Define

chapter one

It's usually very cold in the evening in Mr. David's house, but today he let us use a couple of his firewood. It was an unusual thing for us to have this luxury. My mother always tells me to be thankful for Mr. David for letting us stay in his house, under his roof. I'm still waiting for the day he's going to come up to us to tell we can't stay any longer. Mr. David is an old man who lives on his own, if you don't count my mother and me' because his wife lives somewhere far away from his little house in the woods. Mrs. Loren lives behind the wall. Behind the wall the people live an happy life. At least better than us. It's a beautiful city with lots of nice buildings and houses, which come with plenty of food. My sister lives behind the wall, she's so lucky I tell myself every day when I wake up shivering because it's so cold. I only see my sister once a month, on visit day. She tells me she has a job behind the wall and she's fine. I believe her, I mean how can you not believe a girl who looks so clean, healthy and happy I must add. Only if it was for me to live like her, I can only imagine.

I'm still walking in the woods on my way to the village. The distance form Mr. David's house to the village is roughly 25 minutes of walking. When I finally get to the village ,or should I say what's left of the village, I turn in the street on my left into the pharmacy. The pharmacy has a little wooden door with a hole at the place where the doorknob used to be. The windows of the tiny building is not even a window. From one point to the other point of the window frame hangs a plastic trash bag looking thing. I open the door with my elbow, not even thinking about using my hands in this cold weather. The dirt and mud falls from my shoes as I step in the building.

'hello Emma' the boy behind the desk says. I walk over to him and reach out for the little package he already set up for me. The package is wrapped in yellow paper with a stamp on it with today's date.

'how's work going?' I ask him and trying to put the package in my coat pocket.

'not so good, I'm very tired because I didn't sleep well the past three day's' he answers me rubbing in his eyes. His eyes are a warm brown color, like the leaves in autumn with tiny specs of hazel in it. He truly is charming if he wasn't a friend of mine, and unfortunately much older than me if you're thinking. A fat man with a filthy face walks in from behind the desk. He looks very stern at me and crosses his arms over his chest. His plaid blouse is way too small, the sleeves almost come up to his elbows. His hair, -the couple strands he still has-, look like it's smeared with wax and is glistering.

'I think I should go, I talk to you later Sam' I bring out before I exit the tiny building. I walk as fast as I can into the woods with the package in my pocket. I hold my coat closed with my hands because the button fell of one time when mother hand washed it. She never took the time to sew it on again, so I guess I have to do it myself. The wood threes and the crescent moon are my companion to home tonight I guess. I wish I owned a motorcycle, it would be so much easier to go to the village then. Without it the way from the village to Mr. David's house looks so damned far. I walk this path every now and then when I need to go to buy some bread or like now go to the pharmacy. Mr. David never really works, he just sits there in his chair with one armrest at his front door facing into the woods, thinking about absolutely nothing. Now I think about it, I never really had a legit conversation with him. Like sometimes he would say 'go buy my medicine' or ' find wood for tonight' but that doesn't count. My mother on the other hand talks too much though. Sometime I tend not to answer but within seconds she's will be standing behind you like a ninja. My mother is a ninja I guess.

When I come up to the house's pathway I see, as I told, Mr. David sitting at his front door in his weird chair. He has a bowl in his hands, which means mother made food. Finally. As I walk to the front door passing Mr. David I give it a try and make a comment, just to see what his reaction will be, if he's going to give one, because he looks so damn fascinated by his soup he might forget my existence.