Daime

Pancake Mix

I had to admit, when I had a mug of chicken broth in my hands, that it felt really good. I smiled at him, and happily drank. “Thanks. How come you have so much food? You made pancakes and this, and here am I, everyday struggling to find myself food.” “I’ve been lucky.” I look at him, and for once, he’s not exactly smiling. “How so?” I ask, curious, to hear his story. “I’ll tell you once… After you have decided I can stay here and after you tell me what happened to you”, and boom, his smile is back. I roll my eyes, for the tenth time this day. I don’t answer him, but just watch outside. “Look, the rain stopped. We could go out. I don’t have any food left I think.” “No need, I have some.” “You know, I need more things than food… Can’t walk around in your hoodie forever.” He shruggs, but says: “Fine.” I take my backpack from upstairs, and he takes one too. “You can lock the door, since apparently my door-close-skills can’t keep you out.” I walk out the front garden, which is a mess. Weeds are growing everywhere, and there’s garbage all over the place. I have no idea what exactly happened. I was at school when suddenly, all mobile networks went down (which of course, we noticed immediately), electricity went down, gas and water, everything, basically. Life turned into chaos, and quite soon people were scavenging supplies, breaking into stores. I managed to stay away from it mostly, until that one disastrous evening. Ever since, I’ve been broken and alone, trying to stay alive in this world, and I hate it. “I think you can stay” I say as we walk down the road, on our way to the town. He looks surprised my way. “You sure?” he asks, sceptically. “Yeah. I don’t really like being alone” is all I say. I know he wants to ask more questions, but I think he realizes that I’m not going to answer his questions. “Well, that’s allright then. We can go scavenging together, I’m really good at this stuff.” He smiles at me, but it’s not his dazzling bright smile, but a genuine smile. We roam the outer regions of the town, where the houses are seperated from eachother by large gardens and double garages. The first door we try is answered by a rock from a window above, thrown at my shoulder. It hits, but I don’t care about the pain. The second door is the same, and the third is locked. Even Lionell can’t unlock it, so we leave the house be. I glance up, and I think I see a small face, a child’s face, looking at us, but I’m not sure. The old me would have checked, but there could be more people in that house, and I don’t want to risk it.  Instead we walk towards the fourth house, and when I push against the door, it opens slowly, creaking. We step inside, Leo goes first. It’s just another family home, that has been abandoned. The hallway is scattered with shoes and coats. There’s quite a bit of dust when I move one, so I’m guessing this house hasn’t been visited in a long time. “I think we’re lucky, looks like nobody has been here for a while.” Leo just nodds and opens the door to what I think is the living room. It turns out to be the kitchen. It’s a large modern kitchen, and without speaking, we both walk to another side, opening cupboards. Some are filled with pans, plates and glasses, but others contain food. I find crackers, peanutbutter, more pancake mix and chocolate. Quite a good haul. Then I notice a door in a corner, and I hope it leads to a basement like my grandparents used to have. I was always amazed by the amount of food stored there when I came down when I was a child. My grandmother loved to make jam, and she always had at least 5 jars of jam in that basement. The door indead led down, and we entered a basement that wasn’t as large as I’d hoped, but well filled with all sorts of canned vegetables, two sacks of potatoes, bottled water and many more supplies. I filled my backpack until the top, and took a large shopper from the basement that I filled with cans. Leo filled his backpack too, with the potatoes and a bottle of water. He looked happily at me. “Now that’s a good catch”. I nodded in agreement. “The best I’ve seen so far. We should try to take as much as we can before somebody else discovers this place.” Leo took out another bag that he started filling. “Look, I found pancake mix!” I laugh. “Am I going to eat pancakes for breakfast every day now?” He raises his eyebrows. “Is that a problem?” I feel so happy, so elated, that I drop my bag, swing my arms around him and say “Of course not!”, and then I quickly step back, embarrassed. He laughs at me, and I give him a friendly punch. Only now I realize how alone I’ve felt, and I’m glad I woke up to a stranger in my kitchen this morning. We leave the house with full bags. We checked upstairs for clothes for me, but apparently, only men lived in this house, so Leo has another bag of clothes and I still have one set. Although I really like this hoodie so I might just claim it. We walk home whilst it is getting dark. There’s nobody out on the streets. People keep to themselves, hiding in fear. The walk home is silent. The house I've taken is a modest one: it's a small modern house, no garage and only a small garden. Upstairs is only a bathroom and one bedroom, downstairs a livingroom annex kitchen, a basement and a toilet. The basement was filled with camping gear, including cooking gear and bottled gas, which allowed me to cook. As we walked into the street where I now lived, I felt uneasy. Leo walked in front of me, his pace full of energy but I felt tired so I slumped behind. I looked back multiple times, expecting to see someone or something following us, but all I saw was the darkening sky. When I finally reached the front door, that Leo had already unlocked and opened, I could barely keep my eyes open. Leo smiled at me as I dropped my bag to the floor and immediately crashed on the couch. "Tired?" I nodded. "I'm hungry, you?" "No... I only need sleep. You can make something for yourself" I say. He nodds and disappears into the kitchen, and I fall asleep. When I wake up I'm covered in blankets and towels, and Leo is sleeping in a chair. I feel like my head is on fire, and I'm pretty sure my temperature is higher than it should be. I push everything covering me away, and make my way into the kitchen. My head is thumping and my throat sore. I drink half a bottle of water, I know it's too much but I can't help myself. I reach out to my most precious possession these days, a jar filled with medicine I've gathered. There's quite some painkillers, all different sorts, some antibiotics, anti-allergy pills and some other pills. I take out one painkiller, and swallow it with another gulp of water. I don't even realize the nasty taste and make my way back to the couch. Leo should have taken the couch, or the bed, but I'll tell him that tomorrow.