Short Stories

RE: ◀◀

The signs on the window lured me inside. For a dollar I could get two eggs, toast, and potatoes. I know that the proper word to say would be bread, but thanks to a certain someone, I've been calling it toast for a while now. As I looked around the store, I notice that it's empty, which I find kind of unbelievable considering how pretty sweet this deal is. I placed the eggs, toast, and potatoes in my shopping basket before making my way over to the cashier. As expected, there's no one there either. I decide to wait patiently for someone to come ring me up, and after around two minutes, nobody comes by. I didn't feel like waiting any longer, so I left some change for the food, and helped myself to a paper bag to put my stuff in.

I walked out of the store, and the sun's intense rays blind my eyes momentarily. The town's an absolute mess, it's as if someone decided to renovate the whole town, but in a really crummy way. Everyone in this town is either dead, missing, or fled for their life. Although, there's still some people here, at least I think so. Either way, in a couple of decades this town will have people in it again. Probably.

"Did you get the stuff?" My friend, or maybe companion - I don't really know what we are to each other actually - Dalia, runs up to me. She takes the paper bag from my hands and peers inside. She hums to herself, and seems pleased with what I bought. She asks me, "Was there anyone inside?"

"Of course not." I reply, "I mean look around you, you really think there'd be anyone here?"

"We're here." Dalia shrugs, then snickers when I frown at her. "Don't be such a stick in the mud Simon, what's wrong with a little adventure?"

"An adventure to a town that was abandoned due to unknown explosions, does not seem very safe, or fun in my opinion." Dalia frowns at me, and turns around to walk in the opposite direction, and she makes a hand gesture for me to follow her. We walk side by side in silence for a while, accompanied with the occasional gust of wind, or the chirping of a robin, perched up high on the remaining trees. We pass by a few more abandoned buildings before resting at a broken bus stop sign.

"You know... You're kind of weird." Dalia says to break the silence. I scrunch my nose in disagreement. "And this is coming from the girl who calls bread 'toast'. Yeah, I'm the weird one."

"It sounds more tasty that way." She claims, "Besides, if you don't like the way I do things, you're always free to just... You know, do your own thing." She smiles like a cheshire cat. "I have all the time in the world, so it doesn't bother me that much." Dalia chuckles at that last bit.

"Ha ha, very funny." I reply flatly, "Anyways, what are we waiting for? You don't actually expect a bus to come here do you?" My sentence gets cut off when Dalia shoves the paper bag into my arms. Rude. She pulls out her own wrist watch, and adjusts the time. She keeps the hour hand spinning as if several days passed, and when she stops the hour hand, the sound of a bus honking it's horn catches my attention.

"What the..." I look back to where we came from, and the once destroyed town was now replaced by a new and renovated town, bustling with people all over the place. I then glance back up to the broken bus stop sign, only now it wasn't broken. It was fixed, and it looks as new as ever. I turn myself around to face Dalia, who was already inside the bus. I decide not question her any further, so I get on the bus and pay for the both of us, before joining her at the back of the bus. I sit down beside Dalia and say to her, "You know, you should really quit that habit of yours." I shove the paper bag into her arms, and she makes a pouty face.

"What habit?" Dalia asks innocently, but she very well knows what I'm talking about. I point to her watch and she rolls her eyes. "Oh please, don't be such a baby, at least we got a ride."

I groan to myself as I sink further into my seat. As I glance out the window, I can't help but look back to the town we were just in. "You know, now that town is, I guess fixed... It seems kind of familiar." I take a peek at Dalia, and her hands tighten around the paper bag. "But," I add, "that could be me just being 'weird' again." I see that she loosens her grip on the bag, and I'm pretty sure she just sighed in relief.

"Oh, that reminds me!" Dalia perks up, and reaches into her back pocket. "I have those cherry candies you like so much." She holds out two wrapped up candy balls, and hands one over to me. I take it and fiddle with the wrapper before popping it into my mouth. I mutter a small thanks to her, and she smiles warmly in return. I roll the ball of sugar and artificial flavours around the inside my mouth for a bit before looking over to Dalia, who of course, is already taking a nap. The candy tastes good, and it was indeed my favourite kind, but the thing is, I don't think I ever told her that.