Daybreak Tales Intro | Check Your Pridyider
Daybreak Tales
Philippine copyright © 2020 by Shei
Facebook: Daybreak Tales
Medium: Daybreak Tales
Graphics & Artwork by Jay Bongat
rebyuhanngbayan19@gmail.com
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author, addressed “Attention: Author Coordination,” at the indicated e-mail address above.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
First published July 2020
Quarantine edition
INTRODUCTION
Hi, I am Shei. I am not a fan of introductions simply because I’ve done it multiple times in my life — may it be on the first day of school, group meet-ups, dull conferences, meetings, college entrance exams, scholarship grants, job interviews, and hmm, ok… boring dates. We even introduce ourselves on social media by trying to put cringe-worthy self-supporting statements on our bio because why not? It makes us feel better about ourselves. And maybe some of you even use impactful quotes on dating apps or wherever online to catch an eye. I hate trying to open myself to a stranger or a reader, but yeah, I get it, in certain circumstances, you must — like now.
So, hi, I am Shei! I am writing an anthology of short stories and hopefully relatable anecdotes I could think of when I can’t sleep, brought to you by ECQ/GCQ/MECQ/MGCQ, or whatever form of community quarantine there is.
This is Daybreak Tales.
P.S. Any grammatical mistake correction would be appreciated.
P.P.S Yeah, I had to put that in writing too, you grammar Nazis!
This is for the dreamers dealing with quarter-life crisis,
for the people affected by today’s recession,
for those who can’t sleep at night,
for the rare Aquarians and fellow astrophiles,
and for friends who keep in touch.
xoxo,
shei
I can’t believe I’m writing this.
SOME ENCOURAGEMENT
PROLOGUE
As we all know, 2020 is not a joke. At the same time, it feels like the biggest pun of my existence at twenty-five, the start of a quarter-life crisis, and a global recession. How timely! I used to wonder why there are no summer vacations for those who work, just like the students. And now, after four months of quarantine, the thought of staying home doesn’t sound relaxing anymore. Every day is a living struggle and you can’t help but question the uncertainty of the future. I overthink most of the time, I know it isn’t healthy. To become productive is a challenge and to sleep is another. So, whenever I’m staring blankly at the ceiling or doing nothing, I tend to de-clutter. It’s a good feeling to clean up your notes sometimes and let it all out. I scrolled through a list of unfinished things to do, short-term plans on hold, medicine and food allergies, music chords, handwritten quotes to cheer me up, ID numbers, schedules, old expenses, and personal notes. I use the note app today, which is the successor of my combined old diary and journal. I had a lot to keep to myself when I was growing up. Whenever I was happy, excited, sad, or annoyed before, I would write it all down. I even named names (haha, death note?). It’s just my diary who knew about it anyway. I guess having one was both healthy and unhealthy for me as it helped me behave and control my temper while it suppressed the feelings I needed to release. I don’t exactly remember what they were. But I can still remember I had a good laugh before I entirely burned or tore them all down two years ago. If I wasn’t that impulsive at that time, I could’ve typed and stored them in a cloud, and might still have a good laugh reading it today. Those are my treasure of old notes, short anecdotes, letters, and daily journals. Thank goodness I had the company of a human presence, a cousin of the same age, to whom I confide my stories. I might have forgotten about those narratives by now — fiction or not — but I am grateful to my cousin, my ridiculous antics, and to those endless stories that kept me intact. Now, as a full-fledged busy adult, I mainly store everything on the phone. I usually write on my laptop, but I use that for work now. I become too occupied to write something or even remind myself of a job well done. I used to drop names, but now I struggle to remember one. I forgot how to hold on to grudges, but I have mastered the art of ignoring anything that isn’t worth the time. Life is just about work and survival. I learned how to write for money but forgot how to write for myself. Some say that if an adult is problematic, his childhood might be unhappy. In my case, it’s different. I had a happy childhood filled with stories; I don’t know why I feel like a lost cause now.
Daybreak Tales brought back my passion for writing and served as my time during the quarantine. Its flash fiction and short narratives were inspired by many stories I’ve known, heard, or created during isolation. My mind usually wanders at dawn whenever I’m having a hard time sleeping or experiencing grogginess with medications. By writing this anthology, I am living up to the child storyteller within me in the hopes of letting others know the unknown and hear the unheard.
