The city contains an inordinate amount of retail space, even still, every store always seems to get a lot of foot traffic. It makes it feel as though the general pastime for people here is shopping. I hum and churr to myself as I take an exit ramp off the highway I’m currently on, leaning a little in my seat as the ramp loops back under the highway and quickly comes to a stop in front of a set of lights, now red. I turn on my right side signal and pull up to the lights, carefully heading out against after a brief stop with no other traffic around to speak of.
It’s early in the morning, with the sun just starting to brighten up the scene out my wind-shield as the horizon begins to brighten, street lamps slowly turning off one by one as they succum to the growing light. This road runs out of the city and along a smaller section of the river that flows though it. The river splits further up stream forming this smaller copy of itself, trapping a thin island between the two currants. Between the road and the river lie two railroad tracks, aged and infrequently used. Even in the out-skit of the city the love of retail space lives on as I pull into a parking lot in front of a newly renovated building.
Lots of grocery stores are in the deeper guts of the metropolis of course, but, I always find something special with the smaller ones. This one in piticular is unique as it serves only fresh and healthy/organic foods. It’s small, about the size of a shoppers drug mart or CVS pharmacy with nearly half of that space being fresh fruit, vegetables and meat from farmers in the surrounding area. As for the rest of the store, you won’t find anything a healthy eater would baulk at.
For no apparent reason this store is open 24hours, so I’m into a mainly deserted store at 6am. I pick up a basket and walk to the fruit, pulling a bag from one if the dispensers and counting out plums. I take a moment to look over the other fruit and my tail twitches with glee, I’ll be eating well for the next few days. Outside the bright and welcoming lights of the store-front slowly fade into the brighter light of the new Summer’s day.
