Chapter 1: An Ordinary Life

His dreams were where he felt the most comfortable. They were vibrantly coloured, and adventurously nostalgic, filled with old memories, and memories that he was yet to experience. Sometimes his dreams were absurd, out of this world, in a made-up land, and at other times he walked through abstract places and cities that were somewhat familiar. It was always disappointing when they were cut off and broken by the obnoxious sound of his alarm clock.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

 Jacob opened his eyes and looked up at the blurred roof of his bedroom. The alarm clock continued to scream unchecked. He considered snoozing his alarm and closing his eyes for another ten minutes – but he knew he wouldn’t return to the same dream. He never did. Instead he rolled over lethargically and switched it off. It was a relief, but not as much of a relief as it would have been if he could just sink back into the mattress. With quite some effort, he slipped out from under the covers of his doona, and tottered into the bathroom to splash his face down with some cool water. It didn’t wake him up.

His coffee, however, did help to wash away the strong sagging feeling that had settled over his eyes.  And as he sipped on his black instant coffee, and nibbled his jam covered toast; he cast his mind back upon the dream he’d been having.

There had been stars that twinkled like faraway candles in the night sky. He had felt the cool breeze brush against his skin and whisper untold secrets into his ears. Secrets of love. He remembered the feeling of the grass against his back and skin, giving him a pleasant itch. In front of him there was a city. Alive and glowing magnificently – the buildings stood out against the dark blue night sky. He heard the gentle lapping of waves – and felt the light spray of sea foam against his legs. It was peaceful, calming, relaxing. Then he had heard the voice of a girl singing. It was soft. And the notes were dazzling. He turned, catching a glimpse of a female figure laying next to him in the shadows of the night. She had blonde hair, and blue eyes that shone like lights. And then – BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.

That had been when his alarm had woken him. Jacob took another bite of toast. He hated when he woke before his dream ended. Especially the good dreams. His ordinary life seemed black and white in comparison. It wasn’t as though he hated his life. Actually, there was very little for him to complain about. His job was good, he had decent friends, his parents cared for him, and he could, only just, afford a one bedroom place in the city. But there was something missing, something that he felt belonged in his life that hadn’t yet come. Or maybe he was just sick of the same routines every day, every week, every month and every year. Since he’d left university -nothing had really changed. But even university hadn’t been too exciting. Sure, he’d grown up in a small Victorian town – and moving to the city had been a big change. But it hadn’t taken too long before things felt ordinary again.

Soon he began to get dressed. Jacob buckled his pants and slipped on his blazer. He wrapped his tie around his neck and formed a beautiful Windsor knot. His face shone clearly in the reflection of the mirror above the sink – his long nose, hazel eyes and straight black hair. He was almost classically handsome, but his face was so symmetrical that it was really quite boring.

The air outside was cool, almost frosty. The sound of the Melbourne traffic greeted him with loud revving engines, the screeching sound of tram wheels upon the metal tracks, and honking horns in the distance. The sun was out, shining brilliantly in the blue sky, and glistening upon the windows of the buildings around him. A breeze brushed over him, causing his scarf to flap about, and tumbling the golden Autumn leaves of late May along the pavement in its wake.

Many people traversed the sidewalk – mostly commuters on their way to work. Every single one of them like him. Ordinary. He already felt ordinary but they made him feel even more ordinary. His trousers, his tie, his commute. A thousand people, if not more, he passed in a day, and every single one of them were just like him. Ordinary.

His short walk was convenient, yet not really that satisfying. The only interesting part about it was stopping at his favourite café just off Elizabeth street; a cosy little place with a que almost out the door. He walked out with his order in less than five minutes – a soy latte and a croissant. He couldn’t go to work without secondsies (what he called it). He had barely finished his second breakfast before he approached a large building in the Melbourne CBD. Jacob walked into the lobby and buzzed his card against the gate which swung open to let him in and swung shut behind him. He approached the lift doors, and waited a moment for them to open, before stepping inside. The lift ascended slowly, and grinded to a halt at the eighth floor before opening with a clunky thud and letting him out into his office.

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‘Morning Jake.’

‘Morning,’ Jacob replied, dumping his bag under his desk and booting up his desktop computer.

A tall, lanky, blonde haired guy in formal attire leant against Jacob’s desk, flicking his hair back from over his blue eyes.

‘Still on for poker tonight? The boys won’t be happy if you bail on us.’

Jacob rose an eyebrow.

‘Why would I say no to free cash. Doesn’t take much skill to clean you guys up,’ Jacob winked.

