Milk

(Reedsy writing prompt "A Day in the Life")

"Milk" by James Smart

This was his chance to test it out - he had to be alone. The only task she left him, before leaving to meet some friends for a girl's day out, was to buy some milk.

Mike stood in the bathroom and played with the controls on a device on his wrist. He looked at himself in the mirror and waited. When he was ready he set off out the apartment. Months of work and sleepless nights had finally led to this day. The sun was still low in the sky and was casting long shadows of people going about their morning business. Mike checked all around him on the ground a few times and was satisfied. He walked past a small front yard where a dog barked at him from behind the gate. Interesting. Then he saw a group of teenage boys walking towards him, so he stepped off the sidewalk to avoid them. He heard the engine of a car approaching from behind him without any sound of deceleration or the blast of a horn. He quickly got back onto the sidewalk after passing the boys. He wasn't feeling too safe now, and was surprised by this, but then it made sense.

The store was across the street via a crosswalk which didn't have traffic signals. Mike stood at the crosswalk and waited for an approaching truck to slow to a halt. It didn't. Of course. He chuckled to himself - this was going to take some getting used to. Concentrate! He noticed the young woman who lived in the apartment below him stop at the crosswalk on the other side of the street. She wasn't very friendly and had often complained to him about the noise he made when moving about his apartment in the early hours of the morning. Traffic came to a stop and she began to cross the street, looking straight ahead of her. Mike crossed over as well and as they passed each other he poked his tongue out at her. She carried on walking without a single reaction. Cowardly, but it felt good.

Once on the other side he slowed down and watched for anyone approaching the entrance of the store. He timed it just right to walk through the automatic door behind a family of four. The security guard's eyes flashed over the mom, dad, and two children. This was where it was going to get quite challenging. It was a Saturday and shoppers were cluttering the aisles - it would be more difficult than usual to avoid bumping into people. Normally Mike would complain inwardly about people not looking where they were going, but he couldn't do that on this occasion. He saw an unattended shopping trolley full of groceries and was tempted to push it half way up the aisle but stopped himself. This was a serious experiment.

Before getting the milk, Mike needed to get to the customer restroom at the back of the store, but he could see a 'cleaning in progress' sign outside the door. He continued walking around the store for a while but keeping his distance from other shoppers. He was tired, and this simple shopping trip was feeling like hard work. Mike thought it would be fun, but in his current state he had to be more vigilant than usual. He found himself in the aisle where the milk was kept and decided to just get on with it and get out of the store. He picked up a quart and held it up to look the expiry date. Floating. Suddenly there was a scream and Mike looked up to see a hysterical woman looking wide-eyed in his direction. Then he realised. Oh, no! What have I done!? He dropped the container which exploded on the shop floor spraying milk everywhere. He backed away from the scene leaving the woman staring at the mess on the floor with her hand over her mouth. He quickly wiped himself down from where he got splashed. How could I have made this mistake?

He retraced his steps towards the rest room as several staff arrived and tried to deal with the distressed customer. When Mike got to the restroom the cleaning sign had gone and he went inside. It was empty. He stood in front of the mirror which reflected back at him the empty room. He played with the control on his wrist device and then looked back into the mirror. His eyes looked red and tired. Well, I did that in the wrong order. Now just get the milk. He left and went back to the aisle of the incident where a member of staff was mopping the floor. The poor woman had gone - probably taken away by men in white coats. He picked up another quart of milk with a slight twinge of guilt about wasting the first one and headed for the checkout and paid for it. On his way out of the store the security guard frowned at him. Mike headed back home.

On his way Mike noticed another one of his neighbours walking along the sidewalk towards him. This guy lived in the apartment above him and his name was Simon. He and Mike got along but Simon was constantly asking to 'borrow' things like sugar or coffee - he was always out of cash, and Mike wasn't in the mood to be accosted for hand-outs this morning. This was a more legitimate opportunity to test the device. Before the Simon spotted him Mike quickly checked around him for anyone watching and after placing the quart of milk on the ground he activated the device again. He waited for Simon to walk past, but instead he just stopped right in front of Mike. Was it not working now? But Simon was looking at the milk placed on the floor. He looked about himself and then with a shrug picked up Mike's quart of milk and walked back in the direction he came from, though this time with a little spring in his step. Unbelievable! Mike headed back to the store to buy some more milk.

He was nearly run over by a jogger before he remembered that his prototype invisibility device was still activated.