Quarantine

Mayra walked around the grocery store when she got off of work. It was just to pick up a few things, but when she got there, she remembered that she needed to restock the entire kitchen. The grocery store was small and had a lot of knock-off brands and maybe two name brands. Mayra didn’t buy the name brands anyways. They were usually more expensive when the cheaper ones tasted the same and didn’t have the higher price. She liked to save money in case of something bad happened.

She wondered through the halls when she ran in to Stephen Tailor. Mayra averted her eyes when she saw him and hoped he wouldn’t say anything. She had always found it awkward when she saw him around town. It was that she was jealous. It was just that Stephen made flirtatious moves towards her. Of course, she was probably overthinking his words like she did with practically everyone.

“Hey, Mayra. It’s been awhile,” Stephen said with a wide smile. His brown hair hung in his face, and his blue eyes seemed to sparkle with something that Mayra had never seen. He looked over her and smiled. He could admit that she still looked amazing since high school, but he was just saying that because she didn’t have a kid.

“Hey,” she said dully as a stand of blonde hair fell into her face. She looked at him cautiously. She wanted to shrink into the floor or have some reason to get out of the conversation as soon as it started. “Yeah, it’s been awhile. I saw Ava this morning at the coffee shop.”

Stephen nodded and said, “Yeah, she won’t take a day off. I’m starting to think she is starting to overwork herself. I’m starting to worry about her, and she won’t really listen to me when I talk to her about it.”

Mayra looked at him as she thought back to this morning. Overworking could explain what was going on with Ava, but that didn’t really seem to fit even Blake would agree with that. Ava looked so frightened to see Devon which really didn’t make any sense for her. Ava would have had a wide smile for him even if she was overworked. Mayra knew that something was up, and not just with Ava. The whole town was acting weird.

“I’m trying to convince her to hire some more people,” he said, not noticing that Mayra had gone into her own thoughts. He really wanted to talk about this to someone because he didn’t have anyone to talk about that knew Ava like Mayra did. He knew that they weren’t friends anymore, but it just seemed like Mayra was the only one that was close to her. “I’m thinking of just finding someone who will work there, but I can’t think of anyone.”

Mayra didn’t know what to say. She just looked at him, trying to think of what he would want to hear. “I think that would be your best bet. I remember her being stubborn,” she said, hoping that would get him lost in his own thoughts.

“Can you think of anyone that would be good for the job?” he asked, oblivious to her wanting out of the conversation. He was getting desperate about this and needed someone to help him with this.

Mayra shook her head softly. “No, I don’t,” she replied, shifting her weight to her left leg. She looked for ways out of this more now.

Steve sighed and nodded. “Well, I guess I’ll see you later. I shouldn’t be late with the groceries,” he joked. It was a lame joke that no one would laugh to, and he didn’t expect anyone to laugh at it.

Mayra gave a small smile and pushed the cart in front of her down the aisle. She really hoped that she wouldn’t see him later. She knew that she would be thinking about the conversation later while she was trying to get some sleep. Knowing Mayra, she would be analyzing every word that was said for no reason. She overthought a lot of things that happened. It was both a blessing and curse. It was mostly of the later because Four Trees didn’t get big cases. The biggest crime that happened out in this small town was a speeding ticket and running a stop sign every now and then.

She hated when she analyzed things that didn’t need analyzed. She would stay up for hours, thinking about why it happened or how it happened. On some nights, she wouldn’t get any sleep from those things.

She sighed and tried not to think about it anymore. She got the rest of what she need and went to the check-out counter. The cashier was a brunette high school girl who had on too much make-up for a job in a small grocery store. She was probably dating some guy on the football team or the baseball team. Those were the two major sports that this town had.

Mayra noticed the look of annoyance on the girl’s face. It wasn’t directed towards Mayra, but more or less towards having to work. There wasn’t much talk between the two other than ‘have good evening’ and ‘thank you’. Mayra pushed the shopping cart out to her car to put the bag of food in the backseat of her car.

There was something in the air that made Mayra shiver. It wasn’t that cold, but there was something off about it. The people didn’t look right, and there was pressure in the air like there was something big coming. Whatever it was made it very clear that it would change the everyday life of Four Trees, and Mayra felt very uncomfortable. She was starting to hope that she was wrong about that feeling, so much that she wanted to act as normal as she could. If she was wrong, she would have to find a way to fix it. It was her job as a police officer to make sure this town stay normal.