Been a while, but I’m back with a new one. The word of the day is: Distend (to enlarge, expand, or stretch out (as from internal pressure))
Kenyan knew the money wouldn’t last long. He’d hoped to make it two, maybe three more weeks on the severance, but he’d gotten hungry for real food. Wendy’s twice a day wasn’t doing his stomach any favors, but that trip to Trader Joe’s had cost him twenty four dollars. That was three days on the 4for4 menu.
He nestled into the shrinking shade of the Ironwood tree, holding his purchase in both hands. He’d splurged on the sandwich and probably bought more fruit than he needed. When he was a kid he’d read stories about pirates at sea and they got scurvy when they didn’t eat enough fruit–oranges if he remembered correctly. He wasn’t sure, so he got oranges and apples and two bananas that were still green enough to be good in the morning. They were still in his car, a Toyota Camry that was old when he was still in diapers. It ran well. His dad had a Toyota once. He ran that thing for nearly 400,000 miles until one day the old man tried to turn in on in the driveway and the car just said no.
Orange rinds lay at his feet. He watched a line of ants march towards it as he munched greedily on the sandwich. He felt the weight of it settling in his stomach and smiled. Eating good mattered, because when you ate good you felt good, and when you felt good anything seemed possible. That interview at three seemed possible.
He sighed, watching the highway. Cars raced in both directions, people heading somewhere in a hurry. When the virus first hit he’d watched the roads go from a snarl of traffic to near empty and now back to what he referred to as ‘school break’ levels. He wondered how many of these folks were actually going to a job and how many weren’t going anywhere at all.
Kenyan’s stomach hurt.
He stopped chewing and put what was left of his sandwich in the recycled plastic pouch it came in. His stomach gurgled and he looked down at it. His belly was bulging. That was unusual. A burp escaped his lips. It tased like the sandwich and the oranges and the apples before that. Perhaps he’d overdone the healthy thing this time.