“All the 7-Elevens closed down in Canada,” Eve said, looking at this one as if it were the last store in existence.

“I remember them,” Penny said. “The abandoned one by Cale’s place burned down last month.”

A trio of cashiers greeted them in unison as they entered, each wearing a green uniform with white, orange, green and red stripes running across the chest. At first glance the 7-Eleven was similar to the ones from Penny and Eve’s childhoods, but upon further inspection the snack selection was entirely Japanese, with childlike manga mascots on many of the packages. Penny couldn’t help but peruse the magazine stand as well, checking out the manga magazines and wishing she could read them.

She then pulled out a videogame magazine and flipped through it, hopeful she would find previews of games that had yet to be announced in North America. One section was apparently devoted to Metroid 7, but outside of the logo on the first page of the article, the pages were all black.

When she was about to close the magazine, not wanting to be reminded of her uncomfortable experience in the arcade, she noticed that black glossy letters were set against the black paper. She opened the magazine wider and tilted it under the store’s bright white lights, trying to read the letters, but they were neither Japanese nor English, and in fact didn’t resemble any written language she had seen before.

“Okay,” Penny said to herself, as if that was all that needed to be said, and she placed the magazine back onto the stand.

Is Your Love Strong Enough? by Bryan Ferry was playing tinnily over the PA.

Penny turned around just as Eve excitedly stepped towards her with five different packaged breads in her arms, including the melon bread for Penny’s mother.

“I found the melon bread!” she said triumphantly. “And bread with red bean paste, and bread with custard!”

“Nice,” Penny said, somewhat shaken by the magazine. “Let’s get some drinks, too.”

Penny’s mouth had gone dry, and all she could think about now was the coldest, most refreshing drink. They checked the refrigerators, and Penny picked out a carbonated orange drink, though she had also been eyeing a milky matcha tea thing that looked oh so delicious, and which she decided she would try next time.

Eve picked out a strawberry milk. They decided not to get something for Penny’s mother, since Penny’s mother either drank coffee during the day or water in the evening, and they didn’t want to upset her sleep schedule even more with something caffeinated.

They purchased the snacks and drinks together, the cashier helpfully explaining how to pay at the machine that was set up in front of the cash register. Penny looked at the machine with wide, confused eyes as the cashier gestured to the picture of a paper bill on the touchscreen; Penny pressed it, fed her cash into a slot, and watched as her change was spat out the bottom.

The cashiers thanked Penny and Eve in unison as the girls left the store with a small plastic bag in tow.

* * *

Penny’s mother nibbled on her melon bread, savouring the flavour while typing on her laptop with her free hand. As Penny’s mother and her work had taken up much of the couch, Penny plopped herself onto the chair and Eve simply sat on a cushion in front of the coffee table, the girls enjoying their drinks and snacks while watching TV.

Penny put herself in charge of the remote and flipped through news programs and variety shows on her quest for fresh anime. Even if she couldn’t understand what was being said, she could still appreciate the visuals – and knowing she’d be able to lord it over Edith and Jill, her childhood friends who had first introduced her to anime, for the rest of their lives, was a uniquely exquisite pleasure in and of itself.

Penny took sips of her carbonated orange drink every few channels, and offered her review of it being one of the tastiest orange drinks she had ever drunk in her life. A lightbulb appeared over Eve’s head, and she quickly got up on one knee as she gestured for Penny to stop.

“Snack reviews!” Eve exclaimed as Penny stared at her with the bottle’s lips against her own. “Like, little ones for YouTube Shorts!”

They set up Eve’s phone, propping it on the table so that it faced the TV, where a random late-night anime was in the middle of airing. Penny sat with her knees on a cushion a bit to the left of the screen, so that the TV and her upper torso were both in frame.

“This is the most delicious orange drink I’ve ever had,” Penny said to Eve’s phone. She then took a sip and turned her head to look at the TV.

Onscreen was a crying baby being carried by an ogre across what appeared to be a medieval landscape. The baby bit the ogre, and the intense pain they caused it made the ogre run so fast that it burst through a castle gate, knocking down all the soldiers within. The baby slipped from the ogre’s grasp and, mere moments from hitting the ground, cast a spell that put themselves in a floating bubble. The baby drifted off to safety while continuing to cry.

Penny turned back to the camera.

“I got it at 7-Eleven,” she added. “In Akihabara. I recommend it.”

Penny then gave a thumbs-up and Eve stopped the recording.

“That was amazing!” Eve said excitedly as she checked the framing of the video on her phone. “With the anime on the TV and everything, this could get like a hundred views. I’ll upload it now.”

Penny couldn’t help but feel caught up in Eve’s excitement and smiled at her. She then sat back in the chair to resume channel surfing.

More and more anime popped up onscreen, though Penny noticed the shows were also becoming slightly more risqué as the night wore on, which she might not have had a problem with if her mother wasn’t half-watching with her.

Penny cycled back around to a news channel – just as the reporter talked over a man being led out of a hoarder’s nest in handcuffs – and placed the remote onto the coffee table.

“I’m going to try to sleep,” she announced.

“Good luck, sweetie,” her mother said without looking at her.

Penny got dressed in her hooded Rilakkuma pajamas and Eve slipped into her pale blue nightgown. They took turns brushing their teeth and then got into the left bed in the bedroom.

They kept the bedroom door open so that the light from the living room spilled in. The sounds of a language they didn’t fully understand drifted in as well, and trying to focus on the words helped Penny to clear her mind and gradually fall asleep.