The day started with the rattling of metal on cold tiles. The sun was just starting to rise, but Joon had been up for hours. Her shopping cart's wheels ground on the supermarkets floor, screeching to a halt as she narrowly missed hitting an old women.
She was frantically looking for the new Star Wars themed macaroni. It needed to be the yellow and blue box, with stars all over the top. It needed to be on aisle 7, right with all the other regular macaroni. Joon was going to grab it, and buy it. She flew down the aisle, out of breath, eyes searching, hopeful. She saw the regular macaroni, even the kids macaroni, with the stupid dinosaurs. But there was no Star Wars macaroni. None. Zero.
They were supposed to be there. Joon had looked up the supermarkets website. The one in Winthrop Place didn't even carry the new boxes yet.
Why weren't they there? They had to be there.
Joon blew out an angry breath, chest constricting.
Frizzy whips of red hair flew into her face as a young women and her child walked in front of her, grabbing a box of pasta beside the macaroni section.
They were completely unaware of the panic attack burning hot coals in the pit of her stomach.
Things needed to be perfect. She had done everything perfectly. She had taken the Northbound train from Winthrop to Lexington. She had put exactly $30 in her wallet, just in case. The macaroni was only $5.25. She had checked the supermarket's website 10 times on the ride over. The empty spot on the shelf mocked her.
Joon's looked down, when had he hands started shaking? Hot tears ran down her freckled cheeks in in perfect time with the rain running down the supermarkets windows as she left. She waited for the bus under the grimy covering. Thunder and lightning painted the sky, it was 7:46AM.
Joon put her headphones in, playing her favorite David Bowie playlist. Bowie was her absolute favorite, because of his shared love of anything space related. She often wished there could be life on Mars. She dreamed of floating off to meet them. Joon used to listen to him on constant repeat after what had happened.
As she returned to the city, a sea of blue and red lights illuminated her face as she passed the east side of Winthrop. Joon assumed something must have happened by the old Winthrop pool and empty playground. All the teenagers used to go down there to smoke and make trouble in their youthful boredom.
Joon had only been there once, last Christmas. When she had gone, snow had covered the sidewalks in white clouds of gloom. But something about that place always felt cold, even in the heat of July.
She should definitely go check out whatever's going on by the old playground. Maybe even sneak under some caution tape or something and get into a spot of trouble or find out something she wasn't supposed to know.
ReplyDeleteIm really curious about what happened that made her so obsessed with space. Also, does she have some kind of psychological disorder that makes her so extremely focused on the macaroni and get so upset when they don't have it? I also want to know more about why she spells her name Joon instead of June.