Groceries

The supermarket's white lights allowed easy vision during the nighttime as late shoppers finished their business. A short, pudgy man walked out of the market with a smile on his face. He carried very little, only in one bag as he walked out through the parking lot. As he left the supermarket lights, the darkness returned.

A quiet squeak came from an alley as the man walked past. "Hello?" He said, wrapping his head around the corner to peek in.

"H-help me…" The same voice said in desperation. The pudgy man squinted and approached the voice, unsheathing his cell phone for light to see by. In front of him was a woman. It was easily deduced that she had been mugged- the contents of her puss lay astern a few feet away from her. She was badly cut and blood spilled onto the asphalt, tarnishing it. "I need to get to the hospital. Please."

The pudgy man's expression didn't change. He glanced around for a few moments, still holding up his cell phone for light, before finding a cinder block which he slowly pulled up towards him, creating a slight grinding noise against the ground. He smiled and sat on it comfortably.

"Would you like to hear a story?"

The woman was exasperated and shook her head. "I've been mugged, I need to get to the hospital."

The man cleared his throat gently and lowered his phone, again engulfing the alley in darkness with only illumination from the moon. "I was just at the supermarket and it was really nice. I got through a lot faster than usual. All the time there are long queues that you have to wait through, but the supermarket got these new self check out aisles. I got all of my things lickety split and was out of there before you could say 'Groceries'." The blood continued to soak the ground, and the puddle had spread to the tip of the man's foot.

"Please. I'm hurt."

The man smiled. "See, in the end, I find most things are faster when I do them myself." He stood from the cinder block and then bent down with a slight grunt to pick it up.

"Help me!"

"Things are faster when I do them on my own." He lifted the cinder block above the woman's head.

"What…"

"I just want to get things done faster." And he dropped the cinder block.