Free Isobel and Emile by Alan Reed Page A

walks from the light of one street light to the light of another street light. The pub is closed. The only lights left are the street lights.
    Isobel is shivering. It is cold. She squeezes her hands under her arms. It does not make her hands warm.
    She stops walking. She feels useless. She scowls. She turns around. She walks back to the grocery store.
    She goes to the alley behind the grocery store. She has the key to the door that goes into the back of the grocery store. It is in her pocket. She sits down on the steps going up to the door.
    She does not want to go inside. She sits on the steps behind the grocery store.
    She takes out a pack of cigarettes. She takes a cigarette out. She puts it between her lips. There is a book of matches tucked into the pack of cigarettes. She lights the cigarette.
    She draws on it. She blows smoke out of her mouth. There is a light on in the alley. It is over the door going into the back of the grocery store.
    Isobel is sitting on the steps behind the grocery store. It is cold out. It is colder than it is inside the grocery store. Isobel does not want to be in the grocery store.
    She sits on the steps. Her arms are wrapped around her body. She smokes her cigarette.
    She does not want to be here.
    She saw her mother today. Her mother came into the grocery store. Isobel was pushing the cart in one of the aisles in the grocery store. Her mother was in the aisle. Her mother saw her pushing a cart in an aisle in the grocery store.
    Her mother was carrying a basket. There were things in her mother’s basket.
    Her mother said: ‘Isobel.’
    Her mother brought her hand up to her mouth. She was surprised. Isobel stopped pushing the cart. She stood behind it. She looked at her mother.
    Her mother reached out to touch Isobel. She put her hand on Isobel’s face.
    She said: ‘Isobel. Come home.’
    Isobel did not say anything. She turned around. Her mother said: ‘Please come home.’ Isobel walked away from her mother. She went to the room at the back of the grocery store. Her mother said: ‘Isobel.’
    Isobel was in the room at the back of the grocery store. There were tears on her face. She did not want there to be tears on her face. She heard her mother say: ‘Isobel!’ She said it loudly. Mr. Koch heard her.
    Mr. Koch came out of his office. He saw Isobel. He saw tears on Isobel’s face. He went into the front of the grocery store. He stood in front of Isobel’s mother. They said things to each other.
    Isobel did not want to hear the things that they said to each other. She heard the things that they said to each other.
    There were tears on her face. She could not stop them.
    She has already said the last thing she wants to say to her mother. She said: ‘I want to spend the night with him.’ She said: ‘You cannot stop me. I’m going.’
    The tears were hot. They hurt her.
    She is sitting on the steps behind a grocery store. She is just a girl. It is the middle of the night. It is cold outside. She is cold. She is smoking a cigarette.
    She is here.
    Her body hurts. Her body has not hurt like this before. She has not worked like this before. She is dirty. She wears the same dress all the time. She has no reason to keep clean. She does not know how to make her body stop hurting.
    She is here because she does not know where else she could be.
    She finishes her cigarette.
    She stands up. She walks up the steps to the door. She takes the key out of her pocket. She unlocks the door. She goes inside. There are no windows in this room. There is only the light coming in through the door.
    Isobel closes the door. It is dark. There are things in the room. She walks through the room. It does not matter that it is dark. She knows where the things in the room are. She walks without bumping into the things in the room.
    She goes to the stairs. She opens the door to the room at the top of the stairs. It is not really a room. It is the attic. She