The Sweetest Berry

Chapter Two - Donna

I take some bread and slap some mashed avocado on it and grab my cold glass of milk. I try to rethink my life decisions, and why I decided to stay in this horrid, hellish town. Why did Bella and I refuse to move to Swekenfield? Swekenfield was much more beautiful and it didn't have any problems in the past, and it doesn't now. The town literally was soaked and drenched in harmony and togetherness. The town wasn't split apart between which part was rich and who was poor. The following questions arise and linger through the emptiness of my mind:

Why did I make the poorest decisions when I was younger?

Is it too late to move to Swekenfield now?

I chew slowly thinking about how bad this day could be. I'm usually an optimist most mornings, hoping for a finally-perfect day, but it's just not coming to me right now - and it probably won't for the rest of the day. Today's paper is on the dining table and I reach for it. In big bold letters at the top of the page is the main story:

Mayor's Brother's Family Dead. Autopsy Shows Poisoning.

I can't take any more of this. Every week at least 100 people die because of some unknown disease, or whatever it is. No one even knows what it is. We'd never seen something like this, except until 6 months, starting in December. Even after taking thousands of tests for thousands of diseases, we don't know. I flip to the back and it shows a picture of 3 young people. I read the story and I wish I hadn't. Three people died in a bar called Anchor's Bar yesterday because of some kind of poisoned drink. The bartender, Evangeline South, was arrested and her first court trial is in four days. Maybe it's all her fault, she could be causing all the deaths to occur. But, again, that wouldn't make sense, many people died in different areas that were far away from the bar.

I try to ignore my negative thoughts and hear Mom yelling at me for an ice pack. I mutter something and slither off the chair. I look for an ice pack in the mini freezer we have but no luck. It's not there. This was a new low, too poor to afford a goddamn ice pack. I groan, exasperatedly, and grab an assortment of Ziploc bags full of peas, corn, and chunks of carrots from the freezer and throw it on the couch next to where Mom is sitting. She bruised her knee and hip after the great fall. As much as I wanted her back, she was getting on my nerves. She makes everything disorganized and messes things up. I'm a perfectionist and I like having everything nice and clean. She keeps on ruining our house. She keeps on throwing grenades in the middle of our relationship and I don't know if I can handle it. But I can't help it. I'm too nice to ignore people, much less my mom. Mom's birthday is at the end of this week, June 18. Should I get Mom a gift? Bella for sure isn't going to.

I grab my laptop from the table and aggressively open it. I type in my password and scan my bank account. It hurts too much to look at it. I had really wanted to go out for dinner with my colleague, but now even my money problems got in the way of having fun. I had never considered the amount of money I had a problem, maybe a slight bump in the road. But now it has taken over my whole life. I sigh, rubbing my temples, I try to overlook the bank balance and delete the tab.

After having breakfast, I'm about to head to my job. I finished college two years early which is why Bella's still in college, so I took up a special research job. It really is special, only 25 people were given this job - between North and East Haling Cove. My job is basically finding out why the people that reside in Haling Cove are dying so quickly. It's only a 2-mile walk, to the center of East and North Haling Cove. The General Hospital is for the less privileged people, you could say, for people like me. South and West Haling Cove have a hospital too, but it's much nicer, like the rest of the things there. As soon as I walk out the door, I freeze as soon as I hear the loudest explosion possible. It's too scary to turn around, but I have to. I started to smell smoke, too much smoke, so I guess I should go check out what happened. A smell of burnt cupcakes floats around and lingers in the air. I walk to the kitchen and see my mom covered in ashes and soot. I sigh loudly, realizing I was definitely going to be late to work today.