Innocence Lost
pause from their daily routines.
                  The sidewalks had been overgrown by nature and very few people here had cars, so everyone just walked in the road as if it were a giant sidewalk. Some of the store fronts of the buildings had been taken over by people trading, others set up wooden stands that served as trading booths. Ally walked past all of them and made sure Tiger stayed close.
                  She made her way to one of the only trading booths she ever went to. A lady, who looked to be around her mother’s age, sat behind the old wooden structure with a gentle smile on her face. Her clothing was worn but clearly washed and her stitching somehow seemed cleaner than the others Ally had seen. The lady was using a Ping-Pong racquet with a large piece of cardboard attached to it as a fan. When she saw Ally approaching, she smiled.
                  “Well hey again! Ally, is it?”
                  Ally nodded.
                  “Haven’t seen you in a while. See you still have your guardian with you?” she asked, nodding at Tiger.
                  Ally again nodded as she took off her backpack and began to rummage through it.
                  The woman looked around. “For some reason I can never remember your mother. Have I met her before?”
                  “Yep, whenever we first came here. She likes you that’s why I can come to your booth by
    myself.” Ally lied.
                  This seemed to please the woman. “Well, in this day and age that is quite a compliment. Tell your mother thank you. You looking for anything in particular or you just looking for some more oranges?”
                    Ally started to say something when she caught sight of the woman’s handmade fan. “How did you do that?”
                  “Oh, this old thing? Just traded someone for the paddle and glued some paper to it, nothing fancy.”
                  “Do you have any more?”
                  “No, darling. Sorry, this is my only fan.”
                  “No, not the fan,” Ally said. “Glue.”
                  The woman looked the girl up and down approvingly. “Don’t think I’ve ever had anyone ask for that yet. Why yes I do. Have some super glue that I found shortly after everything got messed up.”
                  Ally pulled out two of the candles she had found. The lilac one she had left in her room; it would help get rid of Tiger’s smell whenever he got wet. She placed the two candles on the table and the lady’s eyes lit up.
                  “Well I’ll be. I haven’t seen scented candles in who knows how long. Can I?” she asked, gesturing towards them. Ally nodded and the woman bent down and took in two long whiffs of the candles. Her eyes rolled back and she gave off a long sigh. “Honey, that’s just a piece of heaven right there. What do you want for them?”
                  “The glue.”
                  The lady thought about it for a brief moment then shrugged her shoulders. “I guess it is useful here and there but the candles bring me back to a time long gone.”
                  “And some oranges.” Ally said quickly.
                  “Of course honey. I can’t have your mommy think that I swindled you; otherwise, I’ll never get to see your pretty face again.”
                  Ally took the tube of superglue from the woman and placed it in her backpack along with as many oranges as she could fit in there.
                  “Thank you very much Ally. If you find any more of these you better bring them here first you hear me?”
    ‘Yes ma’am.” Ally answered and headed back the way she came.
                  The weight of the backpack caused her to walk a little more slowly than usual but

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