The weight

Standing hunch-shouldered in a supermarket aisle, squinting to read the ingredients on a chocolate bar, Jenny recalled a simpler, happier time when she ate, wore and bought what she wanted. Now she did nothing without first assessing its ethical and environmental impacts.

It was exhausting and often immobilising. Ah, palm oil, she read. Sighing into her face mask, she returned the chocolate bar. Unlocking her bicycle for the trip home, the sun warmed her back.

She might have enjoyed it were it not unseasonably, portentously warm. Jenny rode home weighed down by more than her bulging panniers.

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