Lunch Break

Keres shows up at his work and you get a little backstory on Todd

My mother decided not to punish me with the help of Austin and my brother. In the morning my mother had already left for work, she had to get to work early in order to be home before nine to make dinner like she always did. She was a strong woman, I don’t think I would be able to do it.

I sat in my kitchen it was small, a window over the sink on the far right wall of the square kitchen. The next wall had some counter top and the stove with the oven. As soon as you step through the whole which was our door the fridge was immediately on your right, take a step in and to your left our pantry took up the whole wall. The wooden doors having long since fallen off due to me and my brother as children. The only wall that was blank was the one behind our strange oval table. Even that wall was not blank, it was filled with memories in the form of food stains and our back door in the far right corner.

I sat down with my cereal, the faint smell of my mothers oatmeal still floating around from the dishes in the sink. Brian joined me a moment later. We were pretty much twins, if twins could have a separation period of two years. We did our best to look different however. He kept his head clean shaven, I like to have what my friends called a midget afro. His face was more square than mine and my eyes were bigger. However we did share our midnight skin that the summer sun was only making darker,  we were the same height if you forget the added hair height I had. We both had a built body because we played football in the fall, basketball in the winter and ran track together in the winter. We both were romeo’s capable of smooth talking our way into anyone’s hearts. The only difference was that he used his charming smile on both men and women, I only used them on girls.

“Did you end up needing a condom last night?” He asked giving Lacey a pat on the head.

I poured him a bowl, he was going to ask for one anyways. “No. We just went down on each other.”

He chuckled, “She got you to go down? She must be pretty damn sexy. Did she laugh at you?”

“No.” I huffed, taking a few bites of cereal. “I actually learned a lot, it’s exhausting man. I don’t know how you do it.”

“If you please them they’re going to work harder to please you.” He winked.

“I guess man. I need to go look for her though, she disappeared. I couldn’t find her.”

“She probably got a good look at your face and ran away.” He laughed. “Besides don’t you have to work today?”

“Not until 9. It’s 7:30 now, I’ll take Lacey on a walk and hopefully I’ll find her.” He nodded agreeing. “How was your night?”

“I stayed home, kicked a*s playing online though. I was unstoppable!”

“And you call me a loser?” I laughed sticking my bowl into the sink. I put Lacey on a leash only because it was law not because she would ever leave my side without my permission. She hopped in the car knowing where she was going, excited. Tail whap, whap, whapping against the inside of my car. I blasted the music drove the few miles it took to get to the park.

Jittery, leaping around but never leaving my side we walked into the yellow and green field. The various holes leading off in different directions with trails, covered over head by trees, bordered by shrubs, rocks, grass and flowers. “Go girl.” I said. With a leap she ran off, made a few hyper circles then started doing her business.

A woman yelled a few minutes later, not because Lacey was attacking her but because she was close to her dog and her dog was barking up a storm. Lacey didn’t even know they existed. “Lacey come here.” She obeyed without hesitation, giving me an irritated look as she made her way to my side.

“Come on, we’re going to go home.” She whined but followed. I praised her and when we got home I gave her a treat. She forgave me upon my presentation of bacon. Brian was gone, he had texted me telling me that he was out with some friends gone to hang out at the mall.

I stepped into the shower, cranked the temperature to high and basked in the heated rain that fell on me. The grass stains and dirt melted away, revealing red marks. The cuts burned in the hot water. After stepping out I scanned my back in the fogged mirror, they weren’t serious. The ones on my back were from sticks and pebbles. The one on my leg was slightly more serious. slightly deeper scabbing over already. About an inch long. I hadn’t noticed last night. I smiled, it was some kind of war badge, it made me proud for whatever reason to see that mark and a few others along my torso. None too deep, each just as satisfying as the last.

