"Stay right here," the woman told her, and went back in.
Through the window, Lucy saw her talking to the countergirl, but didn't fully realize what was happening until the woman came back out with a smaller bag and a bottle of water.
"Here," she said, handing both to Lucy. "These are for you."
Now Lucy did burst into tears. "I'm so sorry," she said, sniffling. "I can't pay you back."
"Don't worry about it." The woman hesitated, and then she said, "There's a shelter not too far from here, if you need somewhere to stay. Do you know where it is?"
Lucy shook her head, already with her mouth full of sweet, sugar-dusted donut; she wasso hungry. Also, she had forgotten that there were places for homeless people to stay. Maybe this wouldn't be as much of a disaster as she had thought.
Okay, maybe you can find somewhere to stay for tonight, but what about tomorrow? And the day after? What then?
She tried not to think about the future. Instead, she dutifully examined the map that the lady looked up on her phone, and repeated the directions to herself until she was sure she had them.
"If they're full, they can point you to another place," the lady said, and Lucy's stomach swooped again at the realization that there were still so many ways for things to go wrong that she couldn't even anticipate. "I'm sorry, I have to get to work. Will you be all right?"
"I'll be fine," Lucy said, blinking again. "Thank you, thank you so much."
The lady went briskly up the street, walking as though the steep grade made no difference at all to her. Everyone who lived here must have calves of steel.
Lucy climbed the hill more slowly, eating her donuts and murmuring the directions to herself.
"I'm going to think positive," she said under her breath. "I'll find it just fine, and they'll have room for me, and they won't ask any awkward questions—oh no, I bet they ask for ID, which I don't have. Okay, let's say they believe me when I tell them I was robbed, because it's completely true, and—ack!"
This was because the piece of donut in her sugary fingers had just been snatched away by a speeding gray and white blur at nose level.
"What!" Lucy yelped, flailing.
She had a wild thought that her breakfast/lunch had just been stolen by a flying cat, which was of course absurd, but what she saw when she looked up was even weirder.
Crouched on top of a light pole, there was something ... horrible.
Her first thought was that it looked like a seagull and a raccoon had been mashed together. It was hunched over, tearing pieces off her donut with its curved yellow beak.
Lucy stared at it.
She had, for a moment, the weirdest feeling that she had seen something like that before—a sweeping sense of déjà vu that rushed over her. It left no specifics, except that she felt slightly unsettled.
Maybe she had dreamed about something like that? It certainly looked like a creature from a dream.
Or a nightmare.
The nightmare looked down at her, opened its beak, and let out a somewhat un-gull-like, unpleasant shriek.
"No, there's no more where that came from," Lucy said. Just to make sure, she tucked the bag, which still contained half a donut, securely under her arm. "See? No more. Go away."
SHRIEEEEEK.
"Aargh! Stop! You're making people notice me!"
SHRIIIIIIEEEEEK.
Lucy opened the bag. The creature cocked its head to the side, eyeing her from one beady eye. Keeping a wary eye on it, Lucy took out her remaining half-donut, carefully broke a very small piece—and stuffed the rest of it into her mouth all at once. Then she held out the crumb at arm's length.
"Oh, come on," she said as it eyed her warily as if suspecting a trap.
WHOOSH!