Page 52 of Through Quick and Quinn
I guess it was only a matter of time.
After that shift, I ran home at a pace that would have made my junior high buddy proud. I couldn’t get to my computer quickly enough. I had a very strong feeling that there was a story behind the codes on produce stickers. Some were four digits, others five. Some started with a three or a four, others with an eight or a nine. As I sifted through the data and details provided on the much-later listed search hits, I found more than I intended. Not only were some of the codes concerning, but I came across information on preservation coatings on produce whose listed ingredients were fungicides, pesticides, and herbicides, another set of words for poison. Even worse, the great majority of the coating’s ingredients were mysteriously unnamed.
I was worried I would be appalled by what I would find when I started my dig. I wanted to be wrong, but I wasn’t. I was horrified.
Again.
I was shocked by how much deception existed right under our noses. I was shocked by how motivating greed must be for some. I was shocked that people would intentionally put others at risk. I was shocked that they would be able to sleep at night. So shocked that I barely slept myself that evening. But all that shock combined paled in comparison to how astonished I was when I woke up the next morning.
A brand-new bike was parked in the kitchen, with a card that read, “We’re proud of you, son.” It broke me. I literally fell to the tile floor and sobbed. My parents loved me, they really did. We were just all so messed up, so guilt-ridden, so awful at communication. I cried and I cried, all by myself in a ball at the foot of the refrigerator until I realized that I was going to be late to work. Not because I had a morning meltdown. Because I didn’t know how to ride the bike.
And that realization made me laugh out loud.
***
Mandy / 7:18 p.m.
hey quinnie what’s up
Quinn / 7:31 p.m.
Hi, Mandy. Oh my gosh, I haven’t heard that name in ages.
How’s your summer going?
7:33 p.m.
pretty chill not much going on
7:33 p.m.
Yeah, same here.
Are you doing anything fun for the holiday tomorrow?
7:35 p.m.
my aunt and cousins are coming over for swimming and fireworks
what about you
7:37 p.m.
Not much. I think my dad is going to barbecue.
7:38 p.m.
wanna come hang here?
7:38 p.m.
That’s really nice of you to ask, thank you.
I should really spend it with my parents though.
But thank you, Mandy.
7:39 p.m.
