14 - That time an ogre visited me.
joneworlds@mailbox.org

It  was more  than two  years  ago by  now, but  I
remember  that  visit from  an  ogre  like it  was
yesterday.  I  was  behind the  power  wagon  just
returned from a tire scavenge run, working jobs to
ease my  grief in those  days. And I saw  the ogre
lifting itself down from the retaining wall behind
my home  and ambling down the  embankment, looking
evenly at me with its eye as it came towards me. I
dropped the  tire I  was carrying  and ran  for my
door, barely getting there  before it did. Slammed
the door and leaned, but  it already had a hand on
it.  The  hinge  metal   bent  and  the  door  jam
splintered as it pushed it in, and I thought I was
finished for sure. I  went tumbling onto the bench
by the stair. I turned towards the door to get up.

"Wait," it  said, in  a low,  even voice.  "I have
something for  you." That surprised me.  I did not
even  know  they  could  talk,  let  alone  in  my
language. It was so tall  that I could not see its
face as  it stood outside  the door. I  was frozen
with  horror, staring  at its  chest. I  could say
nothing.

"I   am    sorry   about   your    children,"   it
continued.  "We all  do what  we must  to survive,
don't we." A sound that might have been a sigh. "I
thought you should have these."

An enormous hand was  suddenly inside my home, and
out of  it dropped  something very small  onto the
floor.  I couldn't quite  process this, and I made
no reply.

A pause.  It moved  a toe. "I  expect you  and the
others are planning to come for me soon."

"Yes," I  eventually growled shortly, as  I glared
at  its  belly button.  "Four  days  from now,  at
dawn."

"Yes, of  course. You  will do  what you  must, as
well." A pause. Awkward or sullen, I will never be
sure. It moved  away from the doorway  and I could
see outside again.

I was still  sitting on the floor.  There in front
of me  where it dropped them,  was Tara's bracelet
and a pokemon card of  Evan's. They were balled up
together, bent but not  crushed. I stared at them,
my   heart   turning    inside   out   within   my
chest. Seconds passed, or maybe hours.

A  tree-like arm  appeared in  the ruined  doorway
again. "Take this also, I  have no use for it." It
dropped a  computer keyboard onto the  mat, and it
left.

As planned, some of us from the neighbourhood went
up  the hill  and dispatched  the ogre  later that
week, and  there was some  safety for the  rest of
that year. But this year  another one came to take
its place,  and now  Hat's granddaughter  has gone
missing.  We'll  go  out on  another  search  this
afternoon, like  we did yesterday. It  goes on and
on  like this,  but  I still  don't  know what  it
means.