>>5376>With the girl seated at a table in the staff room of the store, and her dog pacing about the same room, the man puts a pair of steaming cups of tea on the table, taking a seat for himself.“Didn’t know if you take sugar or not, so. . .”
>The man puts a handful of sugar packets in front of the girl and her cup, letting her take them.
>Looking down at the packets, the girl cautiously takes one.“They’re not poison, promise.”
>Looking somewhat more confident, the girl takes all of the packets, putting them into her tea.“So, I know you can talk, but you got a name?”
>The girl takes a cautious sip of the tea, burning her tongue on it, then looks over at the man.“. . .Anna.”
“Nice to meet you Anna, my name’s John, I’m the manager here. Oh yeah, here. . .”
>John reaches into his pocket and takes out a paper bag, which he slides over to Anna.“It’s not much, but it’s breakfast at least, not got anything for the dog.”
“. . .Rio’ll be fine, I’ll get something for him when we leave. . .”
“That’s good. So, Anna, why were you sleeping on the porch of the store? There’s loads of space at the local shelters.”
>Anna looks away for a moment“They’d tell my mum where I am. . .”
“Running away from home? This close to Christmas?”
“. . .it wasn’t close to Christmas when I did. . .”
“. . .Christ. Look, I know there’s a shelter that won’t send you back, let me just get the number and-”
>John pauses as the sound of something being knocked over in the main store.“Hold on, lemme check that. . .”