“What can i get you?” Asks the girl behind the counter.
He orders a chai latte.
“That will be $1.52 please.” She says, and starts to prepare his tea.
His hand goes into his pocket to retrieve his wallet but its not there.
After checking his other pockets he only found little spare change, it’s not enough to pay for the tea.
“Uhm. I forgot my wallet.” He tells her.
She’s staring at him, clearly holding back a little laughter.
“I only have 37¢”
She places her hand on a small jar next to the cash register with a label on it that reads
‘Please give your spare change for our Dik Dik sanctuary in Africa.’
“Have you ever given money to charity?” She asks him while tapping on the lid of the jar.
“Oh all the time.” He replies while putting the change in the jar.

“Then your tea is on me, besides it’s time for my break and i could use a drink too.”
She makes two chai lattes and bring them with her as they go to the entrance.

They step outside, the warm summer air greets them.
“Sarah” she says.
“No, Erik” he replies.
She gives him a little laugh and hands him his drink.

“The sun makes everything it shines on look so much prettier.”
Erik says while almost looking directly into the sun inhaling deeply afterwards.

“I have a sunlight allergy.” As says she takes a sip from the tea.
Erik Looks at her and sits next to her on the ledge of the window pane.
“I get a real bad rash and sometimes blisters.” She says.
He hesitates taking a sip and lowers his cup and says
“Sounds painful, so you never go to the beach?”

“No, i just don’t go.” She tells him.

“Thats so sad, not just for you but also for me.
Because i might never see you in a bikini.” He says.
She keeps drinking her tea as if he didn’t say anything.

“Sorry!, that was rude of me to say.” He quickly adds.
She laughs and so does he.

After that there is a moment of silence, a soft wind blows pass them.

“I’m not trying to get into your pants.” He says.
He is gasping, obviously not done yet.
She looks at him without saying a word.
He bundled up enough courage and says “But into your heart.”

They are disturbed by a guy yelling from the parking lot.
“YO ERIK LETS GO!” heavily waving his arms.

Erik gets up from the ledge and shouts back at the guy.
“YEA, I WILL BE RIGHT THERE!”

He turns back around and sees Sarah got up too.

“My break is over.” She tells him.

They stand divided in the sunlight and the shade.

“It’s like how the sun makes all the things outside look so much nicer.
You do in here.” He says while pointing to his head.

She crosses the border and grabs his hand.
They look into each others eyes.
She closes in on him and takes the last small step into the sun light and kisses him on his lips.

The day after the romantic lunch break.
Sarah comes out of her room, and meets her room mate in the hall way.

“Did you stay out in the sun for to long?
That looks painful!” Her room mate says.

Sarah is as red as a tomato, and is trying not to scratch to much.
“Yes i was.”

She smiles and says “and it was great.”

Mac sits on a fence that is surrounding the playground of his school.
His legs hanging and his feet locked between the bars.
He is staring at the ground until his one only friend taps him on the shoulder.

“What you doing Mac?”, he asks while eating the tuna sandwich his mom prepared for him, making bits of tuna fly onto Mac’s his shoes.
After a pause Mac answered with “Nothing much, just thinking.”
His friend conveniently named Answer (his parents were hippies) replies with “Thinking, about what?” while chewing down the last part of his lunch.

Looking up into the sky following the clouds passing by with his eyes Mac says
“Well, i wonder if i have a expiration date like food does.”
“But were not food.” Answer answered faster than a bolt of lightning.
“I know we are not food but food comes from animals too, like meat comes from animals and we are animals too i heard someone say on the TV.”
Mac tells Answer who is drinking his Apple juice as if it was a can of beer by crushing it to make the juice come out of his straw faster.

Answer starts thinking up a good thing to answer with.
While he trows away his empty crushed juice pack tells Mac
“I get what you mean, so you want to know your own expiration date like the ones our grandparents have.”
Mac sighs “Yes, i need to find out right now, I can’t take it anymore I haven’t slept in days because of it.”
“Well I don’t have an answer to your question there Mac, maybe we should ask The Guru?”, Answer replies.

“The Guru?! Are you mad! He would never speak to us..” Mac says looking as shocked as a fret boy peeing against a electric fence.
Answer laughs but he’s the only one on the playground laughing.

“No worries, i have a plan. You know he doesn’t get to eat candy right?
Well.. How about we bribe him with some candy?” Answer says.
Mac takes out his Lone Ranger lunch box and takes out a candy bar and some fizzle candy and proudly announces
“That should do it, don’t you think.”

They move to the far corner of the playground hiding the candy in their pockets.
Approaching The Guru, in reality a very obese kid in a wheelchair because he has an extremely low metabolism, they lower their heads a bit and stop in front of him.
The boy looks up and asks them while “What.. Do.. You.. Want..”
When he stopped breathing heavily Answer tells The Guru
“I am Answer and this is my friend Mac, He wants to ask you a question if that’s ok Mr Guru Sir.”
and he gives Mac a little push forward and backs up.
The Guru waits for some air to enter his lungs, and after some time he says
“Why.. Would.. I.. Help.. You.. Two..”
Before The Guru got to the end of his question, Answer interrupts and tells him they have candy for him.
“NOT SO LOUD!” The Guru shouts.
His head turns red and he coughs for the next 6 minutes and 24 seconds.
Answer stops his watch and they walk up to The Guru that is giving them gestures to come closer.
“Listen, i’ll answer any question you have if you trade me that candy.” nearly pulling the candy from Mac’s hands.
Mac finally speaks up and tells The Guru
“Deal! Now my question is what is my expiration date?”
The Guru pulls out a laptop and fold it open.
“How do you know you have one?”
Answer interrupts Mac from answering.
“Well, we all die someday don’t we? that’s our expiration date!”.
“Oh, and where to find it on my body or elsewhere so i can check if i ever forget.”
Mac says trying to over speak the Windows start up sound blasting trough the laptop speakers.
The Guru is heavily using his laptop and cant seem to close his mouth, so all the two can do is look into it.
“Ok, here is some info i found about expiration dates.
First lets see what it means.
…One.. Moment.. Need.. To.. Slow.. Down.. A.. Bit..”
Mac looks at Answer, and Answer looks back at Mac and they just move their shoulders up and down.

