Dakota Girl: Chapter 3

          By the time I had reached the hardware store, the day after I had met our land lord, my legs felt like they were going to fall off and I felt like I was going to have an asthma attack.  The good thing was, the was a bench inside the store, so I was able to rest a little while before I started  to find what I needed and write the prices down in my sketch book. Luckily, my search didn’t take too long; it actually was taking less time than I had expected. However, as I was trying to find the last thing on my list, I began to have issues. I went from isle to isle, trying to find pieces of wood that would replace those that came off the shutters, but I couldn’t find anything. Just as I was about to give up, I sensed something behind me just as a voice asked, “Can I help you find anything?”

      When I turned around, there was a really tall boy, who was waring a shirt with the store’s logo on it, smiling at me. He was about 5’7”, which was only a few inches taller than me, and he was really tan for someone who had green eyes and light brown hair. Absentmindedly, I began to stare at him, curious of whom he was. “Um…,” he said after a while, looking uncomfortable, “so, do you need help?”

      That snapped me out of my stare and made my cheeks burn a little, “Yes, I need help finding something to replace the pieces of wood in the shutters. I’ve looked around and, so far, I haven’t found anything.”

      “Is that so?” he asked thoughtfully. All I could do was nod; I still wasn’t very good with talking to total strangers when I wasn’t really sure of what I was doing, especially people who are my age. “Well, I’m not sure if we carry anything like that around here, but I can check. What are the measurements of the pieces, that might help our search?”

      “1” wide, 3” long and 1/8th” thick.” For a second, he just stared at me with wide eyes, a little taken-a-back that I knew exactly what the measurements were.

      However, he just smiled, nodded, and said, “Please follow me. The manager will know.” It didn’t take long to find the manager, since it wasn’t a very large store, and he said that there were pieces that matched my measurements, but they would have to order some more. I thanked him quickly, noticing that there were a lot of people in the store who probably needed help, and started for the door. When I got outside, I noticed that the sky had gotten brighter since I had first entered and I pulled my baseball cap down to cut the glare. Once I had done that, I made my way back home the way I had come.

      It seemed like I was walking for ages, the only sound was the scuffing sound of my sneakers against the dirt road. Home was only three miles away from the hardware store, but in the heat of the day and a growling stomach, it was almost unbearable. I guesstimated that it was about 80 degrees F around me, but that didn’t make me feel any better. In every direction I looked, all I could see were green fields upon green fields upon green fields; it began to get tiring after a while. And the fields were the last things I saw for a while, because all went dark.