A VERY IMPORTANT PUBLIC ADVISORY!!!
Dearest inhabitants,
A great plague is now conquering the kitchens. We are implementing strict guidelines for everyone to follow while we are on a kitchen-wide lockdown. We are more than capable of handling this case, so we are asking for your kind cooperation and trust. Please bear with us as we apply our expertise and work together with different institutions to prevent the spread of rotten jelly peanut butter and contaminated sweetened hazelnut cocoa.
Please stay on the other parts of your home. We are doing our best to have all the kitchens tested and disinfected. Do not panic and hoard. Buy only your essentials, better move, and stock up your refrigerator!
Sincerely yours with tender loving care,
DH?HD! (Department of Ha? Hat Dog!)
###
SITUATIONS.
SITUATION A:
Sweet Girl lives in a suburban area from a faraway land. She drives wherever she prefers to go for her convenience. She was living a joyful and ordinary life before the plague happened. To her, life is just plain normal and nothing else matters.
Sweet Girl is very active on social media — in fact, surfing the internet is one of her favourite hobbies. She also uses this platform to voice out her opinions, flash her gorgeous ordinary life, and promote products and brands. She also uses social media for her daily dose of news. She knew about THE VERY IMPORTANT PUBLIC ADVISORY from the self-proclaimed “blogs” she follows on her Fakebook account. Even though her place is quite far from the epicentre of the plague, they’re also infected because of some hard-headed motherfuckers, as she calls them, who refuse to follow the “stay on the other parts of your home” advisory from the DH?HD! She’s confident that the plague won’t entirely affect her own kitchen. Don’t belittle Sweet Girl, dearest inhabitants! Even though the girl is fixed on her social media accounts 24/7, she knows how to sanitize and care for her kitchen. She’s also not known for storing rotten jelly peanut butter and contaminated sweetened hazelnut cocoa at her home. She’s way too health-conscious to follow her strict diet. She also immediately disposes of unnecessary perishables. Having leftover food won’t affect her anyway. She’s saved more than enough for the rainy days, even for this unprecedented plague. Life even during the kitchen isolation is not a moment of sadness or bitterness for Sweet Girl. In fact, life is even simpler and sweeter! She can stay home, exercise, and relax.
Sweet Girl also sees this opportunity to help others. Of course, she would love to help in any way she can. Her sweetness is nothing without her usual visits to the slums in the faraway land. After hearing about the news, she distributed relief packs to ill-fated families.
She made sure that each pack consisted of a kilo of rice, a couple of canned goods that she doesn’t eat sent by the companies she promotes, a bunch of instant noodles, and a piece of a disposable face mask. In her thoughts, “This is enough for a family of five or more. They survived poverty anyway. For sure no virus can eradicate them, not even the kitchen plague.” She claims herself as someone who has a heart for the poor, someone who knows what the underprivileged are going through. Her speech, if ever she qualifies for the “Most Charitable Female in the Faraway Land” award would consist of something that goes along with, “The world would be a better place if we put ourselves in the shoes of others. In my case, I’ve set foot on the slums, so I think I know better.”
SITUATION B:
Low-key Guy finishes his massive meal. Low-key Guy always has a room for desserts. He starts to savour his bunch of favourite cinnamon rolls. While munching on his sweet treats, he starts scrolling on his social media feed. “Hmm, look at how scrumptious my meals are. Nobody can cook like this, I guess”, he mumbles while looking at his well-curated photos of food on his Instantprank account. A news notification that popped out on his phone startles him: A VERY IMPORTANT PUBLIC ADVISORY!!! FROM DH?HD!.
He opens the notification and starts reading. He does not need to stock up his refrigerator anyway, he still has enough. He hates going out for fear of bringing the contagion to his kitchen but the thought of a quick trip to the grocery store to hoard items excites him. He loves to cook a lot so the plague kind of terrifies him. He will miss his cooking sessions in the kitchen and daily experiments on new recipes. Now, he must follow new safety precautions, limit his time spent in the kitchen, or temporarily avoid his kitchen. How he despises not to eat to his heart’s content and create his chefs-d’oeuvre culinaire!
