INFINITY

0.4 - The night that changed

January 20, 2003
12:10am

"The same thoughts again?", She asked, her voice drowned in curiosity.

"Yes, it's hard Mart, to get over traumatic experiences, especially if it's from your childhood. It still burns like a fresh wound in the back of my head", I said.

She simply motioned for me to get up to have our dinner as if I just haven't told her
the answer to what she had been asking me for months now.

She immediately pointed to her eternal peach bag with a wide smile on her face as she noticed me sitting blankly. She sat next to me comfortably as if the wooden floor was a 200 dollar couch.

''What have you been upto?", she asked stuffing her mouth full with chicken. "Work" I answered plainly.

She stared deep into my soul as an confirmation to make sure I'm not selling drugs by meaning "work".She must've been satisfied by my silence because soon after, she resumed eating.

>>>>>>>

She knows very well what I meant by 'work'. I usually run errands for people and go jobless on other days .

Just then, I frowned thinking about today's work. I picked up a fight with a bastard who ended up paying us 50 bucks when it was 100 that we agreed upon. Obviously, I did not get paid and chose to keep Martha in blind light to escape a scolding.

This was also the reason I worked as a waiter or a florist frequently even if the pay was staple. On my luckiest job hunting days I get paid 5 dollars an hour for copying documents. Either way, it's hard to make a penny.

Martha sighed as she noticed me space out, again .

"Finish your food before it turns into the next north pole", she said indistinctly.

I have never been a fan of poetic devices while she loved them. She would've become a writer if her mom didn't kick her out. I really wish I could go back to that day, when we first met each other and to force myself out of that mud pit in that playground rather than be friending the most cheerful girl I found, Martha.

I was forced out of the thoughts of my past by the chewing sounds that peeped out of Mart. I practically drooled watching her eat and picked one for myself.

I followed my routine. I thanked her and started munching on the chicken.

She had been the one to get me dinner every night for the last 5 years and the only one that witnesses my grateful smile every night when she gets me food.

Just then, she told me something I didn't and wouldn't expect ,

"I know you'll probably hate this Chase, but I have persuaded my boss to assign a job for you".

Before I could open up to refuse she added,

"I know it's hard for you to get help from me but, I want a company with me while I'm walking down those dead-empty streets. Consider this as me asking you a favour for making you my bouncer", she said while her hands rushed to steal the second last piece of chicken before I could, refuse.

I stared blankly at the last piece of chicken she had left me. She has been this way ever since we met, she's the only one that has been for me, though I really wish she gave up and had her way with her life.

I took the last piece of chicken she left me and stared at it as if it was packed with all of our stories.

I replayed the lines she said in my head all over again, she have never asked my help before.

I knew I would have to agree to it but I was going through the crossroads I could use to escape this, to make her change her mind .

Soon, the package and the empty atmosphere came to my realisation. A package now sitting where Martha did.

I opened the package and my eyes widened. It was an expensive suit, atleast worth 6 months of my salary, with a RAL 3015 light pink coat and pants, with it lay a note that read,

"Chase, I know you won't accept this but, you need to be dressed well for some people to look deep into your talent, into your heart. I don't us want to go through all of that again. So please consider wearing this, just on your first day. Consider this as a loan from me. You must return it".
From,
'your lovely Mart'.

As I looked into the letter more carefully, I saw right through the effort she put into the letter. She tried so hard to explain the situation and her best attempt to not call me broke. I envied it.

Before I knew it, I passed out on the floor due to exhaustion,

The last sight being the vivid stars that gleamed through the cracks of the roof.