The End of the World Read Online Free PDF

“Well, no, I just…it’s just that Mrs. Anna was very specific about breakfast time. If I’ve missed it, it doesn’t really matter. I’m never that hungry first thing anyway,” I lied.
    “So what? What are you trying to say? That Mrs. Anna is a liar?”
    “No, no, of course not. I was simply…I was just trying to abide by the rules.”
    “Hah! Rules. What do you know of rules? You’re just a baby,” she jeered, suddenly more animated than before.
    “Well…without wishing to sound disagreeable, I am actually a fully-grown adult and I do believe in playing by them.”
    “You’re an arrested child – it’s plain for any fool to see. You know not rules. Rules are tools and only as worthy as the hands they’re placed in.”
    The conversation seemed to be taking a turn for the worse. However, I certainly wasn’t about to back down on a point of principle.
    “Be that as it may, I distinctly remember being told quite categorically that breakfast would be served at 7:30am on the dot, and so here I am.”
    “And if someone told you that you were a cow you would squeeze your breasts and offer me milk, I suppose?”
    “I…I don’t know that that’s–”
    “Words! What are words? Words are not important; it’s deeds that matter,” she cried.
    “Yes, indeed. And serving breakfast is a deed.”
    “There is no food. You must go hungry like the hordes of wretched souls you never gave a second thought to – except for the few guilt-ridden seconds when reading your newspapers and chewing your toast, only to turn the page to smaller tales of smaller pains that caused you smaller sadness. Here you must go hungry. No matter how you saw yourself before, here…here you are nothing…nothing special.”
    “I’m sorry, I’ve no desire to appear difficult, but I paid good money to retain the services of this establishment and I think I have a right to expect what I was promised,” I insisted, beginning to feel a little hot under the collar.
    “You can expect what you want but you’ll get what you’re given. Your money doesn’t talk here. The only thing you will get here is what you deserve. Everybody does eventually – at The End of the World.”
    Her combative tone triggered an aggressive aspect of my personality that I rarely ever gave public voice to, but in this instance I felt compelled to vigorously express my displeasure.
    “Let me say first of all that ‘what I deserve’ has a judgmental tone to it that I find wholly displeasing, especially from someone who has known me for all of five minutes. Secondly, my money is as good as anyone else’s and when I part with it I expect something in return. Now, I was promised a full English breakfast and that is what I intend to receive. However, if you are some sort of agent of Mrs. Anna, sent here to dissuade me from expecting what is rightfully mine, I would respectfully ask that you identify yourself as such now so that we can draw a halt to this ridiculous charade.”
    “Strong words from such a small child,” she said, flipping away a greasy lock of hair from her eyes.
    I was still feeling decidedly agitated. “I will ask you one more time and I expect to receive a straightforward answer. To the best of your knowledge, have I or have I not missed breakfast?”
    “How should I know? I just arrived,” she shrugged.
    “Oh. Oh, I…I just assumed that–”
    “Of course you did. You people always assume you know so much about those around you when the truth is you know nothing.”
    “Actually, I think it’s you that’s doing the assuming, but never mind. Anyway, it looks like we’ve both missed breakfast.”
    For the first time she looked me directly in the eye, her plaintive expression unchanged.
    “I am not missing breakfast. I am not missing food. How can I miss breakfast when I am missing my stomach?”
    “You’re missing…I’m sorry, what was that?”
    “I have no stomach for food. I have no stomach. You understand, yes? It was blown