“Nothing to apologize for,” I told her, then turned to leave the room.
“And thank you,” she added softly.
Those words, however, were enough to make my weary legs feel light again. God, I felt like such an easy mark for letting one little show of appreciation raise my spirits to such an immense degree—but boy, did it ever feel good to hear.
“Don’t mention it,” I said on my way out the door.
Wielding my plastic umbrella like a massive greatshield, I charged through the frozen downpour. With the rain suspended in midair, there was no need for any overhead protection—I just had to repel the droplets that hung directly in my path. That being said, there was only so much surface area I could cover with a single umbrella, so the bottoms of my pant legs were still getting soaked. I did consider just taking them off completely, but even in a world plucked out of time, I was nowhere near ballsy enough to go running around town in my underwear. Especially not while holding an old lady’s umbrella out in front of me like a weapon. I owed the poor woman a life debt as it was; the least I could do was not traumatize her local community after all she’d done for me.
Not that she had much choice in the matter, I guess.
I picked up the pace. Even though I’d gotten a couple hours of sleep, I was still feeling pretty exhausted, and my legs were as sore as ever. I wanted to hurry up and find a grocery store or mini-mart as soon as possible so I could get back to the house and rest. The number of single-family homes I was seeing had definitely started to increase, though, so I figured I couldn’t be too far away from one or the other… Worst-case scenario, I’d just have to go around pilfering tiny bits of food from all the nearby houses one by one. Not like it made much of a difference when we were going to steal regardless—and right now, I had to prioritize Akira’s health over my own personal moral code.
After walking down the road for another hour or so, I noticed retail establishments starting to pop up here and there. These were only small local businesses, of course—but I figured if I followed these signs of civilization like a trail of breadcrumbs, they’d surely lead me to some sort of grocery store sooner or later.
And sure enough, after walking a bit farther, I found one. It was a pretty run-down little establishment, with the dull, flaking paint on its antiquated billboard clearly signaling its age. I hurried inside and quickly set about cramming my backpack full of anything and everything I could think of that might help someone recover from a cold. Let’s get some bananas, some yogurt, some canned peaches, a couple of sports drinks, a few snacks…
“Damn… This is getting kinda heavy.”
The straps of my backpack were now digging deep into my shoulders. Maybe I’d crammed it a little too full. But I definitely didn’t want to run out of food and have to come all the way back here, so I decided to just try to haul everything home with me as best I could. As always, I bowed apologetically to the cashier on my way out the door, even though I knew it was a pointless gesture.
Upon stepping outside, I had to stop to catch my breath as I beheld the strange and astounding sight that lay before me. There was now a clear and obvious path leading back the way I came. Or, no—it was less of a path and more of a tunnel through the storm. With time stopped, the wall of raindrops I’d bored my way through with the umbrella had remained politely swept aside. This meant that the exact route I’d taken to get here would be perfectly preserved until the timefreeze ended. I could follow it safely back home without having to worry about awkwardly clearing a path again.
I grabbed the old woman’s umbrella from the rack outside the store, leaving its canopy collapsed as I gripped it tightly around the middle and marched triumphantly down the path my earlier efforts had carved out for me. It was a funny feeling, even though I understood the mechanics—as if the world itself was laying out the red carpet for me in apology for the back-breaking ordeal it had put me through. This brief reprieve was almost enough to make my pack feel light on my shoulders, and for me to forget the toll of exhaustion this whole pilgrimage had taken on me, if only for a moment.
But it was still an arduous, hour-long walk to get back home with my heavy load of food. By the time I made it to the old woman’s house, I was utterly spent yet again. After tottering through the front door, I yanked my shoes and socks off, then crawled up the stairs to the bedroom where Akira was sleeping. She jerked awake at the sound of me opening the door, twisting her neck to look. As soon as she saw that it was only me, she relaxed and let her head sink back into her pillow.
“…Knock first next time,” she said.
“Oh, m-my bad. Totally forgot…”
“It’s fine.”
This was the sort of thing she normally would have completely blown a gasket over, but it seemed she didn’t have the extra energy to chew me out right now. I let my heavy backpack fall to the floor with a thud, then sat cross-legged beside her.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“A little better, I think.”
“Glad to hear it.”