Whispers on a Wing

Chapter Four

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!!
Hope everyone has an amazing time and stays safe 😘

I hated dumpster diving with a passion. It stunk, and the bins behind the town's supermarket were always so warm due to them being sat in the sun all day, but it was the only way I had found to get a reliable source of food. I much preferred it to stealing, I had gotten fairly good at it over the years, but it didn't stop me from disliking it. I always felt so guilty for swiping something from a shop, it didn't matter that it was something I needed, it just felt wrong.

Once I arrived at the town store I snuck round the back and quickly climbed into the bin. Thankfully it didn't smell too bad today as the sun hadn't been as warm as it could have been for this time of year. I started rifling through the cardboard boxes, careful not to make any of it fall to the floor or make too much noise and alert the employees that I was here. Searching through someone else's rubbish wasn't a crime, but I definitely wouldn't be welcome. That and the fact that it would blow my cover of having a mum who looked after me and actually cared for me and bought me food.

Thankfully there seemed to be a decent amount of stuff here today that I could take back with me. I unfortunately couldn't take any food that needed to be chilled, thanks to the lack of power at my place, but I could take things like out of date bags of pasta and other dried foods. If I was really lucky I'd sometimes find jars of Jam or a loaf of bread to take back with me. Sure it'd only last a day or two, but with the amount of food I could put away at one time, that never really mattered.

After I was done searching through the rubbish bins I flew home and proceeded to cook dinner from the things I'd managed to get. You'd be amazed at some of the things supermarkets had to throw away, and for no better reason other than it wasn't the right shape or the sell by date had passed. People often didn't realise that the sell by date was just a guide, usually products could last for days with no risk to their health.

I didn't mind though, it meant more food for me.

I had managed to find a few bags of pasta that had been mislabeled by the company, stating that it had been made in 'itly' instead of 'Italy' and according to the shop, that was grounds to throw it out and not sell it. Probably for fear of someone suing them or something equally as idiotic for false advertising. It did mean that I had about a week's worth of high carb food that I could live off though, as I said, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

I walked into the old kitchen and retrieved a large saucepan before filling it up with water from one of the water carriers I had resting on the kitchen counter, before making my way outside to the fire pit. It wasn't as impressive as it sounded, it was just an area round the back of my house where I had dug the ground out slightly so that there was no risk of the fire spreading. Over the top of the pit I'd put an iron mesh which I used as a flat surface so that I could cook things over an open fire without losing it to the flames if it toppled over.

I poured a full bag of pasta into the cold water and sat down on the edge of the pit so that I could light the kindling underneath. When I had first started living on my own I didn't have the first clue about how to do these things. Something as simple as starting a fire so that I could cook some food or keep warm was almost alien to me, and it took me several attempts and a youtube search at a local library to figure out how to do it with any success. I had learnt that the logs and kindling you were using had to be dry if you had any hope in hell of the flames catching. You also had to start with something small and flammable, like bundles of dried grass or pine cones for it to work before you can add the bigger logs. It had been a learning curve, but thankfully it hadn't taken me to long to get the hang of it

The one thing I could never figure out though was how to start a fire with just some flint or with friction. I had tried many times, but gave up quickly and just used lighters or matches after my millionth attempt. I'm ashamed to admit that I'm the one that goes around asking for a light and then never returning the lighter. I always justified it in my head, as I needed it a lot more than they did. Being able to eat was a lot more important than lighting up a cigarette that would eventually kill them.