When Daniel entered the kitchen, he didn’t see the girl. The plates were in the sink, they looked like they were rinsed out, and cleaned. “Violet?” he asked.
There was no answer.
“Violet, are you okay? Where are you?”
“DOC! THIS HOUSE IS AMAZING!” Violet screamed running into the kitchen. All the fear had disappeared from her little pale face and was replaced with amazement. Her neck turned and spun. He thought she was going to break it. “Doc! This house! This has got to be the biggest place I ever spend the night in!”
“Well, yeah, it’s okay, I guess.”
“Okay? OKAY!? Good sir, this house is far from okay! This is a mansion! You live in a mansion!” Violet said looking around. Daniel seemed confused. It was far from that. It was not the biggest house. It was a normal size house. Two stories, four bedrooms, three bathrooms. It was normal for a family to live in. Though, he remembered she was homeless.
“It’s a big house,” Daniel shrugged.
“Duh!” Violet said running into the next room. “Wow!”
Daniel slowly followed her. He didn’t care where she went; he just wanted to make sure she wasn’t going to hurt herself. Or his stuff.
“Doc! Your house is so big! Why do you live alone? It’s too big for just one person,” Violet said. Daniel stopped in his track. When Violet didn’t hear a reply, she turned around and saw Daniel with a hand rubbing his tired eyes. “Doc?”
“I don’t have anyone, okay?” he seemed to snap.
“Why?” she asked.
“I just, I just don’t, okay? You already asked me the same question,” he said. “I don’t have anyone, and I’m okay with that.”
Violet paused. She felt glass stabbing her into the heart. With that statement, she thought of her next words. “If you’re okay with it, then why did you bring me here?”
“Because . . . because you were sick. When the snow melts and it’s safe, you can leave and go anywhere you’ll like,” Daniel said walking towards her. Violet felt a pain in her chest, and tears coming to her eyes. She pushed it away.
“Sorry.”
“No, don’t be sorry, it’s okay. I just . . . I’m just not used to having to share a house with someone.”
“How long have you been alone? Didn’t you ever have a girlfriend? You’re not bad looking and you seem nice. I mean, cut your hair a little bit for God’s sake-“
“I don’t like to cut my hair. I like it long,” he said looking at her.
She crossed her arms and laughed. “You look like a hippie more than a doctor,” she said.
“RN,” he corrected her.
“Whatever. But seriously Doc, no girlfriend?”
He shook his head.
“Kids? You got any kids?” she asked.
He shook his head again. “I can’t.”
“Can’t have kids?” she asked. “Well, that’s okay, who likes them anyways?”
He looked at her and just seemed to smile. He sat on the couch and just laughed.
“Hey, want to watch a movie? I got a few movies, if you want to watch them,” he quickly suggested.
“No,” she said. “I want to know more about you. You’ve asked me lots and lots of questions.”
“Not really,” he argued.
“Question one, Doc, have you ever been arrested?”
“No,” he said. “And I don’t want to play this game. You need to get some rest.”
“Question two,” she said jumping on the couch, resting her head on both her hands and blinking away those big bright blue eyes. “Why did you rescue me? Do I owe you?”
“I just did, and no, you don’t,” he said rolling his eyes and looking up. “Ugh, I don’t want to play this game, Violet. I don’t get why you think I would think that you owed me anything.”
“Most men do,” she mumbled, looking to the floor. Daniel wanted to ask her what she meant, but she went on. “Question three,” she went on. “Who are you? Like what do you do? What’s your secrets? What makes the wonderful world of Doc? What makes him tick?”
He sighed. “RN. No secrets, and T.V., food, and air. Air filling my lungs and keep me going, and a little girl who keeps asking me questions after questions.”
“Question four-“
“I don’t want to do this anymore,” he said getting up.
“No, we’re just getting started,” she said standing up with him and following him.
He turned around. “What about you? I barely got a name out of you! I want to know who you are.”
She stopped, frozen. She just looked down and away from him. She saw the T.V. and movies that were laying on the coffee table. “What movies do you have?”
She started to walk towards there and went through the movies. Daniel narrowed his eyes. “Oh no! No you don’t! I answered your stupid questions, now answer my stupid questions!” Violet didn’t look at him. She just went through the movies. She pretended not to hear him, pretended that he wasn’t there. “Come on!”
“Let’s watch this movie,” she said holding up Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Daniel took it and stared at it. He glared at her for the longest time, and then sighed.
“Sure,” he said turning on his T.V. He plugged in the DVD player and placed the movie in. Violet sat back and wiggled her butt into the couch some more. Daniel saw her and just laughed. “Comfortable?”
“Very, Doc, very,” she smiled.
“Well, okay. Do you want some popcorn?” he asked.
“Popcorn? Sure,” she answered.
He smiled for that was all he could do. He wasn’t sure what else to say to her. He tried to let himself remember that she would be gone soon anyways. Then he had an idea. Just treat her like a resident at work.
He went to the stove, letting the movie start. He saw her watching. He saw the start as the popcorn on the stove started to pop. While waiting, he grabbed a blanket for her. He handed it to her and she stared. “Thank you.”
He shrugged. The popcorn popped. Before it went everywhere, Daniel got it off. He grabbed two bowls and split it in half.
When he handed her a bowl, she smiled. By the time he got done, the main character Holly and the man, Paul, she decided to call Fred, were talking for the first time. Violet was smiling the whole time. Daniel liked the way she smiled. It was pretty, and hard to look away from.
That was how they spent their afternoon. They watched the movie, with no questions and no answers. Just two strangers, bonding over an old movie and eating almost burnt popcorn. Violet couldn’t help to get into a breath taking story.
Daniel soon realized she didn’t like middle school humor cartoons. She didn’t like the cussing and random behavior. She liked a good story. She liked the breath taking story of two people living in New York. She liked Audrey Hepburn.
When they got to the point in the movie where Holly was singing ‘Moon River’, Violet’s smile grew bigger. She gasped when she found out about Holly’s past. She commented that she would like a party like the one in the movie.
He didn’t see her face. He didn’t see the hope in her eyes or the smile on her face when he had said that.
They watched the rest of the movie. Violet almost cried when they let the cat go into the ally way in the rain. She did cry when Paul gave that speech to Holly. She screamed happy though when Holly ran after him and found the cat and kissed him in the rain.
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