This Was Home [h.s.]

| 7. TICKING |

My eyes flickered, squinting against the sunlight peeking through the windows. I had never been so happy to see the sun out and shining until this moment.

I stretched my body underneath the blanket I was still currently wrapped up in. As I stretched I noticed the absence in our cardboard bed.

Harry.

I stood up with the blanket draped around my shoulders. I had to get on my tiptoes to see completely over all the aisles, but still nothing. This boy really knew how to play a good disappearing act in the mornings.

"Harry...?" I rung out through the gas station store.

Some rustling towards the front sent me a feeling of relief for the first time. If it was anything other than Harry, I'd have already been dead anyway.

"Yeah I'm up here. Come help me pack supplies."

I tiptoed around the aisles as I made my way over to where Harry's voice came from. He was back in his clothes from yesterday except they were dry this time. His eyes darted upwards as I came into view and he pointed to the counter.

"I was able to get your jacket dry but your jeans are still pretty soaked. The sweats are probably too big but it's all I could find. I'm surprised I even found that."

My eyes reached the counter where a pair of full length sweatpants were neatly folded. That sure would've been nice to have last night. I considered mentioning it, but decided against it. Now wasn't the time to be sarcastic, maybe when I woke up more.

I reached for the sweatpants and unfolded them. They definitely would be too big, but not so big they would fall to my ankles if I rolled them up. So it would work for the time being.

As I inspected the pants, Harry looked back over to me and said, "I found a duffel bag and a rolling suitcase in the parking lot. I've filled up the duffel and your bag as best I could with any kind of food and water I could find."

I lowered the pants down so that I could look at Harry.

"Oh good. That should be enough shouldn't it?"

The look on his face dwindled a little and followed with a small shrug, "I mean...for your family of three and I, I would say it would last about a week, maybe a little more if you conserve. Of what I did find, there wasn't much of substance. Mostly snacks and soups."

"Better than nothing," I shrugged.

A lot better than nothing actually. The problem was that there were still about 2 or 3 more weeks until the next scheduled drop.

He looked back down to his feet and then his head shot up like he just remembered something he had forgotten.

"Oh!" He quickly walked behind the counter and raised up a couple of his MRE bags, steam freshly escaped from the top.