I am running a Patreon drive in the month of September! Every Monday in September, I’ll write a short story based on suggestions from my patrons! You can toss some words or ideas into the pot at patreon.com/melodytaylor. $2 get you in the door, because I know people ain’t got a lot of money and if a wave of a thousand $2 bills hit me every month, I’d be set to do nothing but write new books for life. You want me to write you a new book faster? This is how you can help make that happen. If I don’t have to work full time at a job, I can work more on writing. Win-win!
Thank you SO SO much to everyone supporting me and my writing on Patreon, and thanks a mill to my newest patron, Tiffany!
This weeks story is based on the suggestion from Annie Taylor (totally related, thanks baby sister!) that I write about someone going about their errands while the world ends. Please enjoy!
Sugar
A siren erupted in the cool spring air, a droning wail that made the cat’s ears flatten. Was it Wednesday? Maude couldn’t remember. Perhaps it was. The sirens seemed to indicate that, being such a sunny day and well before tornado season in the Midwest. She mentally adjusted her place in the week and set the plastic bag on the table.
On the small television on the counter, which Maude had muted, a man and woman seated behind a desk looked very grim about something. Maude didn’t care for bad news. She changed the channel with the clicker, but the next channel showed the same. And the next, and the next.
Hm. Must be very bad news.
She ignored the television and started unpacking groceries.
Eggs, only half a dozen; milk, a small container; bread, she could only get that in a whole loaf and would likely throw a lot of it away when it bloomed green spots, such a waste. She came to the bottom of the bag and found nothing more.
Outside, the day had gotten quite a bit brighter. Very bright, almost like sunrise. Maude reached out and pulled the shade. She would raise it again once the sun sank past the tops of the trees across the street. A wind seemed to have blown up, making the branches of those trees shiver.
Maude tipped her plastic bag upside down. No more groceries came out.
“Oh, sugar,” she said. “I forgot the butter.”
