Writing a New Light

I wake up, what time is it? I see the clock on the wall in front of me, it's already 6 pm. I am a little bit hungry, I wonder if there's anything in the kitchen.

I walk slowly to the kitchen, and I can hear someone there, I think Grandma is cooking dinner.

And yep, she's there. "Can I help?" I ask her softly.

"Can you please chop these carrots, dear?" As she smiles, looking at me. "We're making your favourite curry."

I grab the knife, the cutting board, and the carrot, and start chopping. I am bad at cooking, but I think I can at least cut vegetables.

"Why don't your parents come to visit too?" 

"They're busy with work." I don't know, actually. They never mentioned or planned to visit here for years.

"Your mom is a hard worker, and I think her trait spread to your father too." She says as she's putting the ingredients in the pan. "I remember when she was in her final year of high school, she studied day and night to get into a good university. Sadly, she got rejected, which made her lose it, and she just slept for most of the day for months. She said, 'What do you mean all of my hard work is not enough? What do you want from me? What's even the point of doing anything?' Luckily, she got accepted the next year and now has a good job."

All of the cooking work is done. Now we just wait until it's fully cooked.

Grandma then sits at the dinner table waiting for the curry to cook.

"I want to get something from the store," I say to Grandma, and then I walk outside.

I wonder if Grandma allows me to drink alcohol in the house. Nah, she probably doesn't, I don't want to cause her trouble, too. 

Honestly, I don't even know what I want to buy, I was going to get a beer but then I realized it's a bad idea.

I don't know, I'll just go there and find what I want to buy. If I remember correctly, the store is about a 15-minute walk away.

The streets here are so empty and quiet even though it's only 6:30 pm, and the sun is just starting to set because it's summer.

I can hear my footsteps with the birds and the leaves around me. Sometimes, I think I can even hear my heartbeat. 

The sun is shining from the mountains as it's going down, and the sky is turning more and more red until it goes dark as I arrive at the store.

It's an old family-owned store that's very nostalgic and has its charm.

"Welcome!" Greet the storekeeper. "Wait, are you Olivia?" She asks me. I don't know how people still remember me but I often forget them because I forget who she is.

I think maybe she's the daughter of the owner. "Yes?"

"It's been a while! Why you didn't come here for years?"

"I just don't have the time, and are you, Miho?"

"It really has been a while, haha! Yeah, I'm Miho, I run this shop now."

"Really? Congrats then."

"You're about 18 months late, but thanks! And, what are you looking for, Mrs from the city?"

"I don't know either, I just had a hunch to go here."

"I think you just missed me." She chuckles afterwards.

I laugh a little bit too.

"Excuse me." Someone is coming from the front door.

Miho greets her, "Tomori, welcome! What do you want to buy?" 

She responds, "Can I get a pack of pens? I can't believe I ran out of them this quickly. I don't know where are my pens missing." While shaking her head. She then turns her head to me, just realising I've been standing here  "Oh hi, Olivia. What are you buying?"

"Snacks, I guess."

"Let me get one for you." Before Miho reaches the pen on one of the shelves and then comes back, "It's very annoying, right? I remember back in school I bought a new pen almost every week because I lost it."

I grab a pack of beers from the fridge, I don't know what to get and it's embarrassing if I said that I will buy something and then not buy.

We pay for our stuff and then we walk home together.

"We cooked a lot of curry today, would you want to eat dinner at our home?" For some reason, I want to just hang out with her, maybe I start to feel lonely? I don't know.

"Really? I love granny's curry!" She sounds more excited than I do, the curry does taste amazing though.

I try to crack a joke, "I helped her so it might taste worse."

"I need to pray before eating it then!" And laughs.

"By the way, am I okay to drink alcohol?"

"You do that now? I don't mind."

"Drinking lifts me a little bit."

"Oh, let's exchange contacts!"

"Um, sure."

We added each other, her profile picture is her posing with her students, I guess?

"Are they your bandmates?"

"In my profile picture? Yeah."

She put her phone in her pocket, and said, "Call me if you have problems in the city."

I look at her from the side, she's surrounded by stars in this dimly lit street, I make a little smile and say,

"I will."