At least the rest of the day improved gradually despite the fact there wasn’t much of it left.
“Happy birthday, dear Lily!” my friend Krista said over skype. “Happy birthday to you!” I was calling my friend who was back in South Jersey. I joined her in the celebration of her baby sister’s second birthday.
“Here’s some cake for you, Lauren!” Krista said as she scooted a slice to the phone. I smiled as I looked down at the cake.
“Oh, Krista! You really are so cruel!” I said. Krista gave a smile as she took a piece of the cake from the cake slice.
“Here you go, Lauren! Oh, what’s wrong? You can’t eat the piece of cake?” she asked. “Oh, that’s right. You’re all the way on the other side of the world.”
“I’m not on the other side of the world,” I retorted. “I’m only a couple hours away.”
“Right, well you’re stuck,” she said. I shook my head towards the phone.
“Oh please, Krista, I’m starting to get used to the new place,” I said. “It’s still taking a bit of time for me to adapt and all, but I know Mom really needs her new job.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you would hate to lose that special bond you have with Mom,” Krista said. “I hope you get a leg on adapting.”
“Don’t worry, I will,” I replied.
“Bye. Lily say bye to Lauren!” I smiled as Lily went “Bah!” to the camera.
“Bye Lauren!” said the other family members in Krista’s household. I lay on my bed after the phone call. For a moment, I thought about some of my old friends I missed.
I thought about Alexis. How was it that she managed to live all on her own in the middle of the two crevices? What was she like? What was it that she kept warning me about? These questions continued to boggle my mind, and the more that I tried to force these questions out of my mind, the more that I felt that I could not remove it in my head. Come on. There just has to be something that could make me connect with her…
Chapter 5
“All aboard!” cried the bus driver in the middle of downtown Fairfax. As Alexis walked down the aisle, I made my poise ready. Hiding myself to make sure that she did not see me, I scurried along the bus aisle. A part of me had heavy fears that she would spot me and turn to yell at me; however, such was not the case as I made my way down the aisle.
I rushed through the tight aisle spaces. Making my way through the crevices proved difficult because of the tight spaces. Alexis still moved with ease and without any form of hesitation as I followed her through the aisle. It was almost like she was used to the tight spaces.
I imagined what my mom would be like when she learned that I was hiding out in the middle of nowhere. It’s just that the girl truly interested me from the start. Traveling further I realized that I was not in the city. Soon trees began popping up in random areas that I did not know of.
A boy’s voice screamed in the background of the forest trees. I ran faster.
“One, two, three…”
I continued running until I slammed face-first into Alexis.
“What are you doing?”
“Huh?” The wind had been too knocked out of me.
“We’re playing hide-and-go seek. What do you want?”
***
“I was just curious with where your home is,” I replied. To this, Alexis could do nothing except roll her eyes towards me.
“Alright, you can come in. Kyle! Samantha! We have a visitor!” I saw two kids that looked like they were around the ages of six or seven running up to Alexis.
“Oh, wow!” the girl said.
“Is she going to stay with us?” asked the boy.
“Let’s see how well she behaves, then maybe we will give her the grand tour,” Alexis replied. I gave Alexis a bit of a consorted look. Of course it was stupid to follow her all the way here, but I just could not help but be curious of the many things that have gone on around me.
At the front of the house, I could see an old man rocking back and forth on a rocking chair. The two kids ran up to the aged man.
“Grandpa! Grandpa!” they cried. “We have somebody that is following us!” The man looked at me as if he was struggling to comprehend why a young girl would come to their home at such an unexpected hour.
“A visitor,” said Alexis.
***
The house looked as bad as it did on the outside. There were broken down panes of windows dangling from the side of the house. The walls looked rusty as if somebody had smeared only a little bit of paint for a coating.
“Here,” said the boy. In his hands was a ragged doll that looked like it had been mangled by a predator. Though one of its eyes popped loose and his stuffing seemed like it was falling out, it still had a little bit of life flickering inside him.
“Thanks,” I said as I took the bunny, careful to make sure that the leg did not fall out of my hands. “I’ll be sure to fix him up if I ever get the chance.”
“He doesn’t need to be fixed,” the boy said. “He’s already perfect as he is.” I looked at the bunny, its fur coming off the skin. A couple bald spots also appeared on the center of the rabbit.
“It’s father’s old toy,” said Alexis. “He’s been keeping it down in the attic. Just before he decided to leave the house, he left behind this toy for Jack.”
“Then I couldn’t take this,” I said as I knelt down and returned it to Jack, but he was already pushing my hands back. I picked up the bunny inside my hands.
“Someday, I’m going to give you something better than this in return,” I said.
“You don’t have to,” he said. “He’s already beautiful as he is.”
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