Mushaboom • Daryl Dixon

19

Rachel

Milo was shaking more cinnamon onto his oats for the 5th time. It felt like such a treat. Hot oats, cinnamon, and a hot tea to top it all off.

We were having a very late breakfast. We weren't used to having three meals a day. It was mostly water, something small around noon, and something small when we stopped moving for the day.

Ricky was getting his hair braided into two tiny braids by Tara on the couch. Half of us were taking the late morning slow, others were already out, starting their new jobs.

Glenn came in with Noah and called out to the two on the couch, "Hey!"

Ricky and Tara turned their heads their way.

"Deanna wants us to meet up with her son who does the runs."

"Right now?" Tara asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay." Ricky replied as Tara quickly tied the second braid.

"Hey Rachel," I looked up at Glenn as I took another sip from my mug and he continued, "She asked for you to go see her at some point today."

Already? I nodded, "Okay, thanks Glenn."

He gave his small smile and nod, while Ricky came walking over, "See ya!"

"Bye." I smiled at the four of them, waving them off with Milo.

We finished our bowls at the same time. Milo looked at his watch and sighed, "I've got an hour. Library?"

"Yeah, let me just wash these." I started to stack my bowl onto his.

He shook his head as he swallowed the remainder of his tea, "I got it, just get the bag and our shoes."

"Okay cool."

I walked to our corner of the living room and grabbed our things. 3 minutes or so after, we were walking down the street.

The library was pretty small, with a good amount of cook books, fiction and just a handful of self help books, but that was the extent on it. "Is there anything you could use?" Milo asked as he looked through different book covers and titles.

I only picked out one, and it was only for myself. I looked down at the book and kinda waved it at him so he could see, "Don't think so, but I think i'll enjoy this one."

He nodded in approval, "Nice. He wrote of Mice and Men."

"Mhm! Always wanted to read this one, just never got around to it." I flipped through the pages looking for the amount of pages there were.

"It looks a bit daunting." Milo commented as his browsing continued.

"Yeah.. Your dad loved it. It was one of his favorites. His copy was all annotated.."

That caught his attention, he fully stopped what he was doing and was instantly in his thoughts. His eyes looked a bit far away when a faint smile crept up on to his face and said, "Well then I'll have a go at it once you've read it."

I found myself getting lost in thought as he did. Julian sitting on his chair, criss-cross, with his reading glasses on, absolutely consumed with the book that was now in my hand. Something in it made him laugh aloud. I wondered what that was.

I sighed lightly and brought myself back to reply, "Sounds good. And what about you?" I motioned at his small pile of books.

"I've got Princess Bride, To Kill a Mockingbird, and this one's called Esperanza Rising." He said while taking his time showing me each cover.