you would not believe your eyesThat old couple was real nice. Even if he didn’t need to, Maik enjoyed stopping at the outpost whenever he happened to be walking along Highway 95. They seemed happy. Really happy. Very nice and funny and it was always a bit sad when he had to finally leave, but he had a job to do and he promised to be back around when he was making the return trip. He was positive that he would. He didn’t take into account that such ideas about the future could never really be guaranteed in the world of today.
Munching happily on the chocolate bar that the lady had been sweet enough to give to him, he crunched peanuts between his teeth and caramel stuck to his chin. When his tongue failed to reach it, he rubbed the heel of his palm up beneath his lip to clean off his face. Whenever he enjoyed simple things like a good chocolate bar, it made him wonder—did he like that candy bar… before? Before he’d woken up in that hospital, before he’d been a Maik with no memories in his head. When he’d been doing whatever he’d been doing before the accident, had he enjoyed a chocolate bar like this? Did he crunch the peanuts on the left side of his mouth or the right side? Did he often get caramel on his chin? They were little details that he wasn’t sure mattered, but they were details of a stranger that was himself. He was curious about it.
He was distracted by the need to wipe off another string of caramel from his chin.
Walking peacefully along, savouring his candy bar and listening to the thump-thump-thump of the head of his baseball bat dragging behind him, he wandered down the very middle of the road. The sun was hot against his back. It was hot against his candy too, chocolate melting swiftly beneath the hold of his fingertips. Flashes of light glinted against the dusty metal of abandoned cars. Occasionally, he leaned to peek inside a car, just to make sure there was nothing inside. If his hands weren’t full and his fingers weren’t dirty, he’d check the doors and do a more thorough search inside. But his hands were full and his fingers were dirty—and just because the people were dead didn’t make it any less rude to get chocolate prints on their leather interior!
if ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep