Outside of Our Universe

Chapter 14

After we finish breakfast at the café, Nathan says that he has some errands to do and takes me downtown to accompany him. This is really exciting for me because I've never been downtown to run errands before. It feels like an adventure.

We exit the café and walk downtown. Our first stop is a rectangular beige building in the middle of Central Square. Neatly etched on the top of the building are the words 'United States Post Office'. I'm so excited that I don't even bother waiting for Nathan before going into the building.

The floor looks like a giant marbled checkerboard, with white and black squares covering the floor of the room. On the wall, there is a giant golden clock with Roman numerals marking each hour and minute. I read the clock. Right now it is XI:XV, which means that it is 11:15. There are two American flags stuck on the wall, a bunch of blue machines which say 'Self Service' on them, and obviously, lots of stamps to choose from. But then I look towards a long, long line of people waiting in front of a small booth.

Nathan rushes in behind me. "Wait up!" he calls. "What's the rush? Have you never been to a post office before?"

I don't know if this is a rhetorical question or not.

"I have never been to a post office before," I state.

He opens his mouth to respond, but I'm already running off to line up.

"Come on!" I yell back at Nathan

While we wait in line, I look up at the ceiling lights to distract myself from the boredom. The bright bulbs hang from the ceiling, illuminating the floor and everything around me.

"Quite fancy for a post office," I comment.

After a while, Nathan gets to the front of the line and posts a box, talking to the lady at the counter and signing papers.

"What's in the box?" I ask, jumping and trying to see the papers.

"Telescope parts," Nathan answers. "I need them repaired."

"Cool!" I say excitedly. "You should've had me try to fix them first though."

Nathan laughs, and we head off to our next destination. We walk for 12 minutes before we get to a supermarket called Whole Foods.

"Please tell me you've been to a supermarket before," Nathan says.

"I have been to a supermarket before. My mom used to take me when I was little, but I don't go there anymore," I reply.

"Well, this is one of the best supermarkets," Nathan says. "It's always stocked full. I think you'll like it." We go up to the glass doors of the supermarket, and they slide open automatically, as if they read our minds and knew we were going to come in.

When I enter the Whole Foods store, my eyes are suddenly bombarded by a barrage of colours. Shelves upon shelves are covered with orange, green, yellow, purple, and red vegetables. There are endless fruit stands of mangoes, pineapples, lemons, apples, papayas, berries and practically any other fruit you can think of. The walls are covered by giant refrigerators full of packages of meat and cheese and yoghurt. They even have pots and pots of ice cream in all different flavours, gallons and gallons of skim milk, whole milk, and fat-free milk, and shelves and shelves of different seasonings.

I can't describe how exciting it is to see a new place for the first time. It might be scary sometimes to go to a place where I've never been, but it's so fun to see something new. It is immensely interesting to me to go somewhere for the first time, even if it's just somewhere as trivial as a supermarket.

I run towards the shopping carts and grab one, driving it down the aisles like a race car.

"Slow down!" Nathan exclaims, laughing.

"What are we getting? What are we getting? What are we getting?" I ask him excitedly once he catches up to me.

"Let's start with vegetables," he says, guiding me towards a shelf full of vegetables.

I go up to the vegetable shelf and grab one of every type of vegetable as if I were preparing to load some sort of vegetable Noah's Ark.

Nathan laughs. "No, no, no. We don't need that many vegetables, silly."

He takes most items out of the cart, leaving only a tomato, lettuce, spinach, and some broccoli.

"That's it?" I ask, disappointed.

"Well, it's not like the supermarket is going anywhere," he replies.

"What?" I ask, confused.

"What I mean is, we can always come back again if we need more."

"Okay," I say cheerfully, taking the cart and pushing it towards the fruits.

I stand in front of the mangoes.

"I want one," I say.

"No problem."

Nathan takes a mango from the stand and puts it in the cart.

"Not that one," I say. "It's not ripe enough, and it's too small. Choose this one." I hold out an enormous orange mango.

Nathan laughs lightly. "Okay, mango queen."

I don't usually laugh, but this remark makes me giggle. I take the mango and hold it above my head. "I am the mango queen!"

Nathan and I both laugh our way to the dairy section, where he chooses two packs of parmesan cheese. Then, we go to the spices section and get salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, cilantro, and rosemary.

"Do you actually use those?" I ask.

"Yes," Nathan replies. "Believe it or not, I'm actually quite the cook. All these spices are very important to make a good meal."

"Wow," I say in awe.

We continue to push the shopping cart through Whole Foods.

"Just one last thing," Nathan says. "Follow me."

Nathan leads me through the store to a line full of people.

"What are we getting?" I ask.

"I'm going to get something nice that we can have for dinner," he says. "How does salmon sound?"

I look around. The line is full of people. There are people in front and behind of me. Someone drops their change. Someone coughs. A man to the right restocks the frozen foods section.

I close my eyes and count to five.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5!

1! 2! 3! 4! 5!

I bolt, running as far away as I can until I find myself crouched in the corner behind the mango stand. A tear falls down my cheek.

"Nova?" I hear footsteps running after me. I cover my ears, afraid. Everything around me spins uncontrollably.

"It's okay, Nova. It's okay. Come on, mango queen." Nathan holds out his hand.

I close my eyes and count to five.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

I take his hand and stand up.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

We go to the counter, where a nice lady puts our items in a bag. I try to wipe the fear off my face and ignore everything around me.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Finally, we walk out of the supermarket and start our journey back to the apartment.