It is the 25th of January.
I woke up this morning at five thirty AM, before it was even light outside.  I rolled over to find my boyfriend's side of the bed empty- he had gotten up at four in the hopes of snagging a coveted temp service job.  Seeing as though he hadn't come back yet i figured he had succeeded in doing so.  After a few minutes of pondering the day's agenda, I hopped out of bed and walked to the Conoco gas station in my blue fuzzy bathrobe and flannel pajama pants, which are donned with tiny Scottie dogs, and I purchased my morning coffee.  At 6:30 AM, after I had brushed my teeth and washed my face, and smoked approximately three cigarettes with my coffee, I called my mom.
"Hello madre! How is your morning going?"
"My morning is shit! I'm out of coffee and my electricity is about to be shut off and your sister is acting like a typical fourteen year old brat!"
"Well actually she's fifteen mom. But my morning is good so far, thanks for asking. I'm on my way to the clinic- they're bumping me up to 40mgs today. Anyways are you still going to the funeral? I'll walk with you if you'd like."
"Yeah. meet me at the Safeway Starbucks on Cedar at ten." Then she hung up.
"I love you too mom." I mumbled this into an already dead receiver   By this time I had finally found my only pair of black pants and matching tank,and was wearing this morbid attire as i ran to catch the elusive number seven bus to the methadone clinic.
The Clinic was empty when I arrived at 7:15 AM, which meant that i was immediately ushered into the dosing room, where the plump nurse sat behind a glass window, beaming up at me as she poured my 40 mgs of pink liquid into a paper cup. She inquired about my sleeping habits and reminded me of next week's "Coping Tools" class.  Then she sent me on my way with a genuine smile, which briefly alleviated my feelings of guilt for having become a junkie in the first place.
I waited across the street and pinged off of Safeway's wi-fi, using this three hour lull as a chance to tackle my exponentially growing amassment of homework. I had just repacked my laptop and was on my way outside to have a cigarette in the drizzling outdoors, when my twig of a mother came trudging towards me, hunchbacked and growling profanities under her breath.  We exchanged forced niceties and began our walk to the church in silence. The rain had slowly begun to subside and the clouds hung low on Mount Elden, modifying the usually barren lump of rocks into the likeness of Zeus'  Mount Olympus.  The sun re-established itself , its dominating presence emanating though silver clouds, and highlighted patches of the sidewalk where we traversed.
As we neared the church, I couldn't help myself from breaking the dreary silence. "God it's so beautiful outside.  I love rainy days in Flagstaff!" My simple observation seemed to snap my mother out of her silent reverie.  She turned to me and whispered,
"Yes, yes it is Bridget.  Thank you so much for coming with me." She winked at me with swollen eyes, and  big salty tears danced down her face. I grabbed her hand and squeezed.  Together, we walked into the church, finally ready to say goodbye.