One Good Day

Luka was startled awake by the sound of glass breaking, but when he opened his eyes all he saw was his Mom standing next to his bed. She smiles warmly,

“Good morning sweetheart, I hope you slept well!” She says, her golden brown eyes lighting up. “It’s time to get up now honey. Today’s Saturday, we have to run and grab groceries, remember?” Luka nods his head in understanding.

With that she leaves Luka’s bedroom, leaving him to get up slowly. When he looks out his window he sees the bright blue sky and the bustling city.

“Today is going to be a good day” Luka mutters to himself.

“I wouldn’t be too hopeful” a quiet voice responds.

“Who’s there? Where are you?” Luka quickly scans his room, but only sees his bookshelves and dresser.

“Come to the mirror” the voice answered. Luka hurriedly throws off his warm blankets and runs over to his mirror, trying his best not to trip over the mess of books he was supposed to put away before bed. Once in front of the mirror Luka only sees himself with his shaggy dirty blond hair, light blue eyes and… bruises?

“Wait where did these come from?” He mutters to the purple, yellow and green bruises which could be seen where his pajama t-shirt ended. They littered his thin arms like stars in the night sky.

“Come on,” a figure responded poking its head out from behind Luka’s shoulder as he’s looking in the mirror. Luka turns in surprise, leaving him more surprised when the shadow is actually behind him. “You know where they came from” the figure states. The figure was about the same height as Luka, it looked as though a shadow had come off the ground, it had thin arms which ended in even thinner fingers, thin legs and it was just dark.

“W-who are you?” Luka manages to stammer, alarmed by this thing that had no facial features accept a mouth.

“You can just call me Ombre. Don’t worry I won’t hurt ya!” Ombre gives a small wave and a toothy smile.

“What are you-” Before Luka can finish his sentence he hears his Mom yell,

“Luka are you up? Did you fall asleep again?”

“N-no, I’m just getting dressed.” He calls back. Luka looks back at ‘Ombre’, who just shoos him to go get dressed. So Luka rushes to get changed, grabbing a purple t-shirt and a pair of new shorts.

“Wait is that what you’re going to wear?” Ombre asks confused, but Luka is in too much of a rush that he decides to just ignore Ombre’s question. Luka leaves his room to be greeted by their abundance of family photos of the vacations they’ve been on. The wall is filled with their smiles and happy memories.

“What? Where did these come from?” Ombre asks, even more confused then before.

“They are from our family trips, we put all our photos from them here!” Luka responds motioning to the rest of the hallway.

“There you are!” Luka’s Mom chimes, pouring a bowl of chicken noodle soup, “You better come get some soup before your Dad eats it all!” Luka runs over to their neatly made kitchen table where his Dad was sitting. His Dad was dressed nicely, wearing a nice white button up shirt and a blue tie. He was busy drinking his coffee and reading the paper, but once Luka sat down his Dad gave him a soft smile, and his Mom set down his bowl of soup. Luka started scarfing down his meal, meanwhile Ombre seems lost in a daze.

“It’s so… so…” they pause for a minute, lost for words, “This place is just so clean.” They manage to say at last. Luka had been so distracted by his Mom’s soup, which was his favorite, that he forgot to introduce Ombre to his Mom and Dad. It was only then he realized that neither of them seemed to even notice Ombre, nor their conversations, nor Luka’s bruises. Luka’s Dad then sets down his paper,

“Good morning kiddo!” he says grinning ear to ear, “Why don’t you and your Mom finish getting ready while I go say good morning to Mr. Tucker?” He gets up and grabs his old brown hat off the coat hanger.

“Okay, see you in a minute Dad!” Luka responds happily as his Dad heads out the door.

“I guess I should go grab my purse and coat then now, shouldn’t I?” Luka’s Mom asks as she exits the kitchen. Luka looks back at Ombre, they seemed to be deep in thought as they looked around the apartment.

“What’s up Ombre, is something wrong?” Luka asked hesitantly.

“I think I know what’s going on now, I should have noticed sooner.” Ombre mutters, not really paying attention to Luka.

“Ombre you sure say some funny things, what are you even talking about?” Luka asks concerned. Startled Ombre says,

“Huh? Oh it’s nothing, I was just thinking out loud.” Luka’s Mom comes back, her pretty blue coat on and silver purse in hand,

“Let’s not keep your Dad waiting!” With that they all head out the door and down the stairs to the lobby.

“You guys ready?” Luka’s Dad asks holding the door open for Luka and his Mom to leave. “Yup, we are good to go!” Luka chirps practically skipping out onto the sidewalk with Ombre trailing behind. It was a busy Saturday, people were out walking their dogs, cars drove by at a steady pace, and shops had people going in and out. Today is a good day. Luka and his family crossed the street and walked into the local general store,

“I’ll go grab the ground beef, eggs and milk” Luka’s Dad says making his way to the right side of the store.

“Okay, that just leaves us to grab the cereal, bread, lettuce and cucumbers.” Luka’s Mom states heading to the left side. “Luka why don’t you pick a cereal you want while I grab the bread?”

“Really! Any cereal!” He shouts excitedly. “I’m going to pick Lucky Charms!” He shouts as he passes his Mom to run to the cereal aisle. Luka stops once he’s in front of the Lucky Charms, grabbing a box with a big smile placed on his face. Ombre slowly walks up beside Luka,

“I haven’t had these in forever.” They say looking down at the box in Luka’s hand,

“They are the best! Mom only lets me get them every once and a while, so I made sure to grab the biggest box!” With that the two go to meet Luka’s Mom by the produce section, she already had everything else by the time they found her.

