Ahava woke up as the light slowly increased through the window in the bathroom. The bathroom was adjacent to the bedroom, and the window allowed the early morning light to shine directly onto the bed, where Ahava’s head lay. As Ahava slowly gained consciousness, thoughts of what he would do today slowly ran through his waking mind. Originally, his family had planned to have a day out, taking the time to go walking around some of the waterfalls nearby. The walk had been planned because his son Chris was home, on leave from the army, and as this was Chris’s last full day with them before flying back to his base. The noise from the rain outside indicated that the possibility of getting soaked during the up-and-coming walk was high.
As Ahava lay in bed, listening to the rain, he re-considered the plans for the day, considering what to do instead. He checked his computer tablet, an old device with a small crack across the screen, for the weather report. The screen lit up showing a Google weather report with an icon of a storm cloud for the day, and for the next week. This spring in Perth had been cold and rainy for Western Australia. Around this time Ahava’s wife, Kate, had also woken up. She was glancing at her phone, a sleek new model as she had just lost her phone a few weeks prior.
Ahava looked over at Kate. “It’s raining outside, so I think it’s best if we cancel the plans for the walk. As I have some work to do, I might as well go into the office today.”
Ahava worked as an engineer in the drilling industry and, due to a recent downturn, he was working whenever there was work available. This week he had been at home and his family had been off doing activities together. This unfortunately meant that Ahava had already had had a couple of days off this week and there was a bit of outstanding work in the office to be done for a client.
Kate blinked rapidly as she yawned, clearing her eyes and looking over.
“That will be ok; after all, it is raining today. I can take the time to prepare the house for the board games event this evening.”
Kate had been planning a games night for some time, inviting several other families that Ahava knew.
Ahava thought for a moment. “OK then, I’ll go into the office, but I may come back early in the afternoon as I do not have much work to do,” he decided.
It was about five thirty in the morning, and as Ahava did not normally start getting up for work until some time after six o’clock, he tried to go back to sleep. Upon finding that he was not able to sleep, he sat back up and chatted to Kate about what was on her Facebook feed that day. While Ahava had his own Facebook account, he only used it for news and keeping in contact with a few family members. This meant that he largely relied on Kate for updates about the wider circle of family and friends that both he and Kate had made over their twenty-seven years of marriage. The anniversary was last month, though they were still deciding what to do to celebrate it properly.
Their marriage was a happy one, with four children. Now, only their youngest son Sam was still living at home. He was in his second to last year of the local high school. Their oldest son, Dave, had got married last December to a daughter of one of their family friends, Mary, and was living in another suburb in Perth, only a short drive away. He also worked in the same small engineering consultancy as Ahava in Perth’s city business district. Bill, the second eldest, was living abroad and the third child, Chris was currently staying with them after finally getting leave. He had been in the army for about nine months and had just finished his training in the infantry.
After another short attempt at snoozing, Ahava got up from the queen size bed and walked into the en-suite bathroom. Getting undressed for a shower, Ahava examined at his upper body in the bathroom cabinet mirror. He recently had lost a lot of weight but still was significantly overweight. Ahava was in his late forties and had suffered from being overweight throughout his adult life. His hair was in a short style and since the last decade had been white and gray, showing his age early. He had broad shoulders and was around average height. Generally, he was not a fit or active person, and even had had some significant health issues over the last couple of decades that he had lived in Australia.
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