Lacey watched me leave, none to happy at it but then again she never was. She hated not knowing where we were, but I suppose that’s a natural feeling for a guard dog. Driving down the street, tree’s evenly spaced on the grass between the road and the sidewalk. The smooth pavement, the beat of the radio gently pulsing through my car. I pulled into my job, it was a home improvement store. Only one in town so it was popular by all car junkies, builders and nearby construction companies if there were any.

I was dressed in the usual tan khakis and blue shirt that were our required dress. I walked into the back room, “Hey Sarah.”

Sarah was a beautiful girl, thick curvy body, b***s perfect size. Not obnoxiously large or mosquito bites. Her face was clear by anything that I could tell, if she did have acne make-up covered it, she had long black curly hair. Her skin was white but not in an unhealthy way, that healthy white. It was too bad she was a b***h. “Hey.”

“You clocking out?”

“No. Just getting something to drink, even with the A.C it’s still crazy hot in here. My hair is going to suffer for it that’s for sure.” She laughed a little

“You’re hair looks fine, as long as kids don’t bring in water balloons again I think we’re safe.”

“You’re right.” She smoothed her hair down a little but the curls bounced right back up.

“At this point I’d welcome a good dousing with water.”

“You and me both.”

I left before her and began making my rounds. First the bath section, if something was dusty has to wipe tht. Then the paints, someone had spilled, not uncommon. That took longer than I wanted it too, but it just refused to completely leave the floor without a fight. After a hard won battle with bright blue paint I made my way to the doors. Passing up and down the aisles, one of them opened.

I sighed another kid wandering through the doors pretending they were coming out of Narnia or something. Instead of a ten year old I found a bright red head and a snake bite smile. “Keres?”

“Oh hey.” She smiled, her eyes weren’t rainbows today. They were gold ringed smiley faces. “Didn’t expect to see you again.”

“I’m glad. What happened to you last night?” I tried not to show too much concern. It was a relief to know that she was still alive. I made sure that none of my co-workers saw me. We weren’t supposed to talk to friends during our work hours.

“I woke up before you and I left. There were something I had to take care of.” She looked away not wanting to talk about it.

“What? Didn’t I satisfy you?”

She giggled, “You were great, it wasn’t about that I promise.”

I relaxed and grinned, “You scratched me up pretty bad you know.” I lifted my shirt a little to show her. Her face smiled faded as she inspected them. “I’m just messing with you, I’m not hurt.”

She looked at them a little harder before she was satisfied, “Well aren’t you a little masochist?”

“Wouldn’t that make you a sadist.”

She just laughed and stepped back into the door. I opened and followed her a second later, she was already three doors down though and crawling out. After a bit of a chase I caught her hand, “I go on break in a few hours. You wanna hang out then?”

She thought about it. “After you eat I’ll meet up with you.”

“Ok.” I grinned and walked away from her, then turned, “Meet me at the entrance at noon?”

“Sure.”

I Continued working but a certain smiley faced trickster made it difficult. First she left her jacket on a very high shelf and requested that I specifically retrieve it for her. Then she somehow managed to put ever paint can in the first row in order according to their order on the rainbow, which I had to fix alone because she distracted everyone else with her pretend needs. Eventually she came to amuse herself with the shopping cart, forcing me to wheel her around in it like a little kid.

“What time is it?” She sighed as I pushed her around in the cart. I don’t know how she talked me into this.

“Time for you to get a watch.” She gave me a bemused look, “Doesn’t you ipod have the time?”

“Yea but I have the clock set for the time in China.”

“Why in the world did you do that?”

“Because I just came from China and haven’t changed it yet.”

“What were you doing in China?”

She spun around and looked at me with her big smiley face eyes and freckled face, “I was eating. A lot.”

“Did you leave because of the murders?”

“What?”

“You know the murders, well I heard on the news that a large amount of people were going missing without a trace. They are all assumed dead. It freaked a lot of people out.”

“People go missing everyday, what made these so special?”

“You’re telling me you were in China and didn’t hear about these.”

