Ashes Part Two

Second half of last week’s short story

She knew she had to go south but wasn’t sure which way it was. From where she stood, she couldn’t’ see the tall towers of Manhattan or Long Island City that would indicate where west was. Only miles of busy, wide Junction Boulevard, snaking like the river Hooghly—sometimes grey, mostly black, with all sorts of dead things floating in it.

She went inside a small bodega, which carried shelves of canned goods that also looked as though they’d once been floating in the Hooghly. She asked directions from a man who sat behind a counter that was covered by thick glass. It had a crack running through one side; a lightening bolt. The man pointed to the right and said 52nd Street was a long ways off. “Better you take the bus.”

There was a bus stand outside his shop but no bus was in sight. Soo waited a few minutes, then decided to walk. She walked a mile at least, till there were no more shops or bodegas or gas stations in sight. Only chain-link fences that c…