This is a short story that I am currently working on; definitely not finished with it yet, just a little stuck on where it should go.
Hot. It was so hot…again.
The earth had felt as if it were getting hotter everyday, or it could’ve just been me and the fact that I didn’t find a place with a roof for the past couple of days that would’ve kept me away from the morning sun. It’s rays stretched out so far towards me. I sweated in my sleep, even at night when people had found it the coolest. This was the season I sometimes wished I had one of those spinning things that people carried around with them; some of them even sprayed water out on your face. The thought of my face being cleaned made me smile up towards the sun.
I was thirsty. So thirsty, every morning. I never felt as if I had enough water to drink. I never had enough of anything. I was always a few pennies off from getting a cup of coffee or a dollar or two off of getting a complete meal since none of the things’ prices were what they said they were on the menus. They always charged me what they called ‘tax’. Then I started memorizing how much the things I wanted costs. Do you know what it is, sometimes, to not have enough? Most of the time. Sometimes I walk back and forth for hours, in the train station, at a decent pace, trying to find pennies…nickels, dimes…a quarter if it were that easy. I make sure to go slow so not to miss out on anything. I did once. I saw two quarters laying next to the sewer cages that laid on the sidewalks. I feared them, never walked on them, not even tip toed when I had one of my non-sober moments. I was always afraid of falling through one, one of those sewer cages where you could hear the trains deep, deep below.
As I bent down to pick up the two quarters, my body movement came to a standstill, coming up I saw the biggest, shiniest brown eyes staring back at me, right in front of my face-so close that I can nearly touch the person’s nose with mine. Genuine was a feeling I hadn’t felt in years and now it was staring right back as I saw it through the reflection in her eyes. I had become conscience of myself. My appearance was rough…my face dirty, plain and dull. As I got a good look at the young girl’s face that was looking at me, I noticed…her eyes were big out of fear; she was scared of me, probably because I was bigger than her. Her eyes appeared shiny because she had been crying; I don’t know whether it was then, or now- the simplest answer was that I didn’t know the reason, the hardest thought to process was that I didn’t know why I wanted to know what made her cry…
