The Tofu Tyrant

Pulling what was in hand close to her body at that very same gust, loose sheets she’d tucked into her own book rattled but remained. Though in the act of tucking her notebook tight, she’d cleared the way for the flyers the followed the wind. “On it,” she chirped without a second’s delay, snapping the leather cover and pulling the elastic piece over the edge to prevent any more spillage. Kneeling, Stella collected what sheets she saw and handed them over to the figure, before checking out the stand in it’s entirety. “Ooh, I’ve seen you before! Animal Rights Club, right? Need a hand with,” the brunette gestured to the set up, offering the girl a smile, “any of this?” 

Mackenzie was a bit surprised to have been recognize. Especially by someone who wasn’t part of her “clique”-- a barrier she outwardly hated but didn’t try too hard to break, either. “Oh, right, uhm, hi.” She smiled as if she remembered the other from school, but she didn’t. “Sure, if you want. Uhm, but you really don’t have to.” Kenzie held up the papers, the other had salvaged quite a few so there was still work to be done. “I’m jusht taping theshe up where ever they’ll shtick.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Josiah jogged over to the papers which were quickly scattering by the side of the road, one more gust of wind and they’d be out in the street. He quickly gathered every last one up, though they were a little bit crumpled, and went back to Mackenzie, handing them to the girl with a smile. “Windy today, huh?”

Mackenzie looked on in surprise as the other grabbed not just a few but all of the papers from flying away. She was sure they would have all been lost, “Wow, Thanksh, uh, yeah definitely.” She took the papers back and held them close to her to keep them from getting loose again. “I heard it wash going to rain later too, sho clear thish jusht ishn’t my day.” Kenzie laughed a bit though she really wasn’t all too happy about it.

Grace was walking down the sidewalk when she heard someone yell and she turned to the person, listening for them to say something else. She asked her if she could get something though she wasn’t sure what. She heard the wind blowing and papers rustling but she also heard cars and she wasn’t sure which direction the papers had even gone. “Um, I’m sorry, I…can’t…I..” She hated just announcing to people that she was blind, but she had to do it all the time and should’ve been used to it. “I don’t know what you lost, but I can help you make more or something…I can’t try to find them because I don’t know where they went and it’s a busy intersection and I could walk into traffic and—and I’m blind, so.. Yeah. I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful.” She stood there sort of anxiously, feeling guilty and helpless.

It only took a moment for Mackenzie to understand the others predicament. She was blind, and Mackenzie realized before the other had even announced it. It wasn’t hard to tell. “Oh.. oh, I’m shorry. You don’t have to, uh, just forget I shaid anything. I got it.” It was a lie; the papers were clearly gone but it wasn’t as if there were anything she could do about it. “It’sh fine, really.”

When she noticed Mackenzie’s lisp, she smiled because she sounded really cute. She was really cute. Fiona glanced down at the papers before Kenzie shoved them into the bag. “Animal rescue, huh?” She commented as she lifted her head back up. “That’s really cool. I’ve found that people who love animals are usually nicer people.” Fiona met the girl’s eyes. “And don’t be sorry, I’m sure you would’ve helped me if the situation were reversed.”

If possible, Mackenzie’s smile widened. This was her favorite topic to speak on, “Yeah, it’sh in a few days and we’ll have dogsh, catsh, and rabbitsh up for adoption, if you’re interested.” Thankfully, the other made eye contact, which made it that much easier to understand her and clearly read the words on her lips, “Of course. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out in case you lose any papersh next time.”

Oliver couldn’t help but laugh as he watched the smaller girl struggle with the flyers. Heading towards the papers on the ground, he bent over to pick some of them up, letting a few spare ones fly away. Heading back to Kenzie, he handed her the remanding papers. “Hey, you can’t save everyone, I guess.”

“Oh, but you can, Oliver, you can.” She gave a smile in return. Oliver’s laid back attitude about the wayward papers allowed Kenzie to relax, too. They had already put up several, this should be enough for now. “I think thatsh a shign that we should call it quitsh.” She finally got her flier secured to its pole and sighed.

There was a carton of a cigarettes in his glovebox, the first pack he bought himself.  They christened him as a smoker—a real one, which was a distinction Samson generally avoided—and that day, he was more interested in them than going home right after his shift ended.  He slipped one out of the pack before getting sidetracked, and it hung between his lips still unlit.  “Yeah,” it was quiet, a little more than noncommittal.  The flyers dropped at the side of his sneakers, and Samson went up to the pole.  “Where did you want them, by the way?  I can definitely help, if that’s what you need.”

Mackenzie blinked a few times with a blank expression on her face. The cigarette in his mouth made it hard to read his lips and the muffled sound of cars and wind passing by made it impossible to understand him. Instead, she just simply said thank you and nodded her head, hoping that he hadn’t asked a difficult question that wasn’t easily solved by a yes or no.

Arabella was just coming back from the coffee shop and heard a girl cry for help. “Sure.“ She put her coffee down on a bench and ran after the posters that were flying away. She nailed to catch one or two but sadly not every poster.

Mackenzie sighed,  it would be just her luck to lose six posters in less than three hours. The small paper fliers had all but disappeared and the large laminated posters had ended up clogging sewer drains or flying into small children. At least this time she had help, even if it wasn’t much. “Thank you. These should have been finished hoursh ago but I got distracted. And now...” She took the meagre few posters back from the girl, “Thanksh.”

Callie glanced up from the flyers she was attempting to get people to take when she heard the other girl call out. “Yeah. Of course,” she replied, jogging over to grab one about to fly away.

Kenzie wasn’t able to catch what Callie had said but by the way she ran after the papers it was safe to assume she was willing to help. After securing the first poster to the pole, Mackenzie tried to grab the other papers that hadn’t yet flown too far away. “Shoot, I don’t want to print all these out again.” This wasn’t the first time the weather ruined her day and her pile was now a lot shorter than she’d started with.

Taking a stroll after helping out at the Korean school, Jonny was still overwhelmed from the yelling of kids and tweens yelling at him for failing to understand grammar. He heard a yelp before stepping on a piece of paper flying towards him, seeing others rush by he grabbed as many as he could. “I’m sorry I couldn’t salvage the rest. I’m a little dazed.” 

Mackenzie stared silently, she had missed what the other said. She had been too busy watching the papers fly by and with the wind whooshing past her ears, his words had been lost. When the other handed the papers back, she decided to go through the easy route with a simple response, hoping he hadn’t just asked a question or something. She glanced down at the paper with the footprint on it and gave a sigh,“Thanksh, I’ll have to print shome more but this should be fine.”

Belle stopped short as she heard someone call out to her, or what she thought was someone calling out to her. Seeing the papers flying around, she quickly hurried over to Mackenzie and started picking up as many as she could. “Yeah, here you go” she smiled, handing the ones she retrieved over.

When the stranger returned the papers, Mackenzie sighed. It was a much smaller pile than she originally had but at least it was still something. “Thanksh-- Uh, I mean, thank you. The wind today is crazy.” She held the papers close to her chest to keep them from flying again. “Do you think its going to shtorm?” Mackenzie looked at the posters she had already taped up with a frown.

“Oh, shit.” Fiona saw the papers start to fly away and she hurriedly grabbed them up, offering them to the unfamiliar girl. “Here you go.” 

Mackenzie waited for the other to bring them back and she smiled, “Thanksh, I thought I had them tied down.” She shoved the papers haphazardly into her bag, “Shorry you had to run for that.”