Hive

4

Among my list of peaceful places was the tiny bookstore sat a little ways from the garden. This bookstore can now also be added to the list of places that I have run into Erik Maro and let him go.

"Hey Vee, are you looking for something today?" Tracy asked me with a smile. We knew each other well, my visits were frequent.

"Not today, just browsing. Do you have anything new?"

"Not recently. There's no way that you won't find something you haven't read here though"

"I suppose."

I turned down an isle, and there he stood. He reacted before I had a chance to, quickly moving past me and out into the open.

"You go by Vee? Should've told me, I wouldn't have referred to you as Valorie."

"Wasn't really on my mind in that moment."

"Well, I found what I was looking for. I'm going to leave now."

"Okay then, you do that."

And then he walked away, I made no move to stop him. Not here, not now.

The walk home was oddly quiet. No cars screeched around the corner, there were no dogs being walked, or people riding their bikes. There was no humming in my head, but there would be when my father figured out what I had done.

The garden needed watering. It had only rained once since the last time that I stopped by. I could get it done now, but did it really matter whether I watered it or not? I was going to have to move away in five days. I stopped at the garden and watered the plants anyways.

Some of the plants were ready to be harvested. Animals seemed to have picked over quite a bit too. The bucket for weeds could work to carry some of it, but what would I do with the food anyways? Someone else would probably get it, or the animals.