“Do you have everything that you need?”, Mom asked as I zipped up a dark blue jacket.

“Yes mother”, I replied with exaggerated exasperation.

“Just making sure”.

“I’m positive that I didn’t forget anything, in between when you asked me five minutes ago”.

“Just making sure that you don’t leave without everything you need, like your keys for example”, she said, jingling them in front of me.

“I was…gonna grab them right before I left”.

“I bet”, she told me, opening my hand and cramming them into my palm, “Just be a little more careful, okay. And make sure to have fun okay. The last few weeks have been more than a little tough on all of us, so a little relaxation would do you some good”.

“I plan on it”, I said, grinning, “I gotta go, they’re waiting on me”.

I gave my mom a final goodbye and shouted one to Nic before turning out of the house and starting down the path to Evergreen Park.

By the time I’d finally left my house, the sun had already begun it’s slothful trek beyond the horizon, bathing the street, trees, and houses laid out before me in a sun-kissed orange. The melodic crunch of leaves under foot accompanied the scene painting the neighborhood in all the radiance of autumn.

Evergreen Park was around thirty or so minutes away from my house, definitely out of my way, but I didn’t mind the walk. After all, a little extra cardio was better than dragging Mom or Nic with me to the festival. Besides being surrounded by nature wasn’t very bad, watching birds swoop down onto feeders, dogs dance through the sprinklers, and cats prowling across front yards granted me a small peace. It was a place for me to relax without worrying about school.

I took in a deep breath and smiled - nature sure was beautiful.

That quiet was soon silenced as I sprinted forward mustering up as much power as my legs could produce. I bounded down the sidewalk, sprang down the street, and tackled a black clad woman to the ground just as the putrid exhaust of a speeding car flooded my nostrils, the sickening odor eliciting a series of sharp coughs. My stomach lurched and my throat burned scrambled for some respite, but I held on until the noxious fumes passed and my head cleared. I rolled slightly away from the woman next to me before dry heaving onto the side of the road, nearly throwing up the lunch I’d had an hour or two ago. After I was done, I wiped the corner of my mouth before scrambling to my feet and brushed stray flecks of gravel off of my jeans with my hand.

“Sorry about the rough landing. I was in a bit of a hurry to get over”, I said, offering her my other hand.

I tried to give her a bright smile - if the shows I’d seen were anything to go by then it was something to reassure her, to show her that she was okay regardless of what might have happened. That was harder said than done, however as my lungs currently felt like I’d inhaled a campfire. My legs wobbled, but I managed to correct them before I could tumble onto the ground.

She sat there gazing at my hand, her chest heaving as she swallowed one gasp of air after another. Looking at her, I couldn’t be sure if she’d heard me. Her eyes remained transfixed, in a glassy stare, to the spot she’d been in a moment ago; it felt like she was staring through me rather than at me.

‘Creepy’.

“Hey! Ma’am are you okay?!”, I shouted, lowering my hand and giving her shoulders a firm shake, “Hey lady, you’re okay right?”

“I-I..umm, please let me go”, she croaked

“Sorry about that”, I apologized, releasing her, “Just…trying to make sure that you’re okay. You are okay, right?”

“I-um, yes I am”, she groaned, centuries of exhaustion being expelled with each word.

She placed both of her palms onto the ground and pushed, forcing her body into a kneeling position. Her knees gave out under her and she slammed back onto the rocky gravel.

“Ow”, she whispered.

“Ma’am I can help you up”, I told her, “It’s no big deal. I mean it’s the least I could do, for tackling you and all”.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m perfectly capable of standing”. Whether she said that to reassure me or herself, I was unclear.

“You just dove in front of a car to save my life, I should be the one asking if you’re okay. I mean look at your hand”, she said.

“You mean the shaking? Don’t worry about that, I had some coffee before I left my house earlier”.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“And the bleeding?”, she asked, gesturing to the thin cuts on my palm and arm.

“...Tomato juice?”, I said, hoping she’d believe the lie.

She probably didn’t.

Her body slammed onto the cold ground a second time. During her third attempt she managed to slowly drag her leg across the ground and maneuver her a half standing half kneeling huddle - the type of stance that made me think of a horse with a bad leg from those ninety-nine cents a month ads I’d see on TV.

“See”, she exhaled, “I told you that I’m fine”.

“Whatever you say ma’am”, I said, hoping my smile would portray any of the doubt beneath the surface, and if her drooping gaze and slackened shoulders were any indication, then it worked. “It's just that…that doesn’t look very comfortable - or stable”.

“I said I’m fine so let’s drop it, okay”. While she hadn’t raised her voice at me, I could easily discern the finality in her tone.

