get you some actual help.  Got it?”

“And what if today resets? What if I really am just stuck in a loop like-“

“Boy if you think your stuck in a loop I’ll bust down your door and then beat your ass till you see the north star, you understand me?” I mean fuck… I can’t exactly refuse, can I?  We get to some rundown burger joint me and her used to drive by when I would take her to work. I don’t think I ever went inside. Darel just sits me down at one of the booths, ordering us some of the greasiest slabs of meat I have ever seen. I try my best façade at not looking appalled when he just looks me down and says, “Eat ya damn food.”

“Okay! Okay…” If life wasn’t trying to kill me, this might… well hang on- ok, it’s a pretty damn good burger. That or the fact that I feel like I haven’t eaten anything besides cereal and-or oatmeal for what felt like a year. The burger is gone before it had a chance.

“Told ya!” He lets out a chuckle and takes a big bite of his burger. “Look, Victor… It’s been a year since you and her… parted… but you gotta start moving on, man, look tomorrow in the eye!” I can’t face him as he says this, I try, but the reality of what… happened… its setting in. “Hey! Eyes up here!” He snaps his fingers in my face.

“Ah! Fuck! I’m… I’m sorry, Darel. I feel stuck without her, and every time I think today's the day I’m going to find her, that something's going to change… it doesn’t.”

“Look, how about this, you can spend today resting or finishing whatever you are doing in your loop, and I come over tomorrow and I help ya clean, but only if you return the favor when you're out of your funk.” I try to laugh, and I do let out a little one, but anything that comes out of my mouth is overshadowed by his belly laugh as he slaps my back. I do put on my best impression of a smile, though! Its… well it’s something. The least I can do is give him a nod. He nods back and drives me back to our… My home.

And so, I wake up.

“Hello…” I turn to the empty spot next to me, but what’s the point in hoping something else will be there? I clean a path to the bathroom, picking up clothes and putting them in the bin. I look at myself in the bathroom mirror.

“God… I really do look like shit.” I take a deep breath. For the first time in whoever long, I try to look less like shit. After a quick shave, I give myself an attempt at a smile. “Looking… Fine… Victor.” The shower curtains… They call me once again. My instinct is to look behind… but maybe I should do some dishes. Especially if I’m getting company over. Today still feels like today, but it’s not as today as it felt. Fuck me, I need a drink. Or would that make it worse? Ehh, at least it’s something different. That’s all that matters, right?