Chapter 4

Frybread romance

    A few hours had passed, the uncomfortable silence didn't sink in. Seemed to be kept out of the car by the conversations about nothing. Though both of them knew that they would end up telling their own stories before too long.
    Jeremy's was hard for him. Although constantly reminded by Katrina that she knew what rez life was like, it didn't help they were sitting in a car worth more than his house and probably everything in it. Katrina didn't push on the subject.
    What Jeremy did notice was Katrina kept rubbing the back of her neck every once in a while. Always when she would be talking about where she came from. “we were packed in a small school, maybe 40 to a class, grades 6 to 8.”. Katrina would rub her neck. “That sounds pretty bad, but we didn't know any better, I guess you know what I mean?”. Rub, rub. “We used to go down to the creek and swim, or go play in the hay until the grownups would find us and holler at us to get out of there.” Laugh, rub, rub.
    A couple hours had past and Jeremy noticed that they weren't talking about anything. It was all nothing. The time was passing and the world outside the car had collapsed and they were the only two people alive. Though, somewhere far back in his mind, he did notice cars pass along the road behind where they were parked, they were only worth a glance.
    “I'm starving.” Katrina reached down and switched on the interior lights. “Oh s**t.”
    “What?”
    “I don't know what I was expecting to find. A hundred year old hamburger and some petrifries, maybe a loaf of bread and some baloney." Katrina squinted one of her eyes and gave Jeremy a funny look.
    “What?” Jeremy raised his eyebrows, wondered why he was getting the funny look.
    “Okay. Really? I have to ask?” Katrina added a little sideways grin to her look.
    “I, I guess.” Jeremy raised his shoulders and turned his palms up. “Sorry, I,” he shook his head, “what?”
    Katrina started to laugh. “I'm hungry, know where I can get some foodstuffs around here?”
    “Oh. Oh! Well, no.” Jeremy thought of where he lived, probably could rustle up a sandwich or something there.
    “Okay, well, I'm down to starving all night or trying to pick berries in the headlights. Probably too early in the season for berries. Is there fish in this lake?”
    “No, I can get you something to eat, just,” Jeremy chuckled, “sorry, my brain isn't firing on all cylinders right now.”
    “I was joking about the fish, you know.”
    “I know, just, yeah, okay, give me a ride to my house.”
    “Took you long enough to be a gentleman and offer to take me out to dinner.”
    “Shaddap, like I said, brain isn't working right, right now.” Jeremy tapped the side of his head and held his hands up.
    “Right, right.” Katrina turned the key and put the car in reverse.