“The date past which a product, such as food or medicine, must be sold or removed from availability because it is no longer expected to be fresh or effective.
is one explanation, so we can conclude that your expiration date must mean when you are no longer alive enough to live that’s why they put old people in those retirement homes.”
This goes beyond Mac and he pulls the candy from The Gurus hands and runs away, Answer is surprised but chooses to run after Mac.
“So did you have an answer now?” Answer yells trying to run after Mac.
Mac stops and Answer bumps into him, “No, but i could have used the internet too you know.”
Answer is still surprised by Mac’s behavior.
“Ok ok, so what now?”.

Mac didn’t answer Answer, after school he took a shower and checked his whole body to see if there were numbers to be found but without any luck.
At night in his bed he started to ponder again about his question of life, and he came to a new conclusion.

‘All things with an expiration date are inside a package, so the package i was in must have the expiration date on it!’

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David flips to the next page, only reading the headlines.

A cat knocks over a trash bin.

The wrapped up papers that fell out make a formation of clouds.
Drops of ink start to fall from the sky and the sea fills up and turns blue.
A pencil loses his wings and falls down into the big blue sea, breaking his point when it landed on a rock.
The tip shatters into a million small silver fish, pieces of his wooden shell float to the surface and form islands of its remains.
The fish began to bump into each other forming greater and bigger fish,
that ate smaller fish and continuously form bigger fish that ate other big fish.
Until it got to big for the ocean and the sun started to burn his skin he went to shore trying to find some shade.
It walks the desert for days, weeks, months, years until it got so tired it fell asleep.
Looking so gentle while it slept.

A dog pees against a fire hydrant to mark his territory, some of his urine misses his target and lands on a business man’s shoes.
He scolds the dog.

It starts to rain and it makes the skin of the giant shimmer brightly
But the cold rain did not wake him for he was dead.
Slowly around him the desert turned green from the grass growing from deep in the ground.
It started to cover the giant, trees grew on his back.
It did not mind for it was dead.
The gods look down and saw a mountain and wondered where the giant went.

I scribble some more words and sentences.
Turn to the next page and start over.

A long way from the ground where we live in our little houses,
in the bright blue sky passing trough the clouds is Richy.
With his wings spread he drifts on the cool Alizé wind,
wondering about everything he doesn’t understand yet in his young life.
It didn’t take him long to start thinking about friends and family.
He flew alone but the feeling of finding a group of birds he could call his friends began to grow each day.
When his loneliness became to big he decided to find himself a flock to join.

Starting out with a group of ducks he saw earlier.
He asked them if he could join them but they refused him because he was to pale.

He found some swallows on their way to Africa, flying along side them he asked if he could fly along to Africa with them.
But before he got to say please they told him he smelled to much like fish.

He went to some pelicans carrying fish in their mouths so they had some snacks for the long journey ahead.
Richy never asked them because it would have been rude to make someone speak when their mouth is full of food.

After trying all day long Richy saw some white birds in the distance, he flapped his wings as hard as he could to catch up with them.
This group of storks seemed nice, but like all the others they send him away too.

When he was about to give up on ever finding a flock he could join a kind stork pointed him into the direction of a flock of seagulls with his beak.
Without any questions the seagulls accepted Richy as one of them.

And they lived happily ever after.

Dave closes the book ‘To Flock Or Not To flock, That’s The Question.’
He gives his son a kiss on the forehead.

Richy goes to sleep and will dream about being a seagull again.

Jason Ake is a legend.
Most say he is the best cop that they ever met.
He busted so many criminals they have lost count when he reached three digits.
Every criminal small or big and i don’t mean their size, know his name.
They fear him and would love to see him dead.
Some call him a saint, a couple think he is a superhero, others say he is lucky.

A new day starts for Jason and he is investigating a drug case.
He is on his way over to a cocaine factory.
Arriving at what seems to be a abandoned factory.
The lights are on so Jason climbs a fire escape located on the side of the building.
Peeking trough the small window he can see some goons and some half dressed women producing coke.
It looked like the factory line in Santa’s workshop on the North Pole he thought to himself.

Jason doesn’t hesitate for a moment like he always does.
Kicks the door in and jumps down some stairs.
“Freeze LAPD!, Drop your weapons!”
At that moment more than a thousand bullets (they are still counting the bullets) had missed Jason already.

He starts to count, bullets passing him by “one.. .. two.. .. three.. four.. five..” another 500 bullets past him by.
Jason starts shooting down all the goons, the women had already fled but backup was on it’s way they would be caught soon enough.

The super cop has done it again he thinks to himself.
He turns towards the entrance to make his way out.
Not looking where he walks he stands on a piece of soap.
He slips and breaks his neck.

Our hero has died not of bullets but because piece of soap laying in an old soap factory.

This thought crosses his mind a lot.
All day long he couldn’t think of anything else.
Just what to do with all this time in the world.

He had it but didn’t need it.