Dear Diary,
Today was fresh produce day at the farmer’s market warehouse. It should have been an easy day of shopping but it wasn’t.
After a little persuasion at breakfast, the Davis brothers agreed to be my armed escorts for the day. The boys and I traveled from one side of the market warehouse to the other in search of affordable fruits and vegetables. I shopped, purchased and haggled as Matt and Jonas kept vigilant guard over our red wagon protecting our food from the slippery fingers of the gutter rats.
The day was going good until I stopped to examine a basket full of pears and haggle with a farmer. That’s when chaos broke out. Xavier and his goons enter the market with the grace of a bull and started knocking over tables and stealing food from vendors. It only took a moment for the orderly crowd to turn dangerous.
Like a bulldozer, Xavier shoves his way through the crowd. He picks up a slow moving gutter rat and tosses her to the side. Not expecting a flying child, people fall to the ground like pins in a bowling alley. Xavier grabs a basket of tomatoes and tosses it to one of his goons. The proprietor isn’t pleased and yells “THIEF!” Xavier flips the man’s table and punches him in the face.
“Keep an eye on our wagon!” I shout to Matt and Jonas. The Davis brothers attempt to maneuver us through the crowd and out of the warehouse but fighting delays our progress. A sneaky gutter-rat takes advantage of the bottleneck at the doors and reaches into our wagon. He steals one of our cucumbers. Jonas grabs the little thief by the scruff of his collar and retrieves the vegetable. From the expression on Jonas’ face, the gutter rat must have smelled like road kill. For a moment, I thought Jonas was going to puke.
Pulling the red wagon, Matt reaches safety first. Jonas not far behind grabs me by the arm.
“This way!” he shouts as he pulls me out of the warehouse.
The Central Sharks managed to start a gang war on the grounds of the produce market. It makes no sense. Why can’t they haggle like everyone else? In an attempt to end the fighting, Sheriff Pete and his Posse of deputies release several canisters of tear gas into the crowd.
“Why do the Sharks have to be such butt heads?” I snapped at the Davis brothers.
I was frustrated. I have always hated the unexpected; it throws me off balance. I grabbed the red wagon from Matt and started walking across the grass median toward home; a subtle clue to the Davis brothers that I needed them to do what they do best.
“Let’s go home….Protect our wagon at all cost!” I ordered. I probably should have said “please” but it didn’t occur to me to add a pleasantry.
“Don’t we always?” Matt replied sarcastically. The look in his eyes said he was getting irritated with me and feeling very under appreciated.
Jonas rolled his eyes and readied his weapon. Attempting to sound like Mr. T, he says, “I pity the fool that tries to steal from us.” The attempt at humor made me laugh. Matt wasn’t amused.
Brandishing their weapons, Matt and Jonas flanked the red wagon. The walk home should have only taken a few minutes. Unfortunately, the gang war the Central Sharks started inside the market spread to the surrounding neighborhood. We watched Sheriff Pete and his outnumbered posse of deputies attempt to intervene and stop the fighting but their efforts were mostly unsuccessful.
The road home was dotted with several unexpected road obstacles and route changes. Several of the local gangs were firing guns at each other. The three of us spent a great deal of travel time huddled behind trash dumpsters and broken down abandoned vehicles. Matt was faithfully guarding the wagon but I could tell he was thirsting for a fight. I could see it in his eyes. Jonas would have blindly followed his brother. I couldn’t let that happen. I punched Matt in the shoulder. “Stay focused, Matthew. I would like to make it home alive!”
Matt gave me an evil glare. If I had been a man, he would have punched me or shot me in the head.
By the time, the Davis brothers and I stepped onto the front lawn of the school, JT, Evan, Tristan and Mia had returned from Wolf Valley. They were unloading the newly acquired winter fuel. The expressions on their faces and bounce in their steps indicated their journey had gone well. It was a relief. I had been worried they would run into the red hyenas or some other gang looking for a fight.
“Evan!” I yelled from across the lawn. “How’d it go?
”Good…” he replied as he continued to unload. “No troubles at all…I think we got enough fuel to last us through the winter.”
My decision to send people to Wolf Valley instead of fighting the Central Sharks was a good one.
“Nice job!” I replied joyfully. “I knew you guys could do it.”
I looked at Matt and snidely remarked, “See, fighting isn’t always the answer.”
Matt stowed his weapon and pointed a finger at me. I had hit a nerve. He was pissed. “You know what…,” he said. The look in his eyes suggested he really wanted to rip me to shreds with his bare hands. “…the next time, you need armed escort don’t come looking for us.”
Matt slapped his brother on the back. “Let’s go Jonas. Madie can unload the red wagon all by her high and mighty self.”
I need to work on my people skills. I wanted to say “I’m sorry…I’ve been a horrible person today.” but I couldn’t get the words to come. I just stood there holding the handle of the red wagon feeling like an ass.
Yours Truly,
Madie