“Raisins,” Lee said softly, yet with declarative certainly.
“What?”
“Raisins.”
Gunner felt his brow furrow down over his gaze of the bank across the street. “What about raisins?”
“Ugh,” Gunner said, “and you picked raisins?”
“Huh?”
“Raisins. You picked raisins?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Why?”
“Well,” Lee said, considering whether he made the correct choice or not. “I guess it’s because in the apocalypse everything will be pretty much devastated. If anyone survives, I think the first thing people will do is try to establish some level of normal existence. When that happens – I mean think of it. Food, housing, clothes, safety, energy, communications, and plain survival will take priority. The last thing anyone will likely be thinking about is how to get raisins back. At least for a while. I mean, we’ll probably have pizza again before we have raisins.”
The silence between them rose up again, disturbed only by the occasional car passing by.
Gunner Ferryman, real name William, first met Lee Foley, real name Lee, in Mrs. Tanniger’s fifth-grade class at Benjamin Franklin elementary school. Lee, who moved to Cardington from Arizona in the middle of the first half of the school year, was unceremoniously placed next to Gunner because it was the last available desk in the room. Despite their coming from such different places, the two started to talk, then hang out, then they became virtually inseparable.
They had more in common than most. They were both middle children. They both had challenges at home, what with Gunner’s father leaving after his little sister was born and Lee’s father deciding to stay in Flagstaff with his new family. They both like horror movies, fast music, video games, and lazy days.
Thick as thieves, is how their mothers came to describe them independently, and eventually, that’s what they evolved into.
*Editor’s note:
To read other story entries, just search for On any given day at the top of the page.
Copyright © 2019 – The JEFFWORKS
The JEFFWORKS - It's all in the mind 