Snakes Don't Bite Their Owners

Stealing Hearts... and Stealing Carrots From a Convenience Store

I've been away from home for so long I'm beginning to forget the colour of my house door. Was it purple? Can house doors even BE purple? Or maybe it's yellow... 

Okay, I know you don't really care about the colour of my house door... you want to know about the thieving. and the boy. and what happens next. 

So here's what happens next:

After we skedaddled on over to the convenience store, I noticed something a little bit strange. Nay, a LOT strange.

See, I was just standing there looking out the window, and then I realised... there was no window. Well, not anymore. It seemed something had ripped through the glass... and now, where there used to be a window, there was just a jagged opening into the outside world. 

It was kind of cold, so I thought I might go find some chillies to snack on to warm me up again.... but then I remembered I have no money. I am as broke as the window.

"How come you were watching me?... in the phone box?"

I probably should have asked that before I confessed my life story to this strange boy... but I guess sometimes you have to do things the wrong way around to make it more interesting.

"Well, it's not every day a pretty girl such as yourself shows up here in the middle of nowhere."

If only I had 5 cents, then maybe I'd be able to buy at least a single chilli seed. 

"Nobody really comes to this store... let alone this stupid town. It's not exactly a hub of excitement."

I tried to respond in morse code using my eyes (that's a fancy way of saying I didn't know what to say, so I just blinked a couple of times).

"My name's Axel by the way. Welcome to lifeless... that's the name of the town. Kinda dumb, I know."

It doesn't sound like the kind of place I want to be spending more than 5 minutes, but I don't exactly have anywhere else to go

"Hello, Axel. I am Harriet."

"Nice to meet you Harriet."

He stuck out his hand like he was pretending to be a businessman or some fancy little French boy from the 1600s. His palms were glistening with sweat and his fingernails were practically non-existent due to the intense biting that clearly occurs on a daily basis. I shook it anyway because he told me his name and I had nowhere else to go.

Then I turned around and accidentally peeked through the crack in the door to the STAFF ONLY room.  

There were men there. 

Men that didn't look very friendly.

"So, uuhhh... what are you gonna do now? There's a trailer park down the road, I could ring up and see if..."

"SsShhH" I twisted my neck around and popped my eyes out of their sockets in an attempt to warn him of the danger waiting behind the oak curtain. I gestured towards the room and by the time I turned back around to face him, he had teleported to the produce aisle.

"HEY."

The men that didn't look very friendly also didn't sound very friendly."

"Hey, YOU. CoMe hEre."

Somehow I had also teleported and was now sitting behind a big box of vegetables. The men were coming closer. I could really do with a couple of chilies right now.

"Harriet, take these."

Axel had just passed me a handful of carrots... so naturally, I tried to open my eyes and wake up from this wacky dream. Except my eyes were already open. I was not asleep. Then I noticed what he was doing. So I followed his lead.

Then we proceeded to throw carrots at two big angry men as we sprinted like lunatics to the other side of the store and out through the gaping hole in the non-existent window. 

This is NOT how I expected my day to pan out. 

Man, I should've grabbed the chilies.