The Balcony

Chapter 2

1) 1.5 litres of milk

2) Cheese packet

3) Bread – One loaf

4) Frozen cut vegetables

5) Rice – 2 kgs

6) ...

She thought to herself, "Ugh...I don't have enough ink left to write Pens – 1 packet."

As the cab lurched to a stop, she looked up to see her apartment building. She had been working on a to-do list for work, calling her mum to catch up on the news, checking up on all the news her friends had to offer through messages and then working on the groceries list when her pen ran out on her. Sticky notes were her best friend since she started working five years back. They helped her remain organized and up to date with everything.

She had had a particularly long day at work. She paid the driver and walked up the stairs staring at the note wondering what else was needed to be added. She opened the door to her house and dropped her laptop bag on the sofa. She grabbed a pen from the desk and wrote out the remaining items on her list. She tacked up the note on her fridge and turned around to the one place that always made her happy. She had bought this house in Mumbai for this very reason: The balcony.

She walked up to the balcony and stared at the view from her tenth floor apartment. There wasn't much to see at eye level: just buildings and traffic. However, eye-level was never what she aimed for. In life or for this balcony. She looked up and saw the sky. The big, beautiful dark sky with stars twinkling back at her. She smiled and hugged herself through a cold breeze. Nothing was better than this, she decided as she pulled her bean bag and plopped herself on it. She pulled on the blanket that lay on top of it and continued her silent conversation with the sky. She was just about to doze off for a small nap before dinner when she heard a ridiculously loud sound above her head. She slid off the bean bag in shock and landed on the cold floor.

With her hands on the floor, she looked up at the ceiling of the balcony upstairs and scowled. The noise continued. She tried to focus on it to decipher what it was but that was all she could make out: NOISE.

She got to her feet and marched up to her desk in a huff. She pulled open her drawer and took out a notepad. She scrawled "UM NOISE!" and crumpled the paper into a ball and marched right back into the balcony. She reached the railing, took aim and lobbed the balled up paper into the balcony above. It fell right back on her face. She shook her head, picked up a smiley stress ball from the corner of her balcony, wrapped the ball in the paper and threw it back. It landed in the balcony above and she whooped at her success. She settled back into her seat. The noise stopped and she felt relief especially for her ears. Just as she was about to stretch her muscles, the ball whacked her on the head. She yelped and fell off her seat again. How many times was she going to fall down from the same place in one day? She grumbled, pulled the ball to herself and unwrapped the paper.

It said, "UM MUSIC!"