Day 7

Start writing a story that...

Step 1: begins with this sentence: She gave him a kiss

Step 2: add this word: craftsman

Step 3: add this word: mirror

Step 4: add a scene that takes place in a bedroom
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She gave him a kiss on the cheek, and watched as he promptly wiped it off with his chubby hand.

"Ha, ha!" he said, then giggling pulled away from her to climb into his father's car.

Rachel smiled at their little joke and then watched as the car pulled out of the driveway. As it turned onto the main road and drove out of her line of sight, she looked at the list in her hand. It was Saturday and she had learned over the past six months of separation that the only way to handle the days that Jacob went with his dad was to stay busy. So she had bought her first toolbox and tools, and made a list of things to tackle.

When she and David had first bought the house, an older Cape with peeling blue trim and loose floorboards, David set about to fix it up. Although Rachel had offered to help, David had said it made him nervous to let anyone use his Craftsman tools, which he had inherited from his late father, so he insisted on doing all of the remodeling and fixing himself. At first Rachel felt lucky to have a husband who was so handy that they didn't need to hire anyone to fix up their new house. Even as David grew busier at the office and got less done around the house, she didn't make any efforts to step in and do the handiwork. She believed he would get to all of it. But as David immersed himself more and more in work projects, and the house continued to fall apart around them, Rachel couldn't avoid the warning signs. When David moved out, she resigned herself to accepting the home's flaws.

That was until two weeks ago, when Rachel found herself alone again without Jacob and with nothing planned to fill her time. After a bout of crying, she went to the bathroom to rinse her face and found herself staring in the mirror. Her wet, angry eyes stared back at her and she hardly recognized herself. In the same reflection, she also saw the old peeling wallpaper behind her. It was decorated with cartoon anchors and mermaids, and she had always hated it. And now, she thought, it would never go away! After another bout of crying and a movie-esque confidence-building pep talk to herself in the mirror, Rachel found herself googling how to take down old wallpaper. A week later, she did it, and started a new chores list.

This week, the list had her moving on to the bedroom. There she would replace the wall sconces and start to pull out some old carpeting to look at the wood underneath. She carried the toolbox into the room, and pulled out her Craftsman drill, her first tool purchase. She then stepped up under the one of the fixtures and began removing the screws.