Since boarding the train first, a fresh foot of snow amassed over the old. It overflowed the curbs making the roads inaccessible to motorist. Regardless, they'd not likely be driving with this ghostly mist encompassing the streets in its own tranquil silence. Perhaps the lack of visibility could answer why other pedestrians were absent from the scene, or perhaps they were simply stumbling out there in the thick of it all.

The four stood clueless outside the subway staircase, all huddled in a stammering group. Sierra glanced up and down the empty street for direction.

"Let's see, we should be heading down ... I'm not too sure where we should be heading."

"You said you were familiar with this place," Rum said.

"Yeah, over ten years ago. I remembered the general area, that doesn't mean I have it mapped down in my head."

Sierra hummed a thought, hurrying to check a nearby bus sign. She checked a map on it and called back with directions.

"The place we're looking for is on this bus route. Looks like it's the next block over - walking distance. I figure we can find it if we stick along this road."

"Checking the bus routes," Alex said. "I'd have thought four homeless people would have better street sense."

"Vagrants have better street sense. We're more like Middle Park decor," Rum stated.

"Then it's time we were upgraded," Sierra said from the bus stop, carefully tearing the map clean off. She held it up to show them, and tucked it into her pocket. "At least now we'll know our way around."

"That thing list diners?" Rum said.

"It's a bus route map, Rum," Sierra replied.

"Shame, now we'll have to go look for one. Remember, you promised you'd buy me lunch."

"Now?"

"I asked cause I'm starving. I haven't eaten since we left the hostel."

"I see your point," Sierra said with a grumble in her tummy. "But after buying the tickets I don't have enough cash for four meals.

"That's okay. We can ditch Henry and Alex for a while."

"I suppose, but I don't think they'd like that."

"We are standing right here, you know," Alex said.

"Yeah, that's the problem," Rum replied.

"It's fine with me," Alex replied. "After that long train ride I think we could all use a little time apart. You two go buy something to eat. Me and Henry will get lunch the old fashioned way."

"Enjoy your bin meal then. Today Sierra and I eat like kings," Rum said.

"Dethroned kings," Alex stated.

"Let him count his grains," Sierra said. "We'll meet back here outside the subway steps whenever we're ready."

"And what time is whenever?" Alex asked.

"Whenever is whenever."

Alex nodded his vague understanding of the plan as he watched Sierra and Rum disappear down the street and into fog. He hummed to himself, motioning Henry into movement.

"One thing's certain, whenever their whenever arrives, it'll be long after we do."

"Alex?"

"Just thinking out loud. Sierra still wants back at us for visiting the graves and leaving them waiting at the station. This is a good time for her to do the same to us. Besides, I think those two just needed some time to talk. They couldn't really get it all out on the train with us two staring at them."

"I guess. But I think we should go back early anyway. We made Sierra and Rum wait on us, so if we're stuck waiting it'll balance things out. I'd rather straighten my karma now rather than let it pile up."

"Karma?"

"Karma ... it's an Eastern philosophy. It's all about positive and negative forces running through the universe. I only understand the easier parts, but basically it means that your good and bad deeds will be reflected back onto you. You know, every bad deed you do brings the bad onto you."

"I know what Karma is, Henry. I just didn't know you cared about that stuff."

"Of course I do. That's why I became Buddhist in the first place."

"You're Buddhist? Was I supposed to know this?"

Henry shrugged inwardly with a weakened gasp of breath. "I suppose I've never been too vocal about it. I guess in reality you could call me a failed Christian. To be honest, I never knew much about the religion I was born into, whereas with Buddhism everything was laid out for me already. Reincarnation, Karma, liberalism, these were things I already agreed with and could relate to. Legally speaking, I'm still Christian, but I'm Buddhist in the way I think."

"Far as I know that's all it takes to convert to Buddhism. And strictly speaking, you're not registered anywhere so you aren't legally anything anymore. I don't think baptism counts on a welfare cheque."

"I never thought of it like that. That's nice to know. Now I can be fully Buddhist."

"Good, now I can have all the meat we find. Far as I know Buddhists aren't supposed to eat meat."

"Really? I thought that was only the monks."

"You really haven't researched this whole religion thing have you, have you?"

"It is a little gung-hoe. It's fine if it works.

"You did already give up one religion because you didn't know anything about it. Are you going to let it happen again?"

"Suppose I really should research the rules sometime ... but I'll do that after we eat."

"Just don't rely on me too much. I don't know enough about my own religion to start lecturing others on there's. Let's worry about theology later and focus on foodology." Alex grinned for his joke, but no one else did.

Today's lunch came from a selection of different bins: an apple from one, half a sandwich from another, and so forth until they could all be gathered together to form one decent meal. Their bin tracking took them from one to the next until arriving in a whole new district.

This area seemed isolated from the rest of the city. It gave the impression of a rural town, with its one main street lined with unfamiliar store names. It looked as if a small rural town had been picked up and jammed right into this bustling metropolis. Or maybe the town came first and those tall buildings crept up around it over time. In any case it remained unmoved, in scenery and retailers the entirety of which seemed reliant on that single road cutting through the centre.

Picturesque snowfall on the aged buildings might easily conceal apparent financial difficulties. In another time, this would be a fine place to live.

Alex and Henry moved at a leisurely pace, somewhat sauntering as they crossed the snow clotted main road. With the road in such a state it was no wonder all the shops were closed up. It seemed this area wasn't privy to same snowplough service as the rest of the city.

The pair sought shelter down a tree strewn laneway, something of a turnoff from the main road. The trees, though barren, provided ample cover while they sat and ate. Amidst the city's silence and the howling wind rustling leaves, they for a time forgot the metropolis around. The middle of the countryside would be so peaceful.

