The Girl in the Supermarket

She had secrets in her eyes.

Photo by Daniel Monteiro on Unsplash

I didn’t know her name — not right then, anyway — but I called her Hope in the back of my head.

Don’t ask. Maybe I’m the romantic — or stupid — type.

But Hope had a smile on her face when I saw her in the supermarket. She hummed as she took a box of cereal from its place on the shelf. I tried not to stare too hard.

The vision of her swam before me as if I were seeing her through water.

Then she turned to me and laughed.

“Simulation got to you too? I get it. We’re all prisoners here.”