Overstocking

The Words:

guns, bombs, love, hate, war, life, death, babies, people, alpha, omega

**

It was like guns were out and bombs were about to explode. I swallowed and coughed it out again. There was no room left. You'd think women were marked with Omega in this culture, the lowest-ranked wolves in a pack, but looking at the anxious faces outside my father's tiny shop, the alpha in me trembled.

They were here for a war. It was with genuine love these women had chatted it up on their phones, spreading the stink of trouble. They had babies to raise, and enemies to hate. But everyone had heard. And everyone wanted to win.

A barrel of oil was going to cost 4 times as much next week. And it would stick there.

Life would mean carrying home 70 pounds of rice. Death would mean carrying less than 20. When the door clicked open, I held my breath to savor that one moment of silence.

Then people crashed.

I sat that evening, sipping my spiced lemonade, still trying to wrap my mind around it all when I heard my mother spitting into the phone,

"What!? You only got 10!? Oh you poor, poor soul! We have 80 lying in our garage... I know! It's a miracle we own that shop..."

I dropped my glass and let the drink spread.

"Vinny! What are you DOING!?"

"Polishing your floors."

And with her jaw hanging open at me, I left.