"This is alright, isn't it?" Alex said to Henry.

"It doesn't feel right. I screwed up once already, I feel like I've run out of timeouts. We should stick to the plan and stop making idiot moves."

"We're idiots. We move."

"I'm tired of it. Sitting around here won't accomplish anything."

Henry stood to usher Alex on, when the howling wind drained to a whimper. The trees stopped rustling and there came dead silence. Not a car, not a bird, not a word.

"Crazy weather," Alex said. "I've never heard silence like this in the city before."

"The calm before the storm? That Len guy did warn us about a blizzard due."

"Old Len also warned us of an impending alien invasion once. That was after he and Rum landed some tequila."

"He didn't seem too drunk when we saw him last."

"Too drunk ... that's a very relative statement in the land of bums."

The silence shattered on the gasp of a horrible phlegm ridden cough. It descended quickly into a torrent of gasping, like a cat coughing up a hairball. It sounded awful, and though they couldn't see the source, the sound echoed throughout the laneway, bouncing at them from every angle. It settled into arid gasping, and heavy pained breathing. It died suddenly, as though someone had.

The few previous traces of noise were easier to track, leading Alex and Henry straight to the source. It was someway down the lane amidst the trees, and lying comatose in a ditch.

A man lay with grey beard fallen backward over face, outstretched arms clutching a whiskey bottle. Another of the same brand lay empty beside. If his sorry state didn't give it away already, his tattered grey trench coat and patchwork pants seemed suited for a bum's life.

Alex and Henry stood on top of the ditch in expectation for some sign of life. It popped up in an unconscious belch. They deemed it enough, and slid down to heave the man out. Belches came abound until they set him down on level ground.

He lay in noiseless slumber, and would for some time.

Chapter 17.

Sierra and Rum ordered from the nearest diner. They shared a bag of chips and took a burger each for takeout. In biting cold they settled for the nearest sidewalk bench, and ate there as they would inside any diner.

Snow fell sparsely and soft like the last traces of flour sifting through a strainer. It came at just the right speed to be admired without ruining their lunch. With the silent road before them and glitter like frost in the air, it seemed a worthwhile endeavour to endure this heavy cold. Those who bottled up in warm houses would seldom see such placid streets. For a few days this city would be changed into a whole new location, with changed scenery and changed atmosphere. For a few days a year every person in this city could take a free holiday without ever boarding a plane, and most choose to spend it bottled up inside.

Sierra chomped down the last piece of her burger, dug into some chips and waited for Rum to finish. "Just because I bought you lunch it doesn't mean you should take your time. You said you were hungry so eat like a hungry man."

"It was my booze we sold. I'm buying you lunch, all you did was hold my money."

"If I let you hold the money it'd be spent on booze by now, then we'd have nothing to eat. Think of me as a financial planner."

"One who gives shitty deals - I'd rather booze."

"Booze, booze, booze ... same old Rum."

"Don't talk like that. You know it ain't true."

"Alex seemed to think otherwise."

"Alex don't know shit. Don't listen to that freak."

"Then stop drinking and prove him wrong."

"I'll stop drinking when-"

He snagged there.

"When hell freezes? When you die? When you get rich?"

"Two of those might work. I couldn't give a crap about getting rich."

"You did once."

"Never."

"Course you did, I saw it in your face the night we met. It started to die a little every day after."

Rum's eyes gazed straight ahead into the foggy haze. His thoughts went someplace else. "You were just a kid back then. Too dumb to know better."

Rum fell silent. Sierra fell silent. Together in misty mid-evening snow the two reminisced to a bygone decade to the night they first met.

It was a dark and lonely night...

The rain fell in torrents that night. The hostels had opened their doors and shut them the moment they filled. While others banged outside for entry, one ten year old girl relinquished her position in fear of the place. She didn't like the noises, or the darkness. She had only recently quit her night lamp, now to find herself alone in a room full of warty men and women, coughing and groaning. It was more than she could handle so she braved the rainfall, running to the only familiar place nearby.

John, her foster father, had taken her down this end of the city a few times before. Thanks to her fondness for ducks and tall trees, the pair of them always inevitably came back to the same location, Middle Park. In days before she would tug John's hand the whole way along. She had led the way here so much she came to know it by heart.

This would be the very first time she travelled to Middle Park without towing John's hand behind. This was the very first time she'd been out on the streets alone. She worked on childish instinct, but somewhere within she hoped the familiarity would calm her fear. So she travelled to the heart of Middle Park, settling at the base of a great Oak tree. It lay at the bottom of a shallow hill, hidden by bushes and various other trees.

This used to be their private picnic spot. Sierra could never understand why this particular location received so few day trippers. It lay in a prime location, based just off the mid-intersection of the whole park, where the usual central themed statue resided in this case a General on horseback.

She intended to let the familiarity calm her. Instead she found herself huddled at the base, fending from cold and droplets bouncing off her green earflap hat. It was a noisy quiet, a lonely quiet. Through thunder and rain, noises of memory boomed inside her skull. She could hear John laughing she could hear herself laughing. She could hear them laughing together. It was the memory of the first time she genuinely laughed with a would-be parent.

Thunder clapped, and clapped away the memory. That noisy memory became replaced with the noisy storm. And it was of her own free will to disperse the thoughts. John was dead, and she sat alone under an Oak tree in bitter cold. This would be the new reality.

Her huddling stance collapsed, and she fell in on herself. She tucked her head between knees, and for the first time in her life wept in total silence.

She wasn't all alone in the park that night. Somewhere out there was a man walking by himself nearby. He couldn't yet hear her crying and she couldn't yet hear his cursing.