[A day in the life of Ingrid. Chronicling a day that falls in the middle of the novel. Or trying to anyway.]
Day Break: Ingrid's been up for an hour. She has "tidied" the apartment and copied important passages out of "The Creatures of The Forest" and hidden both the copies and the book under her mattress. Before breakfast, she will copy a poem, work on a speech to rally the troops, and make a batch of ink.
Breakfast time: Ingrid makes coffee for herself and burnt toast for Liam. [If there's bread.] She drinks her coffee, gets dressed, checks Liam's homework, packs Liam a lunch of
something, and walks him to school before heading into work.
Mid-morning: At work, she is told to staple packets of paper proclaiming "The Requirements for Owning Property" together. She realizes that the staples fail at holding together so many sheet of paper. She asks if she can use paperclips. After a yelling match, Ingrid is even a bigger stapler. The stapler works, but the pressure required hurts her already taxed right hand. She forces herself to learn to do with her left and is yelled at again for being too slow.
Lunch time: Ingrid is allowed to leave for lunch. Instead, she sneaks into the break room, steals a stale donut and a cup of coffee, and hurries to the fire escape just outside the break room's window. She eats the donut, drinks the coffee, and stacks the paper cup on top of eight other paper cups, all of which have accumulated because previous lunch breaks.
Mid-afternoon: Ingrid falls asleep while coping "The New Curfew Regulations". She spills ink all over the good stationary and the hem of her right sleeve. She is yelled at and forced to stay late.
Dinner time: Ingrid misses dinner and the beginning of the secret meeting at the old farmhouse. She heads home to find Liam huddling in the closet. She tells him that she will always come home eventually, even though it tastes like a lie, and then heads out the door again to catch the end of the meeting.
Early evening: Ingrid narrowly misses running into Soldier on her way to the farmhouse. She is forced to run and duck behind a tree. By some fortune of luck, she doesn't have asthma attack. She precedes to the meeting. Once there, she is told that they have a new member. Surprised, but undaunted, she interviews the new recruit.
Bed time: Ingrid is further pushed off schedule because of the new recruit. She arrives too late to tuck Liam in. She drinks a cup of tea and eats a piece of fruit she picked from a tree on the way home. [What kind of fruit does Ing's world have?] She picks up her other bag, throws in the copies of "The Creatures of The Forest", and heads back into the night.
Midnight: Ingrid has been to Eudora's apartment, James's Orchard, and Tristin's cabin. She's exchange her copies of "The Creatures" for Eudora's copies of "Celebrations and Ceremonies of Old". She's taken a crate of apples from James and replaced them with a copy of the poem "Things That Linger". At Tristin's cabin, she leaves the crate of apples, except for four, and takes a battered book titled "Twilight" out from under the front porch stairs. It's Tristin's first stolen item. Ingrid can't imagine why a soldier would bother bringing such a book with them.
2 a.m. : Ingrid makes it back to her apartment. She fails to turn off the light before she falls asleep. It's a habit she's been forming lately and she's lucky she hasn't started a fire, but then maybe the world decided one was enough. She'll get about four hours of sleep and then start all over again.
Possible problems caused by scheduling: Sleep Deprivation. Over-scheduling. Under nourishment. Lack of quality time with Liam. Fatigue. Carpal tunnel.