    The journey took a few minutes, it ended with Jeremy almost annoying Katrina into barging into Jeremy's house and finding something to eat. He walked to the stairs, then turned back and asked what kind of sandwich. Baloney? That would be fine. Ham? Also fine. Spam? Fine. PB and J? What? You know, peanut butter and jelly. Fine! Maybe jam? That's when Jeremy laughed and ran up the stairs to find something before Katrina could catch him. He came back out with a grocery store tote-bag that was weighed down with goods.
    “Home again, home again, jiggity jig?”
    “What?”
    “The lake again?” Katrina eyeballed the bag.
    “Sure.” Jeremy looked up and down the road. “Best get going, Harold will be back soon to ask for another light.”
    Katrina almost skidded the car to a halt and crammed the shifter into park. She held her hands out and wiggled her fingers, “Gimme, gimme.”    
    “Sorry, wasn't anything quick available for consumption so I pulled the roast out and made you a nice tsi7 sammich.”
    “What?” Katrina fumbled for the interior light and looked into the bag. “Oh my god, you even put them in baggies.”
    “Yeah I...”
    “What's that?” Katrina swiped a baggie out and opened it. “You said 'chee' sandwich?”
    “Tsi7, deer, I guess. Thought you might like it since, you know.” Jeremy shrugged.
    “I know what?”
    “You know, can't go home and, well, this is home food to me so, you know.”
    “You know, huh?” Katrina was sitting facing Jeremy, one leg curled under her, mouth full of food. Still, her grin wasn't near lady like.
    “It's not seafood, you know. Say it, don't spray it.” Jeremy pulled out another baggie with big pieces of something Katrina hadn't seen for years.
    “Mmph.” Katrina pointed, bounced up and down, finger jabbed at the air, her jaw worked furiously. “Mmmph mmmm mmph?”
    “Sometimes, but if you don't time it just right, it all goes to hell.” Jeremy pulled a oblong, flat piece of something. He bit into it and tore off a large chunk.
    Katrina swallowed hard and laughed. “What?”
    “Exactly. Mmmph mmph mmph isn't exactly easy to understand.” Jeremy's cheek puffed out and he talked through the other side of his mouth.
    “That what I think it is?” Katrina made a snatch at the piece Jeremy hadn't eaten.
    “Specle7w?”
    “Huh?” Katrina was eyeballing the bit that Jeremy pulled away.
    “Bannock? Fry bread?”
    “Yeah.”
    “You bet.” Jeremy stuffed the last piece into his mouth and raised an eyebrow.
    For the briefest moment, Jeremy felt an intense moment of guilt when he saw that he'd actually hurt her feelings. He held up a finger and blinked his eyes, Katrina looked and shook her head. Jeremy did it again, this time with a smile, he blinked his eyes and kept them closed for a second. Katrina closed her eyes, Jeremy reached down and pulled out a large hunk of frybread. It was almost the size of the steering wheel.
    “Here,” Jeremy said with a mouthful.
    Katrina opened her eyes and it was sweetest show of surprise that Jeremy had seen, if not comical to see someone kissing a piece of food. The whole scene played out in Jeremy's head and he started to laugh. People always made jokes about this kind of thing happening, but he never thought he'd see it actually play out. Only thing different from a rez cliché was the car, instead of an old beat up thing, the one they sat in still had that new car smell.
    “Good, eh?”
    “You have no idea, it's been so long since I've had any.” Katrina swallowed. “Fast food, delicacies from all corners of the world, gourmet crap that is meant to be looked at instead of eaten, they got nothing on this.”
    Jeremy pulled a thermos from the bag and unscrewed the plastic cover that served as the cup. He sipped the hot coffee, tried not to notice the loud snarfing coming from Katrina.
    “Here, I can't eat anymore.” Half of it was gone.
    Katrina put her feet back on the floor and fell back against the seat. Jeremy sipped the hot coffee. When he looked over, he saw that Katrina was giving him another very strange look. From that look, he could sense that there was a big story locked up and struggling to get out. Hunger did funny things to people's emotions, but a sense of contentment did the same thing.
    “Coffee?” Jeremy held the cup towards Katrina.
    She only nodded and took the cup. Jeremy took the frybread and dropped it into the baggie then back into the tote-bag. He could feel her eyes, staring and staring, could almost feel the words wanting to blurt of of Katrina's mouth. Jeremy fumbled around inside the bag and pulled out an apple.
    “Apple?”
    Katrina shook her head.
    “Orange? No?”
    Again, she shook her head.
    “Banana?”
    No, thank you.
    “I think I have, yeah I do, pear?”
    Katrina laughed and shook her head.
    “I'd have brought a can of corn or something like that but the can opener don't have a cigarette lighter adapter.”
    The silence from Katrina wasn't uncomfortable, but the staring was beginning to make Jeremy nervous.
    “I'm sorry, I'm just thinking.” Katrina finally spoke, it made Jeremy jerk his head up. He had been peeling the banana.
    “About?” Jeremy opened the door and dropped the banana peel on the ground.
    “The bannock.”
    “Good, eh?”
    “Round, brown, and greasy, just like the guys from...” Katrina stopped, the small smile played across her lips again. It looked so pained. “Home.”
    “If you just want to sit in the quiet, I'm good with that.”
    Katrina just sat, sipping the coffee for a few more minutes. She reached over and reclined her seat and pulled her feet up. She curled up on her side, half sitting and sipping. Still, she didn't take her eyes off Jeremy. He sat and looked out at the darkness, he didn't want to push Katrina in any way. He knew from having to sit with some of his buddies that went through bad times that sometimes, they just need somebody to be there.
    “Jeremy?” Her voice seemed so small all of a sudden. Like the secret would reverberate to the farthest reaches and find her out.
    “Hm?”
    “It was all my fault,” Katrina said just above a whisper.
    Jeremy reclined his seat and sat back, he looked over and saw that Katrina was crying. She shook down her sleeve and wiped her tears away. She held out the cup.
    “Can I have another?”
    He refilled it and handed it back.
    For a few more minutes, there was only quiet in the car. None of it uncomfortable, but he could tell that it was only the pause before the story.

Author's Note

This chapter I wrote to get through the chapter. I'm rewriting the bannock parts out later on down the line, but here it is unedited. Splitting it in half to make chapter 5.