Thomas, the blonde-haired guy, smirked, and slapped Jacob on the back.

‘Keep dreaming. You fluked it last time’ he said turning and walking off, ‘oh, and don’t bring your Mrs. It’s just the boys tonight.’

‘Don’t have a Mrs, Thomas’ Jacob called out after him without even looking back from his desktop. Yep. Don’t have a Mrs, he thought to himself.

Thomas was a jokester. He was always smiling, and he loved to stir people up – but he meant well. Thomas was always going on about how they should be pulling more pranks at work. One July, a few years back, Jacob had mentioned casually that he’d claimed a few a hundred dollars on tax and put it down as ‘miscellaneous’. Jacob had told his friends that it was for all the money he’d spent on pens and stationary at  work. Nobody really cared, but he would definitely have been in trouble had they requested an audit.  The next day Thomas had switched his phone to private and called Jacob up from the tea room. Thomas put on a high pitched, nasal voice, and a bad American accent, claiming to be a representative from the Australian Tax Office. Jacob’s heart had skipped a beat, and he began to freeze up and panic; that was until the other boys broke and began laughing in the background. Then he had clued in, it was just Thomas pulling a prank. As frightened as he had been when the call had been made, he couldn’t deny that Thomas’ jokes lightened the workplace. The managers knew it too – it was probably why he hadn’t been fired.

It wasn’t just that, though. If it wasn’t for Thomas, then Jacob probably wouldn’t have many work friends. Jacob usually preferred to keep to himself – but Thomas was overly social and made sure that he came along to things.

It took Jacob’s computer a while to load up. When it did, several windows popped into existence around the desktop. He quickly opened his emails, and realised they’d been flooded, so he collapsed the window and decided to make a cup of coffee instead. Three before ten. That was his saying.

The clock kept ticking. Jacob continued to type away. Nothing really interesting ever happened at work; everyone and everything was so formal. At 12:30pm, Jacob began munching on a peanut butter sandwich. At 1:30 his phone buzzed. It was Thomas, sending a picture to a group chat titled ‘Da Boyz’, of a guy sleeping on his desk next to a half drunken cup of coffee. Daniel was always falling asleep on his lunch break – and Thomas was always paying out on him for it. It wasn’t his fault. He was Italian. He was used to having a siesta every day. Jacob was the only one who really understood that, his grandparents had come to Australia on a boat from Malta, which was a country in the mediterranean sea, with a culture very similar to that of Italy.

Things were boring and mundane at work, but they had been a bit less boring, and a bit less mundane when his friends had worked in the same department as him. They still worked at the same company – but things changed regularly, people got promoted and moved around. The team that he worked with now were all middle-aged ladies with a dry sense of humour.

‘Do you have those reports ready?’ a brunette haired lady popped her head over the side of Jacob’s cubicle and interrupting his thoughts.

‘I..ah…yeah. Kind of!’

Jacob began clicking his mouse frantically, trying to bring the half-edited reports up on his computer screen.

‘Don’t worry. Just get it finished by the end of the day.’

Jacob nodded. Great. Another thing to add to the overwhelming list of things to get done.

At 3pm he got a message from his mother.

Were you still planning to come and visit next weekend? Let me know if you want to stay the night. Love you xxx.

He would reply later.

Between 3pm and 5pm, the only sounds he could hear around him was the ticking of the clock on the wall and the monotonous sounds of fingers tapping against keyboards. Occasionally someone would say something about an email they’d sent or a phone call that they had to make, but there really wasn’t anything too exciting going on. Eventually, as the sun was beginning to set, he zipped up his bag and stood up to leave.

‘Bye Jane. See you Tracey,’ Jacob called as he turned around and began to head towards the lift, ‘have a good evening!’

‘See you Jacob.’

‘Did you edit those reports Jacob?’ a voice called out behind him.

Jacob turned and smiled.

‘See you tomorrow Martha,’ he said cheerfully, and continued into the hallway and down towards the lift. He would definitely pay for that.

Jacob’s morning thoughts seem to intrude back into his head. Indeed, his life wasn’t bad – but it was quite mundane and boring.

Jacob approached the lift. The down arrow lit up brightly when he pressed it. After a few moments waiting, there was a dinging sound and the thick steel double doors of the lift grinded open. And time seemed to slow down. Inside the lift was a young girl with long blonde curls, a fringe cut, and a scarlet ribbon tied into her hair. Her eyes were sky blue, and her lips were red like a rose. Suddenly Jacob’s life didn’t seem so mundane at all, suddenly it seemed interesting.