Chapter 2

Something was different about today.

I wasn't sure what but there was something different, nonetheless.

A week had passed since the debt on the store had been paid off and everything was running rather well. Daniel had even started working with us though it was only to make up for the things he broke in the store.

I was leaning over the counter, looking at all the passing faces. As strange as it was, I couldn't help thinking that there was something more I should have been doing.

"Delancy?"

"Huh?"

Victoria.

"Oh Tori, I didn't hear you come in."

She blinked back at me surprised before she sighed and gave me a nod.

"I guess you were busy working..." Her voice trailed off in disappointment as she looked over my shoulder at the stacked shelves. "I guess you're always busy."

"Don't say it like that," I said, my voice sounding like a plea. "It's not that I don't have a choice. It's just that-"

"Delancy, we were supposed to go out today. You, Sam, and I. Don't you remember?"

"I do, but I can't go today. I'm busy." I admitted.

"Delancy, is this what you want?"

I crinkled my forehead at her question, my mind wandering away at her words.

Is this what you want?

"Why do you ask that?" I said brushing down my apron, a tendril of dark hair slipping over my shoulder and resting against my sleeve.

"Delancy, haven't you worked here all your life? Haven't you done everything in your power to help your father? Haven't you sacrificed everything? You say that you can't leave this store because you want to help your father but seeing you now I realize that you weren't busy with your work but bound to it."

Bound?

"I don't think-"

"Delancy, you've been working here with your father in this store for all these years, don't you want to go out now and get a little freedom? Don't you want to see anything new? Or go anywhere new?"

I opened my mouth to say something but paused when I saw Sam entering the store. I brushed away the conversation I was having with Victoria and turned to Samantha instead.

"Sam," I said offering her a smile.

She tilted her head at me and smiled slyly before swinging her hand on her hip.

"Delancy," she said plopping down her handbag on the counter. "Just the same as always." She sighed before openly yawning and stretching, causing the bangles on her arm to rub together.

I sighed and tucked back the tendril of hair that had slipped out behind my ear.

"I can't go today," I said in a simple voice that held no trace of regret.

"Why are you always so busy? You're so boring!"

Boring?

I turned my head to them in confusion, was helping my father boring? Or was it just me?

"Daniel is also working," I said looking over at him as he dusted a shelf, a jar accidentally falling from him to the ground and breaking. "He's not the best but he helps us."

"That's because your father is making him work here."

"Sam, I'll go with you some other time."

"Okay, but I hope that when that time comes you won't be stuck at work."

Stuck work?

I turned away from them and walked towards the cash register as they started rambling on about someone's love affair.

Normally I would be in interest yet scolding them to leave people's private affairs alone but I was stuck on the fact that maybe I was bound to the store.

What was life like without the store?

I had never really thought about what I would do one day when I left the store or my father.

They were always there and they were the only constant things I knew.

I had finally accomplished helping my father pay off all his debt but what now?

Was this why I was feeling so empty?

I was over elated when I got the news that our debt was gone but now what?

I had no college education,

No experience,

No plan,

Nothing.

What was I to do now? Continue working in my father's store?

I felt empty and trapped. Bound to a store I had given so much reverence, time, energy, and sweat.

Maybe I was trapped, it felt mean to think that way but wasn't I?

What was being trapped? Being unable to go anywhere and do anything?

Being forced to decide to save my father and the store but throwing away my opportunities?

Was that all? Had my life only revolved around the store?

Was that now why I felt so empty?

I glanced over at my father who was looking through the store's window. His hair graying, but his eyes were still bright.

That was right, I had my father.

My father was all I had. The only one that mattered.

The only one.

It came back to me now why I had sacrificed my early mornings and late afternoons, my summers, and even my scholarship.

All the times I thought I would be ashamed, but I never was because he was always there.

I didn't care about the store.

I wasn't bound to the store but to my father.

A bond I felt was all that I needed to be complete.

A bond I thought could make up for everything I didn't have and had missed.

***

My eyes opened to a burning sting in the room. My chest burned with unease as I sat up and coughed.

The more I rubbed at my eyes, the more they stung.

"Dad!" I coughed while putting a hand over my mouth before getting to my feet. The air was thick and difficult to see through, all the harder to breathe in. I could barely see in my room but I used my memory to guide my steps.

"Dad?" I said again as I held onto the doorway, the stinging in my eyes worsening by the second.

"Delancy!" I heard my father return with more coughs.

That was when the burning in my chest got worse. The stinging smoke in my eyes caused them to water.

Smoke?

"Dad!" I managed to shout before irrupting in coughs and stumbling off my feet.

My chest was heavy when tears began slipping down my face before I felt my father put a blanket over me.

"Delancy, cover your mouth. Don't breathe it in."

It was hard to tell what was happening when I could hardly see and asking didn't help because each time I opened my mouth, coughs would take the place of words.

My dad lifted me under his arms and hurriedly brought me downstairs before wrapping me up carefully and turning back.

I backed away from the stairs and took in my father's image climbing them and disappearing behind a cloud of smoke.

It was hard to tell where or what was burning because the smoke was everywhere.

I took the edge of the blanket and used it to rub my eyes before coughing into it.

It was getting harder to see and even more unbearable to breathe so I decided I had to get out.

I hurriedly ran to the store front and pulled the draw under the cash register open before rummaging through it for the store keys. I took them out with my hands shaking from the urge to cover my face.

When I unlocked the door I tumbled outside, a wave of smoke following behind me. I clambered to my feet, my chest still not feeling relieved and my eyes still stinging.

I heaved over and continued coughing because the burning in my chest hadn't subsided. I put a hand up against the wall and coughed into the other I had over my mouth before I felt a hand around my chest pulling me upright.

Sirens and voices filled the air along with the blinding smoke around me before I realized that Daniel had hoisted me up.

"Delancy, are you okay?" He shouted to me over the blaring sirens.

I put a hand over my face and coughed, unable to find a direct answer to his question.

"I saw the fire truck pass by down the street and when I followed it..."

"Daniel," I managed to cough out. "I-"

"Delancy, everything's okay, the fire's almost out." He continued.

He was right. When I looked over at the storefront, the smoke outside was dwindling and the number of firemen going inside was.

"Daniel," I murmured before slumping against him. "This...This...Can't be happening. It can't!"