Hunters

The Small Shop

I was happy, for the most part.
Now that my brother was buying a cake! That meant that soon it would be his birthday!
Even though he didn't know where he would hold it.
That was the exciting part, for me.

All week I had been naming different places for his birthday.

Though he had rejected waterskiing, rock climbing, video games, disco ball, space camp, beach party, the Fair, and even roller skating! I wasn't going to give up.

I watched the bluebirds soar from our lemon tree to the pomegranate tree,
we hadn't been lucky enough for lemons this year, but our pomegranates had come out, one on each branch. The bluebirds ducked down and, fluttering awkwardly, they made it to the first branch, and slowly ate away at the fruit.

Suddenly, I heard someone yell from behind me, 'GET OUT OF THE WAY!' I leapt up, just in time for a bike to swipe by and for HIM to pull the brakes, he got of, and glared at ME.
Joshua.

He crossed his arms and wrinkled his nose, 'What were you doing on the side of the road like that? What a insane thing to do.' I folded my arms, 'Well you didn't have to run me over!' He scoffed in a matter of fact way. Then he got back on his bike, 'I'll see you at Nathan's party. Pipsqueak.' Before I could yell at him, he drove of, I hated being the younger sibling. Hated.

I called out to Nathan, who had been sitting inside for the whole hour since I came out.
He appeared in the doorway, he walked toward his bike and drove of, leaving me following like a puppy behind him. He parked at this small building that I had seen before. It used to be a supplies store, it was small and usually unnoticed. But when the manager mysteriously died from a heart attack, people didn't like to go to the store anymore. It fell out of business, plus the manager's son couldn't keep up with all the work since he was so young, now the place looked so bare.

There were two windows on the outside that looked in. Inside was nothing but white walls, white floor, and pale sheets that covered couches and desks. The front of it had withered flowers in pots placed on a shelf attached to the window. A tarp covered the space above the flowers, shielding the poor flowers from rain. The tarp was once red, but now was white, as were the poles that held it up, and the door,
In a sea of colored buildings stood one blank. The door had windows, but the door also  had shutters that were closed completely. Then there was a small paper sign that said For Sale, there was one thing different about the blank building,
The sign now said Sold.

In 30 years no one had bought that small building! Not one person. I wasn't even alive 4  years ago.
My brother had his mouth open. I'm pretty sure I saw a bee fly in it. But he didn't care. Right now, in both of our lives, we had never seen that sign change. We thought it had been molded into the building. It was witchcraft if it said anything else.

And that's when we saw a man walk by us, and open the door.