Before Daniel had gone to work, he had gone to the natural grocery store, just right across the Barnes and Noble. He was going to go in and get himself his lunch. For the last few years, he’s really tried to eat nothing GMO, soy, or chemicals. He’s tried to be like the other vegan hippie college kids that ran around Boulder. They may have been freaks, but they were healthy freaks. And Daniel wanted to be like them more than anything. ‘
Daniel went into the crowded store, looking at the fruits. He grabbed himself a green apple and placed it in his little basket. He got a pear, and then string cheese. He would read the back of most packages. Even in the healthiest of stores, there were still things that could kill you.
He had always wanted to have a garden. He always wanted to grow his own food and make his meals from starch.
He remembered being a little boy and seeing his mother in the garden. She went place him with his brothers on a blanket, giving them some books to read as she worked on their garden. He loved that garden. It was the only thing that didn’t get torn away from his childhood.
Lost in memory, he accidentally ran into someone.
She turned around and saw his face. The girl looked no more than a teenager. Seventeen at the most. Her long blonde hair was fizzy and uncombed. Her eyebrows and eyelashes matched the light hair. She was wearing a blue beanie, with a too heavy for her coat. It made her look like she had chicken legs.
She looked too skinny for her own good. The girl blinked at him.
“I’m sorry,” Daniel said.
She just coughed and nodded. She was looking at the medication. Cold syrup by the looks of it. “It’s okay,” she finally mumbled. “I wonder why medication is always so damn expensive.”
Daniel was caught off guard. He didn’t think she was going to say anything more than a few mumbles. “It’s the drug companies; they make money off of it. Honestly, just some normal chicken noodle soup and bed rest would do you better.”
She looked up and saw what he was wearing. The way that she had looked at him, and made him nervous. Her eyes were hard, cold almost. “Are you a doctor?”
“I’m an RN,” he answered.
“What’s that?” the girl asked.
“I’m a nurse,” Daniel explained.
“Oh. I didn’t know that. Do you heal sick people though?” the girl asked. Daniel didn’t know how to answer that.
“Um, yes?” he said in a more questionable tone.
“Can you help me?” she asked. Daniel sighed. He didn’t really have that much time, but he didn’t want to leave the girl. Something about her drew him in, like a kitten in a free box. When he looked into her heart cold eyes, he realized there was more to them. She looked like she had seen a few things that she should not have.
“Sure,” he finally said.
“I have this really bad pain, right here,” she said placing her hand on her right side, just a little above the hip. “It just hurts so much. I can barely walk.”
“What color is your pee?” Daniel asked.
“Uh?” The girl asked in shock. “Um, it’s like a yellowish-brownish color, I guess.”
“You have a bladder infection, that’s all. How long has the pain been going on?”
“A week, I think?”
“Just go home, drink some water and rest, okay? That’s all you need. And this,” he said looking at the medications. He found an orange one and handed it to her. “This should help with the pain.”
She almost laughed as she took the bottle. Daniel could tell when she got a sharp pain when she would hold her hip. “Sounds simple,” she said almost sarcastically.
There was something about her, some reason that he couldn’t just simply walk away. “If it gets any worse, you can go to the hospital.”
She looked up to him, studying him almost. “I guess I would be warmer than where I am.”
Before he can ask what she meant, she walked away. For a moment, as she disappeared around the corner, he found himself feeling empty as if his soul had left his body. He tried to get the strange girl out of his head, trying so hard to just walk away.
He grabbed a few more things, realizing that he needed to get to work. The place was getting a little too crowded.
People always freaked out and there was a blizzard coming. And for some reason, it was always the milk and the bread that would go first.
As he made his way to the register, a scene was going on. What looked like a manager was yelling at somebody. He held onto the girl that Daniel was just talking to moments ago. He watched with horror as the manager was practically fighting her.
“Thief!” The manager screamed.
“Let go of me!” The girl screamed back.
“Call the police! We have you on camera!”
“You can’t do this to me!”
“I know you been coming in here and stealing! I finally caught you!”
Everyone was staring at them. Everybody was a bystander, not doing anything to help anybody. They were just looking, without thought. For a few seconds, Daniel pondered what to do. He shouldn’t get in the middle.
But he did.
“What is going on?” he asked the manager.
“This girl has been coming into this store in stealing stuff!”
“What did she steal?”
“This bottle!” It was the same one Daniel had suggested for her to use. He didn’t realize that she was going to steal it.
“I’ll pay for it.”
“No! I want her to go to-“
“Sir you can’t legally hold her. And you legally cannot physically touch her. Let go of her right now,” Daniel said. It must’ve been the tone, or the way he was standing, that the manager did as he said.
“It’s $15.78.”
“Jesus Christ’s, no wonder why she stole it. She sick as hell, and your medication is not high? Are you serious? Here,” he said thrown at 20 at him. “Keep your change, and I’m never shopping here again.”
He took the bottle and put a helping arm around the girl’s shoulder. He walked out without looking back. Once they were outside, and down the street at that, they stopped. He let go of her, and gave her the bottle.
“Why did you steal this?"
She crossed her arms. “What’s it to you?” She grabbed her hip again, and he knew she was feeling pain.
“Do you have a place to stay?”
“Um . . . .”
“I asked do you do you have a place to stay. It’s important.”
“Well . . . I . . . have . .. “
He sighed and took out $200 dollars from his wallet. “Here, there supposed to be a blizzard tonight. Get some food, and find a hotel to stay at.”
The girl looked at the money in his hands and then looked right at him. Without thinking about it, she quickly snatched it, and ran away from him. Daniel watched as she ran and ran. He thought about the situation that unfolded in front of him.
He felt that he should have done more. But what else could he do?
ns 15.158.61.20da2