Low-key Guy lives in The Village situated in the heart of the city where food options are limitless, and door-to-door deliveries are available. Now that the rotten jelly peanut butter and contaminated sweetened hazelnut cocoa are spreading everywhere, the Village imposed a total ban on outsiders, including door-to-deliveries.
Most of the village members are in favour of the ban, especially since they are not covered by medical and kitchen insurance. Some do not even have any spare money left to have their kitchens tested and disinfected. Prevention is the only thing they are capable of. Some of them even fear that they might die of hunger, with no extra money left to stock up their fridges. Aside from the fear of kitchen contagion, sooner or later, they will have to wonder where to get their food budget with workplaces also shutting down, as the plague can be passed on from one’s kitchen to another kitchen, a human being or an animal. DH?HD! has to test if it’s transmittable to plants as well.
The board directors in the homeowners’ association came up with a plan on how to keep The Village safe from the plague. Their proposals include high-tech spraying machines, automatic kitchen disinfectants, and specialized bacteria detectors. However, the village people must shoulder the fees, on top of the cost of kitchen plague tests. The board directors agreed to split it in a 24-month instalment, so it would be easier for the members to pay but a majority of them voted against it as they are uncertain of their household income in the coming months. The Head of The Village decides that while they do not have adequate resources, funds, and a clear action plan against the plague, they’re doing initial prevention by isolating the entire village and preventing any outsiders from coming in. They even imposed a limit on outdoor exposure of the people, except for the essential workers who are called for duty and family members assigned per home who will do the shopping and errands. Students are even advised to stay and study at home as risks at school cafeterias and classrooms are even higher. However, with universities shutting down, the business and operations of schools are also failing. An online education system is in the works to address that matter.
Seventy-five per cent of the village members are sending their children to school. Most of them agreed to push for homeschooling but asked if the Department of e-Joke-Cation (DeJC) could delay the upcoming academic school year. The delay wouldn’t affect students that much. Fresh graduates will also have a hard time getting employed as the economy flunks. The online tuition fees also skyrocketed compared to the previous years even when e-learning could not guarantee a hundred percent effectivity rate to all students. The DeJC is highly interested in the idea but could not fully support all schools with high-technological resources. Their immediate plan is to always pass it on to the students and their parents.
While the entire village is doomed with lots of troubles brought by the kitchen plague, Low-key Guy only thinks about himself and his enormous meals. He couldn’t move forward — not without the delight of his heavenly food trips to the grocery stores, huge cravings for the most premium meat he could find from shops and infinite deliveries. He couldn’t care less about the other homeowners. It’s not his problem anyway when he himself could survive with monthly financial support from his parents abroad. As long as he’s headfirst, doing well in his life, and indulging every bite of his meal, he’s good.
Now Low-key Guy is sad and disappointed. He’s one of the village members who voted yes to the high-technological and expensive proposals from the board. He comes out of his pampered shell and loses his temper. He calls people backward, irrational, and stupid for their decision to not participate in online education. “Fuck the kitchen plague! And fuck these people! How come they deprive me of my pleasures and drag me to this verdict when I have the means!” He insists and calls out the Head of the Village. He blurts out, causes a scene, and badmouths everyone in the village. It feels like the decision interrupts his daily routine, and destroys his entire life. The situation suddenly becomes unfair to him, even when the entire world is drowning in chaos.
SITUATION C:
Stiff Girl takes a break from social media. Sometimes, she sees Fakebook as an outlet to voice out her opinions and to share funny memes. She uses Instantprank to gauge the engagement, reach, and following of a certain celebrity or influencer before submitting it as part of her daily report for work. She particularly hates this task. She misses her actual job — researching and writing for a TV segment that explores culture and tradition. She misses going out, travelling, and conducting interviews around the country. She enjoys interacting with small communities and indigenous tribes to help their voices be heard and their culture be appreciated by a wider audience. But that was prior to the kitchen plague. The company has to give them new tasks to fulfil while non-essential travel is prohibited. Her friends say she’s still lucky she gets to keep her job. However, she considers her employer ‘humane’ for still compensating them and giving them other tasks to fulfil. Using the word ‘lucky’ seems inappropriate especially in this time of the plague but maybe she’s kind of fortunate especially when most of the capitalist companies are laying off workers to save the business.
