"where is your heaven?"the man spat coldly."Where is it if we can't touch it?" he snickered and coughed out those many years of cigarettes. He started puffing another pack. I hoped he choked on those embers. My eyes rested at my feet, searching for an answer to grab me, but none did. He was growing restless yet satisfied with the entangling silence, "I was right, kids so caught up in questions they give no answers." my eyes rose to see a smug expression radiating off of him like poison; he was the lost that still won. "You going to say something?" he licked his reptile lips in amusement. "Whatever." he scoffed in a tired tone. He started walking away into the darker depths of the ally.

     

"It is where the sunflowers lie." I spoke barely above a whisper, my eyes followed him, he stopped.

     

"What did you say?" his shoulders hunched up as if pulled by a puppeteer, still facing away from me.

     

"It is where the sunflowers lie." I spoke louder. He turned toward me, closing the distance between us until I could smell the ash seeping from his skin. He puckered the tip of his cigarette and blew slowly out a smoke cloud that poured over my face. I released a small, weak cough.

     

"Now why is that?" he curled his lip with curiosity. I lifted my chin preparing for my response.

     "It is the closest thing I can get to heaven, and still be damned for my sins. My heaven is a sunflower patch. It is short, sprouted and strong. Watered with wealth, and grown to paradise. Until my soul is deemed unworthy, then I will be plucked and my stocks burned..." His expression was intrigued, his eyes glued onto me with a slightly gap mouth."and you can touch a sunflower patch."