Pablo's Resonance of Hope

"No, Pablo. You can't have the candy."

I'd spent all morning running around town trying to find some work to do. I'd helped a couple people carry things, made deliveries for a merchant, but I still didn't have enough money for anything beyond a couple apples and some mustard to eat tonight. I was so hungry my head hurt.

I put my hands on my hips and looked at the old man in front of me. He had white hair and a worn expression that made him look like he knew more about life than my young self really wanted to know. "But, sir! All I want is just a little candy!" I whined.

He sighed, the bags under his eyes drooping even farther. "Look, kid," he said, "If I give you some candy you'll get sick. Those sweets are older than you are."

"They're not!" I whined again. "You're only saying that 'cause you're mean!"

The man's eyes narrowed and he took a step towards me, looking like he was going to yell or hit me or both. But then something strange happened. His face softened and he smiled, his eyes crinkling up in the corners as if he might laugh at any moment. He held out his hand and pointed at the door of his shop behind me.

"Okay, kiddo," he said, "if you think those sweets are still good then let's see how long they last."

He walked behind the counter and hauled down a box of candy bars from the shelf above it while I scampered over to grab one of my apples and follow him outside where we sat on two crates near his back door. He opened one of the boxes and pulled out two of the chocolate bars for himself before handing me one of them as well. "Go ahead and eat up, kid."

I unwrapped the paper around mine first then bit into the dark brown chocolate with hunger and delight. The old man watched me chew for a minute before eating his own candy bar at a much slower pace when suddenly an enormous explosion went off somewhere in our general direction sending us both back from our stools onto our rear ends on our crates and covering us with dirt from the roof that fell around us when we hit it with our bodies on impact with it when we fell backwards onto it after being knocked off our feet by that explosion in the sky above us which sent debris flying across what seemed like every inch of ground all around us by that blast which left me coughing blood out of my mouth as I wondered why all this was happening until something hit me hard in the leg and chest which I thought had been done by another piece of flying debris but when I looked down at myself to see what it was found it was only an apple core that had been tossed out onto my lap by an umbrella that had evidently been blown open by whatever blast it had been that scared me so bad but left me alive because someone had decided to throw an umbrella over me while they were running away from whatever explosion had gone off nearby but who knows? All this happened very fast!

I finally got up from under that umbrella and looked around to find that there was another building nearby that had fallen on top of a horse drawn wagon crushing its driver underneath it who lay dead next to it with blood trickling down his body from some wounds but who knows what else might have been wrong with him? The buildings around here were all destroyed too as was everything else including other people who seemed dead but maybe not as others ran past them toward somewhere else some carrying injured friends or family members along with them while others ran alone shouting warnings at everyone they passed or sometimes just stared down at their feet as they ran without stopping or speaking without looking up to see where they were going or why they were running away so fast or even if they knew themselves so what could someone like me do but follow them all away from this place where I'd eaten an old candy bar with an old man who may have saved my life if he hadn't been crushed by one of these falling buildings when he went back inside his store after we ate those candies together!