Mr. Blaah got up sluggishly from his bed. He did not want to wake up. He put on his old slippers and his oversized bathrobe and staggered like a drunken man in a dark alley. He almost fell down, but he used the little energy he had to hold on to the sink in the bathroom. He peed and then switched on the lights. He did not like the guy in the mirror. He tried to smile, or at least pretend, but he could not. He brushed his teeth and washed his face, yet still felt tired and decided to go back to bed. Immediately, he fell back to sleep as if he had never woken up.
Mrs. Sunshine was already up. With her cheerful pudgy face and her floral spring dress, the soft smell of jasmine soap from her morning shower wafted around her. She was hugging the warm clothes she had just collected from the clothesline in the garden, and, with a big happy smile, she buried her nose in the fragrance of their freshness. Mrs. Sunshine danced her way to the house, laid the clothes down on the big sofa, and started sorting them while absentmindedly humming the tune of an old song.
Mr Blaah stirred in his sleep. Light was filtering through the slits of the window shutters drawing thin lines on the wall. Images, smells, and sounds started coming slowly into focus.
Mrs. Sunshine went into the kitchen to prepare breakfast. In a few minutes, the smells of brewing coffee, orange juice, fried eggs, and the dried mint leaves in the big sieve filled the air with a familiar aroma. The smells started drifting off from the kitchen and into the house, spreading the morning warmth.
In his dream, Mr. Blaah smiled, twitched his nose, and licked his lips. His face lit up. The wrinkles in his old face quivered happily. Lazily, he opened his eyes, sat up straight, and looked around for the pudgy face of Mrs. Sunshine. He tried to follow the beautiful odor hanging in the air, but saw nothing.
Then, a familiar birdsong was heard coming from the garden. A series of different tunes came one after the other. Mr. Blaah knew the trick and wanted to be sure that it was the one bird with many tunes. Looking out over the garden, he saw his favorite elegant blackbird. Happy faces of people he loved passed through his head. He smiled and sent them a mental kiss, then went to prepare his morning coffee.
