'Countdown' by Huw Griffiths

I woke up full of the usual dread of a Monday morning. I'd not even sat up and was already about to write the whole day off as a gloomy affair, riddled with difficulties. I started on my Cape Canaveral countdown routine of counting down from ten to one before lifting myself out of bed. I got to about eight and caught sight of this box on the top of my wardrobe. I must have looked at it many times before but today, I'd noticed the smile on it. It had been used to carry two pairs of old trainers from Germany a few months earlier. Just a standard old box. But a smiling one. As soon as I saw it, it made me smile. For three days actually. When I look at it now, I imagine it, traveling by plane, train and Post office van from Germany to the top of my wardrobe. With that expression.