A girl waits by the train station in her school uniform, never minding the late hour. The fluorescent light flickers, buzzes, then goes off. She wonders what makes those fluorescent lights glow, and unwraps an orange popsicle. The wind blows and carries away the empty wrapper. She sticks the popsicle in her mouth and chases it across the station. A tall man she hadn't noticed before stops the wrapper with his foot. He is quite dapper, well put together in his black suit and tie, however, she notices his shirt is misbuttoned.
"Is this your wrapper?"
"Yes, thank you. I'm glad you were able to stop it."
"Well sure, it is our civic duty to prevent littering."
"And with these new anti-litter laws and all that."
"Those poor cats."
"Well I meant the trash, but I understand your confusion."
The girl walks across the platform and deposits her wrapper into a trashcan. She shuffles her feet and moves her portfolio from her right hand to her left.
"I'm glad you decided to be responsible, or else I would have turned you in." He adjusts his glasses.
"I'm not sure where this was going."
"Oh you know, detention, prison, the like."
"For a single wrapper?"
By this time the popsicle has melted in her mouth and has become a sweet nectar that dribbles down her throat. She chews the stick despite being disgusted by the taste of wood. Some would call it nerves.
"Yes, we can't have your trash all over the place. It is unsanitary."
"When the ground is concrete, it hardly can matter."
"I think your train is coming."
What he says is true; the lights of the train appear in the distance.
"By the way, before we part, your shirt is misbuttoned."
"Oh."
The man steps onto the tracks. The train arrives and he is surely crushed, the girl steps through the doors and finds a seat. Tragically, it is already 9 o'clock and she has yet to have dinner.
*I am burning incense in my room because it is too cold to open the window.
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