Guilt - Anne Wright

Where did I go wrong? I searched my memory for that point, the exact moment when I chose the path that led me to my sad and sorry state, but can’t determine it because I have always done the wrong thing, my entire life. I am guilty.

I stayed in bed instead of getting up right away to feed my cat and let her out. Then when I got up I didn’t brush my teeth for over two hours after having cereal and coffee. I told my dental hygienist that I floss twice a day every day, which is a lie.

I drove faster than the speed limit and swore, though under my breath at the idiots that I have to share the road with. I interrupted my friend when she was talking, parked my car so it stuck out into a driveway, dripped gasoline on the side of the car and didn’t wipe it off, dropped a gum wrapper on the ground and left it there, trimmed my nails with the big scissors in my desk drawer, left a damp towel on the bathroom floor, put two bottles of wine back on the grocery shelf where they didn’t belong, turned off a DVD movie before I had watched the whole thing even though I had paid for it, fake smiled at the clerk in the drug store, did not go to the gym again for the second week in a row, discarded food into the garbage disposal when the water company has told me it is bad for the environment, left the heater on in the house all day when I am not home, charged another book on my credit card, and I can’t forget this, purchased an espresso machine that I only have used a few times and haven’t gotten my money’s worth, didn’t return a phone call knowing that it would cause an irate reaction in that person, I spent too much time thinking about writing this, and I went back and edited it, too.