Ding. The doorbell rang. I waited a few seconds before pressing again. Click at a door lock. I could see the face of a young woman, teenager.

“Yes?” she asked.

“I have a package for Miss Maryska Kovalenko.”

“That is my mom.”

I handed her a package. Which she placed somewhere inside the house. “Could you sign here?” I handed her a terminal and pointed. Girl signed it and passed it back to me.

“Do you know which building belongs to mister Darragh Walsh?”

“The red one… I think.”

I thanked her and left for the van. I took a hand truck, placed it on a 1m tall box, a lot lighter than it appears to be and went straight to the red house. Once I did, I pressed the doorbell.

“Who?” asked in a grumpy old voice.

“I have a very big package for mister Darragh Walsh.” The door lock buzzed and clicking could be heard. I opened the door and went inside with the package. “Could you sign here?” I handed him the terminal. He signed and returned it quickly.

“Thank you and have a nice evening.” I left for the van. It was my last parcel for today. I drove straight to the depot. Handed back keys for the van, signed myself out and went to my car. On the way I messaged my mother. ’Hi mom, I am done for today, I will be home in a half an hour.’ Shortly the phone buzzed. I glanced over to see a standard, drive safe message. Once I arrived, I went inside, my mom waiting for me with dinner, salmon with lemon kale salad and mashed potatoes.

“How was your day sweetie?”

“Same as usual. How was your day?”

“For me, good, not so for one of my students, who broke arm while playing soccer. A classmate missed and kicked his arm instead of a ball.”

“Ouch. Where is dad?” I changed the topic. I hate talking about my mother’s job, it is rather boring, too much bullying usually, that reminds me too much of my childhood.

“Dad is in Sean’s garage, helping to fix his motorbike. No idea when he will return, you know him.”

I finished eating, and my mom started to clear our table. I moved to the hall and started dressing up. “Going to the shelter?” mom asked while handing me a few cat toys.

I nodded and went to my car. After nearly 30 minutes I was at an animal shelter.

“Hi Aoife, once you are ready can you helm Susy with cats? We have a bit of a CATastrophe. Ba-dum-tss.” She pointed fingers at me and smiled.

I rolled my eyes and responded. “Sure. I will do so.” I went straight to Susy. When I entered it the first thing I noticed was the disgusting smell. Precisely a smell of vomit and faeces. “What the hell happened here?”

“The new stray from yesterday was sick and passed it to others. Erin gave them some shots for that, and they are fine now. But the messy steel needs to be cleaned.”

I went straight for the mop and paper towels, before it started moping I took all the dirty towels and moved them to the laundry basket. Then I started mopping and cleaning. It took 4 of us, me, Susy, Ashlyn, and Nathan nearly an hour. Once done, we went to feed all the animals. In the meantime, I saw Susy taking a couple and a small girl looking about to be 4 years old to the puppies. We got a whole litter, 3-month-old of mixed breeds. Given by an owner whose dog got an unwanted pregnancy. Shortly after I watched the girl walk with the sable one. Good, one more puppy will hopefully get to live a happy life. Once it started to get late, I said goodbye to everyone and went to the car. On my way home I got a message on the phone.

‘Hotel Castletown, tomorrow 17:50. Room 41.’ Two buttons were visible, accept and decline. I pressed the latter. Tomorrow my father has a birthday. No way am I missing that.