WRITING //Baskerville Hound

My coat hadn't buttoned since this morning. I rubbed the buttons in my fingers as hard as I could, but they wouldn't fit. Finally, I got so angry that I yanked the button forward and it came away from the soft coat with a pop. It felt like I had torn something vital from me along with it. Angry, I shoved the button into my pocket and headed outside. 

There was the smell of cigarettes in the elevator. The man I had just recently come to loathe was smoking in the cabin, occasionally pressing buttons, like a pushbutton man. I tried to look away from him, but it was barely possible. When he finally pressed the first floor I needed, I waited for the doors to open in front of me and jumped out onto the ground along with the smoke that had gathered in the cabin. I stepped out into the street. The sun immediately shone brightly in my eyes. Right in front of me, I saw a woman who lived one floor above me. She was wearing high-heeled shoes. Quite a vulgar design. She had a dog on a leash, a totally unknown breed to me. The dog looked as if it had been purposely sculpted so horribly that everyone on the street would focus on it. The woman waved at me, her lips stretched slightly in a kind smile. I nodded to her, though I didn't even know her name. I walked down the steps and headed toward the store. The dog yowled after me.

There were children playing in the playground on the way to the store. They were laughing loudly, and the sound of it gave me a headache. The place was full of people. Adults and children wandered aimlessly around the yard, playing children's games. I rolled my eyes involuntarily, wrapping myself even tighter in my coat. Suddenly, I was drenched like a garbage bucket: the world around me was completely insane. Human children and adults were walking in a completely different direction from where I was supposed to be walking. On their own. Choosing their own way. Not because they should have, but because they chose to. 

I was totally revolted watching parents playing silly games with their children. How they laughed when they needed each other and got upset if someone was apathetic to them. 

I walked into the store, where a never-ending line was going on between the counters. As I peeked into the cash register, I saw a notice about how much a ticket to the sky cost. In yellow and white. And next to it, an ad saying that kielbasa had become more expensive.

I sighed in frustration and went into the back of the store, taking bread, bologna, cheese, and milk, and stood in the endless line. When I filled my pockets with bread and meat, which made my heart ache because the realization that I spent my money on it hit, I thought about how stupid, ridiculous, and completely inconsequential my future was. But I felt even sillier after I went outside. It was incredibly hot and stuffy, but people were happy. They didn't even notice the heat that was surrounding them. Even the children, dressed in the clothes of the same cotton cloths and wrapped in some incomprehensible bright rags, were light and lively.

When I got home, I had to take a shower to wash away all the heavy, incomprehensible, disgusting, and unbearable stuff. When I got out of the shower, I sliced the bread, cheese, and sausage I had bought and began to eat them. The sun was still shining through the window behind me, which I did not like, but there was not much I could do about it. As I listened into the silence, I heard the soft sounds of a piano playing. The woman in terrible heels plays the piano almost every day. I ate my sandwich and heard her deftly driving her fingers over the keys while her hideous shoes pressed against the pedal feet. It seemed like she was playing just for me. I looked deep into my miserable one-bedroom apartment and listened to the sound of her sophisticated music, which seemed to mock me. And if that wasn't enough, I soon heard the same ugly dog open its mouth and howl, singing along to its mistress in an ugly unison.