Stepping out of his front door, Samuel saw that the night was dark and the stars were invisible between the bright security lights on each street corner. He only ever went grocery shopping at 1 am because he wouldn’t run into anyone. He was the sole tenant in an all but abandoned neighborhood. As the sole resident of this neighborhood, he had no landlord. That is to say, he was a squatter. No one would rent to him or do business with him in this town. He couldn’t even drive a car because the DMV wouldn’t allow him through the doors. He roughed his black hair and straightened his well-worn denim jacket. He got on his rusted bike and rolled down the empty street toward the all night superstore–the only place where he was allowed to shop.
When he arrived, there were exactly seven cars in the parking lot. There should have only been four. There were other people here and he was scared to go in, but he hadn’t eaten in two days. He needed food. He grabbed a cart and went inside. He kept his eyes down and made for his things quickly. He grabbed a bag of potatoes, a bag of apples, a few cans of spam. He found a 5 dollar bill on the ground recently and decided that he wanted some brownies as well. It had been too long since he’d had a good brownie. He grinned especially wide when he picked them up and placed them in his kart. He got so few treats these days.
So far, he had avoided whoever else was here. Maybe they had parked there for unrelated reasons. He hoped that was the case. He kept his eyes down, however, as he was forbidden to make eye contact with anyone else in town.
He turned the corner from the produce into the dairy and grabbed a gallon of milk then he spotted someone. It was an enormous woman dressed in a pink moo-moo in front of the eggs. The final thing he needed was eggs. If he didn’t get any, he’d run out of food two days early again and be hungrier next time he came back. He could only come on certain days of the week. He approached quietly, being sure to keep his eyes down. He looked around her to see if he could still reach the eggs. He couldn’t. He gripped his cart hard and tried to speak. “E-excuse–” he coughed. He hadn’t spoken in days and cleared his throat. “Excuse me,” he said, timidly. “Can I get to the eggs please?”
The woman turned. She apparently hadn’t noticed him there before. He couldn’t see her face because he obeyed the rules and kept his eyes down. He wasn’t allowed to make eye contact, but he could speak to people if it was necessary. She grunted and turned back to her cart, which was filled with cookies, bacon, and gallons of milk.
Samuel spoke up a little louder. “I’m sorry. I-I can’t reach them. Could you please let me past?”
She turned toward him again. “You like eggs, huh?”
Samuel nodded his head. “Yes. They’re one of my favorite foods.” He immediately regretted this. He hadn’t spoken to anyone else in so long. His heart half-hoped it could be a normal conversation. He still kept his head down, though.
The enormous, pink woman turned to the eggs, pulled out a carton and opened them. She put them under Samuel’s line of sight. “Are these good?”
Samuel was confused. “Yes. They should do. Thank you, ma–” he couldn’t finish his last word as she smashed the eggs against his face. She took an unbroken one and slammed it down onto his head, breaking the egg, and knocking him to the floor. The remainder, she pulled out of the carton and threw at his face, one at a time.
“I know what you are, scum! Now take your eggs and get out of here!”
Samuel scrambled to his feet, now covered in yellow and transparent slime. He slipped several times as he took hold of his cart. The woman had moved aside. He grabbed another dozen of eggs, placed them in his cart, and walked to the front of the store as quickly as possible.
The store had self-checkouts so he could avoid talking to anyone else. After ringing up his food, he paid with the cash he had and took his bags out to the basket of his bicycle.
He almost hoped for rain to wash the eggs off, but it never rained here. The safety light above his head blinked out and he looked up. The stars were not the ones he remembered back before it all happened. But they were beautiful. That reminded him that he could go to a place with no light and see all the stars. He smiled a little and remounted his bicycle.
After showering and changing into his other set of clothes, he rode his bicycle along the empty streets he lived on to their end. Here, the wires had fallen off the safety lights and riding his bike felt like navigating through the inky void beyond the stars. More often than not, he would come upon the guard rail at the end of the road and nearly flip over it. But he didn’t this time. He stopped, locked his bike to it, and went on foot through the grassy field beyond–his box of brownies in hand. The terrain was flat, but the view was spectacular. The cosmos above was blended in shades of purple and black, interspersed with stars and planets that he didn’t remember from the time before they came here. He walked slowly up to the edge of the field and sat, dangling his legs over the rocky edge.
This was where their world ended now. His feet dangled above an endless universe of nebulae and stars. Looking beyond the gap in space before him, he saw the beauty of the cosmos, swirling in an eternal dance. He pulled the box of brownies up into his lap and popped them open. He munched one and sighed deeply.
This was life now. Whatever that meant. He would live as a pariah for eternity, as far as he knew. Or maybe he would grow old and die. He knew he couldn’t kill himself. He’d tried. But for now, he was content to stare into space, eating his brownies, and waiting for whatever would happen next.
Uncertain 