“What did you do?” Jared struggled to keep his voice calm. He knew startling his grandfather wasn’t the best thing right now.
Pointing an accusing finger at the destroyed mirror, his grandfather said, “There was a stranger staring at me! I told him to stop but he wouldn’t listen, so I pushed him lor!”
Jared sighed, grabbed a broom and walked over to the mess. Clearing a path, he held his arms out. “Just come out here lah.”
His grandfather shrank back and yelled.
“What, you want to stare at me too, is it?” And before Jared could act, his grandfather shoved him, surprisingly hard for a skinny old man.
It threw him off balance, causing him to step on a shard of glass. Feeling the blood pool under his feet, Jared closed his eyes. It was going to be a long day.
The next day, Jared ran out to get groceries. The cupboards were nearly bare, save for a tin of stale biscuits.
As he registered with the MySejahtera app and stepped past the grumpy worker who moodily waved him on into the sliding doors, the first thing Jared saw was a long line snaking around the counters and into the aisles.
Random bits of vegetables and plastic bags were scattered all over the place. Shelves and shelves of food had been swept clean, except for a few. Trolleys were lying abandoned or pushed to the side, becoming a hindrance to shoppers trying to manoeuvre through the aisles.
The adults were giving him the evil eye under their visors and masks, their plastic-gloved hands tightening on their trolleys piled high with canned goods and instant noodles.
Seriously, why was everyone panic-buying all of a sudden? How would Jared ever get the groceries he needed?
His grandfather needed fresh fruits and vegetables, not packs of pulverised instant noodles or half-drunk cans of soft drinks, which were all that was left on the shelves.
“Looks like a war zone,” Jared muttered under his breath, scanning the store.
The black, newspaper-lined trays were empty. There was no choice but for him to head to the one place he feared most: the horrifically overpriced organic section.
Picking up the pace, he strode towards it but was momentarily stopped by a man pulling down his mask to let out a giant sneeze shamelessly.
Reeling back and grossed out of his mind, Jared quickly chose an alternate route. How could people possibly be so ignorant in these trying times? Especially in such a crowded high-risk place like this.
A sweaty Jared fumbled with the rusty metal gate. He was an hour behind schedule! There was no time to lose.
Panic flared in his chest as the metal gate stubbornly refused to budge. His grandfather was probably worried sick, confused or scared right now. And he didn’t have Jared to calm him down this time.
Jared prayed that he hadn’t done any damage this time. Washing up in the morning was a lot harder than he expected without a mirror.
Now frustrated out of his mind, Jared threw his groceries over the gate, hoisted himself up and climbed over. He bent down to pick up the heavy bags as his gaze swept over the overgrown garden and to the open door.
Jared paled and rushed over. “Oh, God … he better not have gotten out!”
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from Alone by Keyshia Thoo. It is part of a series of pandemic stories in Lives Under Lockdown: A Young Writer’s Anthology. Priced at RM32.90, the book is available at MPH Bookstores. Royalties from the sale of the book will be channeled to SOLS Health Community Centres.