She knows how to bake, cook, or make other crafts to sell for a living. She’s just grateful she does not have to compete with other online vendors and friends whose only option right now is to sell. She even buys all sorts of items her friends offer, whether she needs them or not. For her, small purchases can still be a difference to those struggling, especially in this unprecedented time. She’s about to keep the phone away from her to TV news on a Friday night but received one SMS notification from DH?HD! How she truly hates receiving messages from them. Credibility is a known problem of DH?HD! She’d rather believe in conspiracy theories that have provided satisfactory evidence such as Area 51, UFO sightings, and The Bermuda Triangle. Not the Flat Earth theory, this is certainly for morons who cannot process how the phasing of the moon works or how a plane can circle the Earth and not fall off on any edges. She cringes on this part of the message from DH?HD! that says “We are doing our best to have all the kitchens tested and disinfected.” Three months have passed already and they’re just doing it now. Nothing is really consistent with DH?HD! Except for the fact that their acronym is a palindrome, excluding the punctuation marks.”, she thoughts. She goes back and watches the news on TV. It’s kind of depressing but she needs her daily dose of information to keep her updated. She’s getting tired of frowning at people exposing their elitist privileges on Instantprank and Fakebook anyway. The TV could be a temporary pastime, even though some news on it could be about losing her job. She grabs her drink and clicks on the switch button.
“COUNTRYWIDE SERVANT’S HOUSE TESTED POSITIVE FOR KITCHEN PLAGUE, ROAMS AROUND THE HOSPITAL”
“5 KITCHEN WARRIORS DIES IN BATTLE AGAINST THE DEADLY PLAGUE”
“COUNTRYWIDE BIGMOUTH BEATS 127,018 PREDICTIONS BY UNIVERSITY EXPERTS WITH ONLY 123,456 KITCHEN CASES RECORDED”
“COUNTRYWIDE FRONTRUNNER DELIVERS MESSAGE TO OPPOSING RADICALS AMIDST THE KITCHEN PLAGUE: I WILL SHOOT YOU”
“BREAKING NEWS: COMPANY NO. 2 SHUTS DOWN AFTER NUMEROUS HEARINGS AND APPROVAL FROM COUNTRYWIDE SERVANTS”
She drops her drink and finds her way to the kitchen. She wants to cry but struggles to shed a tear. She’s diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, causing her eyes to dry. She opens her refrigerator, grabs some water, and an artificial eye drop. Their food won’t last for a week, she must go out for a supply run soon. She’s never good at math and would always need a calculator or an Excel sheet to figure her expenses out, but she knows that her last pay and savings would not last for a year. She knows she must cut off some expenditures. She plans to cancel her lease, lower down insurance and utility plans, abandon some booze or if worse comes to worst, maybe postpone medical consultations and medications. She helps finance her brother’s education but the Department of e-Joke-Cation, some privileged motherfuckers, and The Countrywide Servants make it hard for people like her. She hopes to find a job amidst the companies shutting down. But she knows she’s not the only one. She’s one of the thousands, maybe millions of people seeking to get a new job.
She sets aside the pitcher of water and grabs her last wine. She lies on the kitchen floor, hugging the bottle. For a moment, she’s confident her kitchen is safe from the plague. This place is her haven and she’s been meticulously cleaning every part of it since the beginning of the kitchen lockdown. She pinches the last piece of her artificial tears and drops it in her eyes.
She must look for new ways to survive for the coming days, weeks, or months. But for now, she wants to drown herself with alcohol and fake tears.
SITUATION D:
*****FLASH REPORT: A VERY IMPORTANT PUBLIC ADVISORY FROM DH?HD!!!!*****
Left-out Guy turns off his radio and consumes his last sip of coffee. He washes the dishes on their old sink left by his younger siblings before getting ready for work. It’s still early; he still has 45 minutes left to travel. His usual travel time for walking to work is an hour and a half. Thankfully, a kind lady sold him a second-hand bicycle for one thousand five hundred pesos while he was walking on his way to work last month. Biking is a good exercise at seven in the morning, and it saves him a thousand pesos worth of bus fare for a month anyway. P1,000 can already buy his family a few kilos of rice, frozen meat, and some vegetables good for a week. It could also be an addition to their monthly rental fee. His father, a bus driver, is currently jobless. Public vehicles are not allowed during the kitchen lockdown. The Countrywide Servants released a memo on a travel ban for PUVs, as it is not deemed safe. With no alternative for transportation, thousands of public utility drivers are now jobless; minimum wage workers are walking to work.