“Okay, I’ll drop”.

“Thank you, I’m sorry it’s just been a…”, she sighed, sagging like a deflated balloon until she was sitting on the road.

I extended my hand and this time she waited a second before accepting the hand and letting me raise her up. She stumbled but I seized her arm and placed it on top of my neck before holding onto her side and escorting her towards the sidewalk. It was a slow process, but eventually we made it over.

“I-I’m sorry about that outburst. I was having one hell of a bad day and then all of this happened”, she sighed again, “Thank you…for helping me”

“It was really no big deal, pushing someone out of the way of a car was actually on my bucket list, so don’t worry about it Ms -um”.

“Michelle, my name’s Michelle Douglass. I’m sorry I should have introduced myself sooner. I’m not usually this scatterbrained”.

“My name’s Alexander Michaels. It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Douglass. If you don’t mind me asking, what happened just now?”

“It’s a long embarrassing story”, she said, a small neck rub accompanying her slightly bashful tone, “I have this problem at my work, and my boss has been yelling at me to get it solved, however I don’t know how to solve it, and I’ve been racking my brain all day trying to figure out how to address it. What you just saw was an unfortunate incident in the day of my life”.

“Is this a problem that you could use an alternate perspective on?”

“Yes, I definitely could, but, why are you asking? No offense, but you’re a stranger”.

“Do I need a reason to want to help people? Besides I have a pretty nosy personality, or at least that’s what people always say about me”.

“I guess telling you couldn’t hurt. If you’re really that eager to help me, then do you know how to catch mice? I”, she paused, letting out a long sigh before continuing, “I accidentally lead some into my office and my boss is giving me hell about it. He’s too cheap to call an exterminator and since it was my “fuck up” I have to show results, or I’ll in even bigger trouble than I already am”.

“I’m sorry about that, it sounds like your boss is a handful.

“Yeah, he definitely is, but it’s not all bad. He was there for me during a really rough spot, so I know he cares”.

“If you say so”, I shrugged,” So about the mice; what have you tried?

“Everything I could think of”, she told me with irritation thick in her voice”, I tried baiting them out with the usuals: cheese, peanut butter, marshmallows, chocolate and so on, but I got nothing. Then I tried to stink them out - you know make the place smell so bad that they had to leave, but I only got my boss more angry. I even tried to smoke them out once, and nothing’s working.

“How did you go about baiting them?” I asked. It was a rhetorical question however - I’d been in this situation before so I already knew her answer.

“What do you mean? I put the bait in a mouse trap, set the trap, and waited-”.

“And that’s where you went wrong”, I instructed, putting emphasis on “that’s. ”Mice are actually incredibly smart animals, so if they think that a trap’s going to snap on them, they won’t be inclined to trigger it. What you should do is place some peanut butter or something on the trap and let them have it - lull them into a false sense of security and have them believe that the traps won’t go off when they take the bait. When you’ve got them conditioned, that’s when you set the traps. Wash, rinse, and repeat and you got them all taken care of”.

“Is that it?”

“Pretty much, patience is the key”.

“I’ve been working at this for almost a week at this point and I’ve been failing because I wasn’t patient enough”.

I could have been blind and still noticed the sag in her posture.

“If it makes you feel better, I was just as confused as you when I had to catch mice. My mom was actually the one who told me the trick, and it’s worked like a charm since”.

“That…actually does make me feel better. Thank you, again. If this works then you saved me a lot of time, energy, and pain”.

“If that’s all I need to do then I’d better get started as soon as I can. Thank you and goodbye”, she said before walking away, her long black hair swaying with each step as she strolled down the street, until her silhouette faded amongst the darkening horizon.

“Goodbye”, I repeated.

She was definitely one of the stranger people I’d met in recent memory. The somewhat defeated tone and informal way she spoke to me reminded me of a child rather than the adult she looked like. I’d only had a moment to myself to really think about the encounter before my phone blared, sending a rock ballad echoing through the neighborhood. I fished through my pocket, stumbling in my haste, before retrieving my phone and looking at the caller id. It was Ryan.

“Hey, talk to me”.

“Get here as soon as you can '', Ryan beamed, his excitement clear even through the phone.

“Why?”

“Three words, Golem…Break…Rooms”.

“...What!”, I said a little louder than I probably should have.

“They got a Golem Break Rooms here, if you don’t get here soon, I’ll just have to go in without you”.

“Ryan Anthony Hara, don’t you dare. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Wait for me”, I yelled those last three words into the phone before hanging up to the sounds of his enthused chuckle.