My stomach felt like it was trying to eat itself!

Growling when that didn’t work…

We had had nothing to eat in a week but that GROSS CAN FRUIT. 

I gagged it out instantly.

It was time to go SHOPPING. 

My legs were over-cooked noodles as we carefully wobbled into the supermarket with a logo that was very much a blur from a likely obsession of defacing shops with graffiti. 

It was, oddly, dead quiet and the shop was in surprisingly great condition! Every machine was working and it looked - on the inside - just like a normal supermarket should. 

It felt awkward… 

As if all the peace in this conveniently peaceful place was forced…

Every once in a while, a can would drop from the shelves or a squished strawberry would lie on the ground… but nothing that would seem to harm us. We continued adding more 

. veg 

. fruit - the canned ones unfortunately 

. and bread 

. canned meat 

. canned fish…

and other ingredients in our basket. This would last another two weeks and a half if we were lucky. 

My ears twitched. What was that?.. 

the sound of paused yet constant walking… 

Fingers tapping: 

Tap…

Tap…

Tap…

And with that everything fell…

Dizzy… 

Fuzzy …

Blurry… 

Everything was dark for a painful moment...

“Melisa! Are you okay?!”

There I was with a gross and bloody wound on my head. 

My hair was tainted red and pasty,

my blonde eyelashes being the only clue to it’s original colour.

An entire shelf had fallen on me. 

Someone had done this…

not that it mattered now.

We had the food. 

We could go.

Only slowed down by the food we carried and my head still dizzy.

We ran to the exit. 

“Alferd I know that life is difficult with all this… Crazy stuff. 

“I just wish the first time we had the freedom that it would be... I don’t know safer?

''Why is it like this?” My head was low as my now clean face was patched carefully with too big and too small plasters. 

Each with a small blue marker smiley face scribbled on it - for good luck on its healing.

 Of course he wasn’t listening he was too busy looking after my silly injury. 

“Melisa as unfair or wrong it might be to think this…  Things are better now.

“We won’t have to get hurt, or separated again!” Alferd said with a warm smile.

So he did respond… Nice.

Now respond to him idiot!

“I - I guess but although it’s better for us isn’t it worse for others? Isn’t this all somehow my fault?” My eyes were getting damper. 

He came a little closer.

“There is no way that this could be your fault! 

“If you focus on other people who you don’t even know, that can be so draining and painful… it just isn’t worth it. ''I’m not asking you to forget all the bad things in this world but don’t focus on the negative either.”

How did life get to this point? 

Where I would have all this time with  Alferd and all these little conversations… 

I kinda love it.