She nodded the negative but I didn’t say anything waiting for her to explain her ignorance, “I was in a special place in China. I didn’t hear a lot of things about the modern world while I was there.”

Her statement seemed to be true, yet empty. Only half the story, there was something untrustworthy about it yet she wasn’t lying. I ignored my feelings. “Well they were concentrated in certain areas. Like forty people from one area would go missing one night another forty another night. They say the kidnappers used hallucinogens to trick the people who were outside because they all reported sights of a monster.”

“Ah. I know what you’re talking about now. I remember hearing about that. It’s kind of crazy don’t you think. Do you think monsters are real?” She laughed.

“No, monsters are just crap that parents use to scare their children.”

“Monsters live inside of us,” I made a turn into the flooring section. Tiles on one side, wood on the other. She pulled out a necklace that had been hiding underneath her sweater. I remember it vaguely from last night. “My sister gave this to me to protect me from monsters.” It was a bear made from a black kind of rock. Bright red paint went down from its mouth and filled its stomach, it was outlined in bright turquoise and purple. Beside it were two feathers old looking like they would fall apart. The chain was bright blue beads and deep gray rocks placed without pattern on a black string.

“Your sister seems pretty cool, she make that by hand?” I told Sara I was going on lunch and helped Keres out of the cart.

“You’re not supposed to do that.”

“Shut up Sara. Jeez she bought something.” I walked out a her her make some kind of come back that she was apparently happy with.

“I didn’t buy anything.” She said with a laugh.

“I know.” She got out of the cart and waited while I pushed it to its proper place. “Where do you want to eat?”

“Anywhere. I’m not hungry.”

I gave her a look but shrugged it off, at least I would save some money. “There’s a taco place in the mall, if you don’t mind crossing the street.” It was four way traffic we faced, even though I had crossed it safely a number of times it still scared me to think of what might happen.

She took my hand and gave me a comforting smile, “It’s OK. I got you.” She led me across the street, weaving through the cars. A warmth came from her hand that reminded me of my mom the first time I had a shot.

“This should be the other way around.” I chuckled.

“Everyone likes to be taken care of every now and then.” She smiled softly as though there was something more she wanted to say. She let go suddenly with a shake of her head, “So where is this taco place?” The gold in her eyes shone.

“Right next to the donut place.”

“Very specific.” She laughed.

The mall was popular swarming with kids desperate for the A.C. stores filled every available place, each screaming to have better deals than the next. Two stories tall, it wasn’t the biggest mall but in this town it was the most busy.

I bought my taco and sat down, I only needed one because their tacos were an outrageous size. “I know the owned.”

“Really? How?”

“He and my dad are best friends.”

“You’re dad is pretty cool.” She looked at the small place. Menu in the back 3 people rushing around filling orders as accurately as they could.

“Eh, not really. He left us three years ago. Not for anything bad, just got bored of us and thought it would be best to leave.”

“Was it?” He smiley faced eyes scanned my face greedily wanting to know more.

“I don’t know. I still see him for a month every year.” I paused biting into my taco again and slurping down some of my pop. “What’s your family like?”

She thought for a second, “It’s big. Well it was, they’re all dead now.” Her face remained unchanged, happy and bright. “It was a long time ago. But I lived with my grandparents, aunts, my parents and cousins. All close. You would have liked them.”

I paused. We shared a sad moment together. She smiled, “You want to come to my house?”

“I can’t I have to go back to work in another ten minutes.” I paused and grinned, “But I can get someone to cover me.”

Touching her necklace she smiled, “No, go to work you bad boy.”

She kissed me lightly, it tasted of strawberry chapstick and milk if one can taste that. “Now how do you expect me to go to work?”

“By walking across that street like a big boy, all by yourself.” She winked and walked off to God knows where.

Author's Note

I hope you didn't find this chapter too long? Feel free to express your thoughts :)