Day One - Introducing Raya

Raya sat down on the floor and pulled out her stack of blankets, as she did in the early evening every day. She wanted to fluff them up and fold them neatly into a bed shape before it got too dark. They tried to keep the lights off as much as possible to save on electricity these days. As she layered the three that she used for her mattress, one on top of the other, a memory flashed through her mind of her glorious Queen sized bed that she left a few months ago. One of her favourite feelings ever was sliding in to a freshly made bed at night, with soft smooth cool sheets and a heavy down duvet pulled up over her. It was even better if she had just shaved her legs. Ahh. She smiled and sighed. What a turn of events her life had taken. It felt like a lifetime ago, really.

In a way, life now was better than ever, even though no one would believe that, seeing her makeshift bed on the floor of the living room and the way she added her winter coat some nights for the extra warmth. Her stomach growled with hunger and she got up to go check the kitchen to see if there was anything left from their supper tonight.

Raya had always found it invigorating to think outside the box and create things, and these days she found that challenge in cooking meals and trying new recipes. She actually loved the challenge of taking their $50 each week and finding a way to stretch it out enough to nourish them for the week. Maybe that was a strange thing to feel proud of, but these days she had to take what she could get, she acknowledged to herself with a smile.

She was actually glad for the quiet tonight. Most of her life she had fought with the temptation to isolate herself. But the truth remained that she loved time alone with her thoughts and without the hassle of making others happy or taking on whatever they were dealing with that day, whether it be good or bad.  She hummed as she ran a few inches of water in the sink to wash up their dishes from supper, finding comfort in the familiar routine, and glad that the water got nice and warm quickly.

Raya absently wondered how many plates she had washed by hand like this in her 30 years.  She remembered washing dishes in her childhood home in sunny Oklahoma, with the dry hot air coming in through the window, feeling almost claustrophobic from heat as the sweat dripped into her eyes. She even washed dishes in her college cafeteria a few semesters to help pay for her books. Now that was a tough job, she recalled with a head shake. She washed dishes that were precious and beautiful from their wedding, because she didn’t dare to load them into a dishwasher and damage any of the extravagant gold edges. And here she was, with two simple white plates that washed up in about 2 minutes if she took extra time wiping each one. She smiled and nodded her head, feeling glad for her simple life.