Thankfully, Left-out Guy’s job at the grocery store is still open to support his family. He might have to delay his application overseas as he will re-allot his funds to feed his family and buy his sister a laptop for her online education. The company hiring him might not even accept applicants for now, especially with the sudden increase in the cases of the kitchen plague nationwide.
He opens the pre-owned refrigerator he purchased from a nearby surplus shop. Good thing he was able to invest in one home appliance before the kitchen-wide lockdown happened. He finds a few items inside, leftover food from the other day, bottles of cold water, and some frozen goods. On top of it are canned goods and a bunch of instant noodles. Her younger sister said it came from authorities governing in the faraway land who distributed relief packs and from a lady who was assisted by a photographer and some men who handed out the donations. He told his sister before to refuse to accept the goods as there are far more families who might be having it worse than them. As long as he works, they can survive.
For Left-out Guy, he will do what he can to work and support his family. Maybe his dream is as simple as buying a house that’s far from a slum or having not to worry about where to get money for monthly bills and food. He thought that maybe a job abroad would be the first step to that simple dream, but the kitchen plague would delay it for another year or so.
He arrives at work, just in time before his 8 a.m. shift. He arranges items on the grocery shelves and sweeps the floor before 9 a.m. Peak time is usually from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. This kitchen plague also affects their working hours. Sometimes, they close late, with overtime unpaid, to cater to the customers who are still in the queue. Yesterday, he had an encounter with a guy who was hoarding items even when there was a strict policy against it. He saw the guy filling up his cart with tons of tissues, disinfectants, and rubbing alcohol along with a bunch of food items. Left-out Guy just tried to remind him of the policy, but the guy was untamable and was reeking of many privileges. The customer insisted, so the cashier just let him avoid any delay in the queue. The management doubled security to prevent cases like this again. Left-out Guy wonders why there are people who behave like that even when they know that most people are also suffering.
After a long day at work, Left-out Guy decides to take home a bag of groceries after receiving his salary. He bikes home past 6:00 p.m., an hour late for his 8 to 5 job. He’s always enthusiastic every payday. The thought of surprising his family with a small feast and filling his refrigerator is enough to keep him positive for the days to come.
ACTIVITY.
SELF-ASSESSMENT: CHECK YOUR PRIDYIDER
1. Can you relate to one of the situations in A, B, C, and D?
Sweet Girl and Low-Key Guy experience no difficulty in surviving the kitchen plague, Stiff Girl may struggle a bit to sustain her needs while Left-out Guy might be having the hardest time among the four.
2. If you fall under the situation of Sweet Girl or Low-Key Guy and you have the privilege of surviving the kitchen plague, what could have you done to become a better person? What will you do not to become like them?
Otherwise, if you fall under the situation of Stiff Girl or Left-out Guy, what will you do to survive the plague, and what could you have done to change the circumstances?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shei writes for a living and to have a reason for living. She started writing young, kept the stories to herself and ruined those unpublished works from childhood. After realising that her dream of becoming an astronaut is farther than the distance of Earth to Pluto, she focused on her writing skills instead, took a shot, and landed a job in advertising. She’s worked with the most creative and fun-to-be-with ads, marketing and events people in the industry, which is quite surprising for a self-confessed introvert and homebody like her. One-fifth of her life was devoted to writing, storytelling, rendering overtime, strategising for brands, getting late-night drinks over dinner, and overthinking ideas, existential relevance, and conspiracy theories.
Her photo does not have a face not because she’s shy but because she wants you to meet her in person (though virtual is much more preferred).
Email: hellodaybreaktales@gmail.com | Facebook/Instagram: @daybreaktales
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jay was half-forced by the author to support this anthology (lol, I asked for his consent and ideas). He loves to analyze films, TV and movie series, news, and social issues during his free time or when he’s not sleeping in the morning. His passion for art and history started at a young age. Jay used to curate several art exhibits and create short films. He now creates video content for his critical works and film reviews, so go follow his passion projects.
Follow and subscribe to his YouTube and social media accounts.
YouTube: rebyuhanng bayan1 | Facebook: Rebyuhanngbayan