“Luka, will you run and grab me five of those apples over there please? I forgot that I needed some apples for the apple pie I was going to make.”

“Sure thing Mom!” he replied heading off towards the apples. As Luka got to the bin where the apples were he saw two of the employees looking at him with sad eyes,

“That’s him right? I feel so bad, how could anyone do that?” He overheard one of them say,

“I know, I just wish there was something we could do for the poor kid.” The other responded. Luka had no idea what these people were talking about, but he suddenly felt as if the world was spinning.

“Hey, be careful you might drop the apples.” Ombre says quietly while stepping in front of Luka’s line of sight to the two workers, “Let’s just hurry up, Mom and …Dad are waiting for us at the till.” They finish off. Luka looks towards the till and sees his them getting in line, so he quickly runs over. As Luka tries to figure out what those two workers were talking about his Dad pays for the groceries. Luka’s Mom then asks,

“Here, Luka, could you carry this for me please?” She says handing him the bag that had the eggs, ground beef, cucumbers and his Lucky Charms in it.

“Sure” he mutters, still confused by what happened earlier, but neither of his parents seemed to notice.

They make their way back to their apartment building, the air seeming to get colder the closer they got. Once inside they head up the stairs, they are only on the second floor but the grocery bag seems to get heavier with each step.

“We are almost at the top, think of the Lucky Charms.” Ombre says trying to be reassuring. They walk up to their door and Luka’s Mom and Dad walk in after unlocking the door. As Luka goes to walk through he trips on the door frame and spills everything on the floor, eggs cracking everywhere.

“Oh no. Now we’ve done it.” Ombre says, their voice shaking.

“I- I’m so sorry!” Luka says tears filling his eyes, he looks up to his parents and instantly wishes he hadn’t. His Mom looks scared, her golden brown eyes seem dim and sunken, her hair looks ratty and she looks unhealthily thin. His Dad is no longer well dressed, cheery and clean, he now has an old stained t-shirt on, an unkept stubbly beard and rage filled glossy eyes that don’t seem to fully focus. Luka closes his eyes in fear, then he hears a glass break.

Luka opens his eyes, and hears in the next room over,

“Luka! Luka, get your ass out here when I call for you!” It's dark and the wind can be heard from outside. Luka quickly throws of his thin sheet, heading out of the empty box he calls a bedroom. Once in the hall the smell of alcohol and cigarettes overtakes his senses, dirty clothes and garbage covers the otherwise bare hallway floor.

“Luka!” the man, who Luka no longer considers a father, screams out again from their living room. Luka rushes to get over to the couch, dodging piles of beer cans, clothes and rotten food containers.

“What took you so damn long, brat? I need you to go and grab some snacks from the store, take this and go.” He then throws a twenty dollar bill at Luka, making him flinch slightly, and shoos him away. “And you better be quick this time dammit.” His dad slurs, barely keeping his eyes open, he is drunk again. Luka picks up the money and scurries to his room to grab his hoodie. Luka’s room has nothing but his bed, a mirror and a small closet where he keeps all of his clothes. Luka looks at his reflection in the mirror, he is thin, pale and the ugly bruises on his arms vary from deep purple to dark yellow and some seasick green colour.

“Guess I was right, today isn’t all that good.” Ombre appears beside Luka.

“What do you want? Please tell me you’ve come to tell me this is all a dream too, I’d much prefer the other dream.” Luka says sadly as he puts his hoodie on, looking away from the mirror. “Dream? This? This would be a nightmare don’t lie to yourself. And no, sadly, this one is real.” Ombre says looking away.

“Great.” Luka says sarcastically. With that Luka heads out of his room, dodging the angry shouts from his ‘Dad’ about taking too long. Luka slips out of his apartment and heads down the stairs. As Luka gets down to the lobby he finally sees how badly it’s raining outside, you can barely see two feet in front of the glass doors.

“Better put up your hood, it’s better than nothing.” Ombre says as they head towards the door. Luka throws his hood on and runs outside, the wind seems to go through him. He runs across the bare streets to the general store and then crashes through the doors of the store, making the chimes go abruptly. The person at the till looks over and gives a weak greeting. Luka gives a small nod and heads over to the chip aisle, with Ombre in toe. He grabs a handful of bags and goes to leave when he overhears some employees at the front,

“It was him wasn’t it? How could that man send his own son out in this weather?”

“I feel so bad. I wish I could help him and his Mom, she works almost everyday doesn’t she?” Luka hated the fact that everyone in town knew what kind of person his Dad was, he could never escape all the pitiful looks.

“We should hurry, he’ll be really mad if we are any later.” Ombre says , snapping Luka out of his trance. He rounded the corner, paid and prepared to leave. Luka stepped outside and just before he was about to run across the road Ombre shouts,

“Luka, look out!” Luka falls back, startled, as a car speeds past him going well above the speed limit. Luka starts shaking, “You need to pay more attention!” Ombre says kneeling by him, “We really need to hurry now.” Luka quickly picks up his bag, looked both ways and then ran across the street. Once inside Luka realised how soaked he was, he is probably going to get a cold. He rushes upstairs, his legs still shaking from his near run in with a car, Luka opens the front door of the apartment and is greeted by his Dad cursing at the tv. There was some football game on, he probably made some bet and lost. His Dad turned to Luka and starts yelling at him, “Where the hell were you? What took you so damn long?” “I-I” Luka tries to say that the rain was really bad and that he was almost hit by a car, but he’s cut off. “You were off fucking around weren’t you?!” His Dad screams and starts heading towards him. Luka knows that there is no explaining anything when he’s like this and just tries to get as much distance from him by backing into the front door with one last glance at Ombre. Today was not a good day.