Rhapsody of the Soul

✨Old Man✨

**Miss Tia (above), she's about 45-ish** She's not married and she "had" kids but I'll explain that later 😉

**Also there's a song here too. Its bad sorry😂** ^^^^

As Janova opened the door, the chimes hanging above her head jingled, excited to greet one of the outlet's regular customers. Miss Tia was bickering with an "old man" at the checkout counter.

He wasn't even a normal or typical old man. He was old, like nearly dead old. She'd never seen anyone like that. The man was about the same height as her, around 5'6-ish. The man looked like he was extremely wise and trusting. He gave her radiating Uncle Iroh from avatar vibes. He wore a golden color *kasa and a long white *kimono, marked with small defined details. His long beard hung down just above his waist, white as a white blank canvas board, ready to paint on.

One thing that made Janova's skin itch was wearing white. Who the fuck wears that bland ass color? Not that there's a problem with it, but it seemed that she couldn't wear white without getting a stain on it. Once she fucked up and got her first period wearing white, she hasn't had that color on by itself since.

Janova continued to listen in as she collected the items from the list and stuffed them into her basket. "I simply don't understand. Who doesn't like tea? Tea is a delicacy and should be enjoyed by everyone." The man said with desperation. Miss Tia groaned and massaged her temple, "Look my guy, in this town we thuggin'. Ain't nobody gonna drink some damn hot, nasty, bland ass leaf juice." The man replied, "Shame on you! How dare you say that?" He cupped his hands together and brought them up to his chest and sighed dreamily, "Tea is an extension of the soul."

Miss Tia groaned once more and said, "Ok, look walmart Iroh, we don't sell tea here. Please go before I get disrespectful" She gave him a threatening smile, turned away and walked to the back storage room. The old man grabbed his tan bamboo staff that was proped against the counter and began to move away from Miss Tia.

"Look at this fool, acting like Iroh from damn avatar. Why would he come to this broken down town to buy some damn te.......oh shit" Janova stopped mid sentence and glanced at the hand that had tightly grabbed her wrist causing her basket of groceries to fall. "Hey baby I'm taking you home." A drunken middle aged man spoke. "What the hell..." she breathed out quietly. Nova hated when she froze. You'd think that she'd pop back off, but no. She planted her feet and stayed put. She stared back at the drunken man, desperately trying to pull against his force, though being stiff and frozen at the same time.

Suddenly the old man appeared in front of her. He was in a fighting stance, bamboo staff pointed at the man's face. "Move along and leave..... the.... girl." The old man said calmly. The thug looked at the old man with a twisted up face and said, "Bitch, what the fuck you gonna do to me with that shit?" The old man kept his composure and stance, glaring at the thug. The thug clicked his tongue then said, "I got goons and we'll come get your old ass later." He roughly let go of Janova, walking toward the outlet's door. He stopped midway and looked at the old man, "We'll get your ass...watch us"  The old man stood back up normally and smiled. "Thank you" Janova said still in shock. She must have been holding her breath, because she started to breathe heavily. "Of course. We elementals must stick together" and after saying that crypted message, he winked at Janova, bowed and walked out of the outlet.

Janova stood there puzzled, "What the fuck did that mean?" She recollected herself. Nova shrugged off her question, bent down to pick up the basket and made her way to the checkout counter. Miss Tia greeted her with a warm smile and said, "I'm sorry baby, I was fixing something in the back, and I didn't see you struggling with that man" Janova stacked her groceries on the counter while saying, "Its all good. Stuff like that always happens to me. I'm used to it." The cashier twisted up her face replying to the young girl with concern. "Well baby you shouldn't."