“Wow, you had it rough,”
Axel sighs swinging the bag of himalayan salt by his side. “Yeah, but you’ve had it rough too. Your family and all that. I know you don’t want to talk about your death but the little you told me makes me pity you a bit,”
“A bit?”
“Yeah, I have heard of worse but your situation is on my top fifty,” Axel says. He points to the older looking building. “Here’s the church,”
“Shall we go in?”
I grin. “Yes, we shall.”
So, Axel and I are cool now.
I guess spending the entire night walking across the city can make people tolerate each other. We just talked and talked and talked. I learned quite a bit about him and him about me. We went into every single store on the way to this far away church after the one we wanted to go to was closed. We found the pink salt in the storage room of a local ridiculously expensive Whole Foods. We laughed like madmen when we found it. I’m still high off the fact that we have it in our possession.
I don’t know Axel entirely but I am closer to him somehow. It’s like we knew each other before or we have some kind of bond. I don’t know. I’m just rambling but I like being around him.
“Let’s go before they decide to close up or douse this place with sage,”
I grimace. “We don’t want the sage. It makes my eyes burn,”
We walk through the open door and our eyes immediately latch onto the vessels in the far hard to reach corner of the large room. “Jackpot,” Axel whispers.
We inch over into the almost empty room, the marble smooth against the soles of our shoes. Axel takes a small water bottle and fills it up. He hands it over to me grinning. “We did it, we’ve got it,”
“Yeah, let’s get out of here” I tell him.
We exit the church and begin our long journey back. His short hair rustles in the morning breeze. He smiles as the sun’s rays kiss his face. He tilts his face up as we walk on the empty street.
“You knew Jess, right?” He asks with his eyes closed.
“Yeah, we were friends,” I reply, putting the water bottle in my bag.
“She moved on?”
“Yeah, she did,”
“Oh,” He says, peeling open his eyes “So, she actually did it.”
He frowns and becomes stiffer than before.
“Were you friends?”
He rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, we were friends. She found Token Street with no problem.”
He laughs, his eyes smiling. “I was so shocked when I saw her there reading every book in sight. She was funny too. Best company I had in years. I am happy but I lost a friend.”
I understand him. A hundred percent. I feel what he feels.
“She’s in a better place. I am sure she’s happy where she is,”
“Oh, I’m sure of it,” Axel replies.
We amble down a few blocks in silence side by side. The roads are waking up with cars and people crawling to life. By the time we reach the library, it’s well into the afternoon. We reach the steps up to the library when Axel stops in his tracks.
He digs into his pocket and takes out a reddish rock. He breaths an audible long breath. “Hey, Anwen?”
I turn to him. “Yes,”