A Day in the Life

On the morning of November 19th, 2006 John Wilson decided to kill himself.
He woke up to the cries of his six months old, Billy. He and his wife, Tabatha and little Billy
lived in a one-bedroom apartment in New York. John and Tabatha first met in College ten years
ago and got married shortly after college and moved to America. They lived in Delaware for a
while and finally settled in New York to fulfil John’s passion for writing.
John went out of his bed and went into the living room and looked around the apartment as he
always did. The apartment had not been washed or repaired in years. Tabatha keeps the
apartment as clean as she possibly could but it was the kind of place that always had a strange
smell and looked dirty. You could see cracks and paint coming off on almost every wall of
every room. The cracks and bad parts of the walls were covered with newspapers, which did it
no good. John had written many books some of which were hugely received like The white
lady, The Thunderstorm, and his most famous to date Monster. He had also written short
stories, essays, and poems. His writing didn’t make him a lot of money but his soul was
satisfied, until now. He was not able to put a single word on paper for more than three months
and the deals he had signed with the agents had canceled because of his constant missing of
deadlines.

Tabatha had a degree in Arts & Culture Management but had experience only of flipping
burgers and waiting tables. Since Tabatha and John got married too fast, she never had the
opportunity to do what she had always wished like going to Italy and Paris and experience their
rich culture. She now worked two jobs as a kindergarten teacher and a part-time waitress and
had a baby to take care of. Since John stayed home all the time, Billy stayed with him but he
wasn’t always a big help in looking after the baby. He would often forget to feed him or bathe
him. Tabatha was starting to get furious.

“When are you gonna write a little somethin’, huh? We have no food! Can’t you see?”
“You sit all day in your chair and all I see is a blank paper. When are you gonna make some
money for us?”
“John, what has happened to you? Why don’t you answer me, for God’s sake?”

John could never answer her. He didn’t know when he was going to get out of that writer’s
block and write something to support his family. He would get up, eat, sleep, eat, sit blankly
for hours, and then sleep again. He didn’t shower for days. He had lost all his energy and the
will to live and to see Tabby working so hard for the family made it even worse.
John used to go for walks daily to get his thoughts flowing even if there weren’t any. A little
walk around the block would always fill his head with thoughts. A few months earlier, John
had stopped going to his daily walks due to severe pain in his legs.

“Gosh, John! Go to a doctor for once!” Tabby yelled as John was having another one of his
episodes of extreme pain at 2 in the morning.

After a few weeks later, his legs started to swell up and the pain worsened.

“Aahhh!! What to go to a doctor for? …Huh? …They’re gonna charge hundreds of bucks and
give the same pills I’ve been taking for months.” John said while trying to gasp for air.
“Aaahhh…no need for a doctor…aaahhh!!!”
During one of the episodes, Tabatha forced John and took John to the hospital. He took some
tests and came home.

Huh, I’m in this tremendous pain, I can’t write right now. How can I think through this horrific
pain? I can’t even go to my walks anymore…I can’t think right now.

On the morning of November 19th, 2006 when John woke up, it was after months that he was
in no pain. His mind filled with all the things he could do now that he is better, but he had no
desire of doing them whatsoever, he was too tired. When he sat down to write, he still couldn’t
and now he didn’t have his pain to blame. He had nothing, but himself to blame. Suddenly, a
thought entered his mind and he started writing:

My love,
I need you to sit down for this.
My life had always been very difficult, very sad. I never had anyone whom I could call my own,
until the day I met you. You filled my life with love and colours and I could never repay your
debt. Today when it’s my chance to make you happy, I am unable to do it and no apology would
tell you how sorry I am. I don’t believe that I am worthy of you or little Billy or this life that
you have given me. You and Billy would be better off without me. Please take care of yourself
and little Billy. Now you have one less person to take care of.
It’s my time now.
Your love,
J.

John knew he didn’t write the letter with utmost love but he hadn’t felt that love in so long. He
hadn’t felt anything for a long time.
He put the letter in an envelope and marked it “Tabby” and put it in his drawer. It would be the
first thing that Tabby will search after she found him gone.
He went to the spare bedroom to do it. He didn’t want to do it in their bedroom because it
would make Tabby’s life miserable, being in that room everyday where her husband hung
himself. Just as he locked the door, he found a box named “Mr. & Mrs. Wilson” and some
hearts were drawn on it. He opened the box and he found pictures of him and Tabatha in
College, in parties, their wedding photos, photos of little Billy when he was born. John couldn’t
help but cry. He cried there for hours until he heard Tabatha’s voice. John hurried and put all
the pictures back in the box and as he was hiding the rope away, he heard some other voices
too. It was Jack and Ashley with their son, Marvin.

“What a great surprise!” said John, thinking about the rope tied in a noose in the spare
bedroom.
“Hey man! It’s been so long…you never call.”
“This is little Marvin…say hello Marvin” said Ashley, taking Marvin’s hand and waving it at
me.
“So what’s going on, man? What are you working on these days?”
John didn’t answer. John never answered.
“I bumped into them on the street. Isn’t it great?” Tabby said to me, giving me the look which
told me to be kind to them.
“You know who I ran into?...”
“John, I read your book. What was the nam…”
“So I got a promotion at…”
“Yeah, I started my company back in…”
Jack and Ashley started blabbering about their lives, their perfect lives, and Tabby and John
had nothing to blabber about. They just sat there in silence and listened to their stories but
Tabby was silent because she was kind enough and John, he didn’t want people to judge his
life anymore. Everything started going dark and blurry, he couldn’t hear anyone, see anyone
clearly, he was getting sweaty.
He was about to faint and then…trrrriiinngg. It was the phone.
John rushed to the phone, like it had just saved him, and took it to the other room.

“Mr. Wilson, this is Dr. Max”

“Hello Dr. Max, how are you?”
“I’m good John, thanks. John…”
“Yes doctor”
“I think you need to sit down for this…”

“We ran your tests and uhh…you have a bone tumor.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t hear you.” He could hear him. He heard him loud and clear, it was the
shock that didn’t make him believe what he had just heard.
“You have a bone tumor. Can you please come up to the hospital?”
“Hello?? Hello John? Are you there?”

John didn’t say anything for a while and then he hung up. He sat in silence with nothing in his
mind. He couldn’t process what had just happened. He could hear everyone from the living
room laughing and talking.

“John, come here, what are you doing back there?” Tabby called.

John came out in the living room and Tabby turned and looked at him.
The pictures John was looking at earlier was playing like a movie in front of his eyes. The first
time they met, the first time they kissed, all the times they laughed, and cried, all of it. It all
came running back to John because it was going to go away.
John’s life never shone so brightly than when he saw Tabby at that moment. He saw Billy
sitting over there playing with his chew toy. He had been caring for Billy for months, fed him,
bathe him but he hadn’t picked him up in so long, never played with him.
He walked over to Tabby and kissed her. He hadn’t kissed Tabby in months. He picked up his
baby and kissed him too. Tabby was astonished. She hadn’t seen John so happy.

“What happened to you?” Tabby laughed, almost surprised.

“I have to go to the hospital.”

John looked back at his house before leaving. The walls were still dirty and the paint was still
coming off and the furniture was still old, and Tabby, she was there.

On the way to the hospital, John thought about his day, how he almost threw everything away
just to see what his life holds for him.

“You still interested in that trip to France?” John called Tabby and asked her in a way that gave
him the rush that he had when he proposed to Tabby.
There was a happy voice on the other side of the phone.