[Temperance/Mal] Take out
“Three.” The word was accompanied by a showing of three fingers just in case her voice, muffled behind her medical mask, was completely drowned out by the bustle of a Friday night New York City. Three was the answer to the question ‘how many’, issued by the foreign man in the falafel cart and three was the number of falafel pita combos Temperance could afford at the moment.
Honestly, she wasn’t a fan of falafel. The texture of ground up chick peas wasn’t her favorite but it was the closest food cart to the subway stairs and Callisto always said it was always the safest to be nearby an opening to the tunnels, just in case.
During the day her baggy, mismatched clothes often gave away her social standing thus keeping most of the city’s residents away; both a blessing and a curse. But during the night without the blaring light of the sun, it was not so obvious that she was one of the city’s undesirables, and so she was starting to feel way too crowded by the sea of people moving around her. Too close. Much too close. Temperance glanced behind her to reassure herself that the steps were still there and felt instant relief. “$9.85”, her attention was called back by the vendor and she turned forward, fixing her hood before sticking her hand deep into the pockets of her pants to pull out what she had earned that day and then stuck out a closed fist holding tight a crumpled pile of singles and stray coins—mostly pennies to hand to the man.
In exchange, aside from the vendors less than pleased expression for her method of payment, she got three containers, stacked and warm, smelling of delicious middle eastern spices, which she held close to her chest with both hands. Already feeling her mouth water, Temperance started quickly towards the subway steps, instantly feeling the anxiety from the pressure of being responsible for food that day melt off her person. The platters not only had the falafel pita wraps but sides of rice and vegetables too! That much food could feed seven if they evened the proportions right. In her hubris, Temperance descended the stairs with a skip in her step.
