Road Through Spring

Chapter 1: Working Hard or Hardly Working

 The shop bell dinged as the usual midnight blue cat made her appearance. She hopped up on the counter, sliding over to the register where her crocodile friend stood. "Hey, Bea! Are you free to hang out today? I have so much energy right now!"

"Nope, just got a new shipment of rock salt, as well as several calls about furnace repairs. Winter is our busiest season."

"Aww, please? Why can't you just ignore the calls and have some fun?"

"Believe it or not, road trips cost money, and the method by which you get this money is through a thing called work." Mae groaned upon hearing the same lecture for the 5th time. "I explain this to you many times. If you promise to be on your best behavior I'll let you come along."

"Nah, I think I'll try talking to Gregg. Last time I went with you I didn't get to do anything. If you get locked in a basement again though just let me know, I'll bash your way to freedom!"

"Hehe, I'll keep that in mind."

"Well, see ya around Beabea." The cat waved to the crocodile and exited the Ol'Pickaxe.

"Later Mae."

~~~

Once Mae had made her way to the Snack Falcon, she was - surprisingly - met with a hard-working fox who was in the middle of trying to multi-task restocking shelves, and manning the register. "What's up Gregg? You wanna hang out today?"

"Hell yeah man!" He looked back down at the box of snack bags and let out a sigh. "But unfortunately I can't. Someone forgot to restock the shelves for this week. Christene found out about the whole smashing light bulbs thing so I am kind of on my last thread. As great as it would be to quit and just hangout..."

"Yeah... I know... Bea has already gone through the whole money talk with me earlier."

"Sorry dude."

"It's okay," Mae assured and was about to head out.

"Hope ya slip into the road and get run over!" Gregg called out.

"Hope ya get crushed by a box of cans on the top shelf!" Mae shouted back with a grin before exiting the store. The smile didn't last long as she started walking back home. Gregg and Angus were working hard and would be moving out of Possum Springs for good in the upcoming year. The winter rush has left Bea buried in her work. Mae stopped in her tracks as her heart began to sink as she came to a terrible realization, she was getting left behind.

~~~

Mae kicked off her snow-covered boots and sprawled out onto the empty couch, staring up at the rose-red ceiling paint, absently finding random patterns, shapes, and figures that form as paint dries. "Well, this sucks." She said to herself and reached for the tv remote and flipped on the tv. She flipped through several channels of static before landing on the "Garbo and Malloy" program that her father watched as much as I liked hanging out with her dad, she didn't much care for the content the program produced, but at least it was consistent. Something that hasn't changed.

She spent hours watching the program before it chained into several ads and promotional material. She had long since tuned out. Tuned out the tv, tuned out the world, even tuned out herself. Everything was just, there, it existed, it was all just stuff, just shapes. She was alone, surrounded by nothing but shapes. The shapes didn't care whether she was there or she was somewhere else. It didn't matter to them what happened to her. Because all they were, were just-

"Your home early," her mother's voice brought her out of her downward spiral. "Something happen?"

"Oh, hey mom. Yeah, I'm fine."