Eliot Strange and the Prince of the Apocalypse

26) Cindy Lou Who

When I wake up the next morning, my head is predictably a bowling ball. There are two aspirins and a Coke beside my bed, but no prince in sight. There is a note. It says:

Eliot - Gone to look for my friend Lindy and Nana. Be back this afternoon. Your breakfast is on the stove. -Tori

I would be furious if my head and stomach felt better. One thing I have learned - there is no telling the prince what to do.

In the bathroom, I notice red hair, a lot of it in the trash can, and my razor is by the sink. It looks like he cut his hair and shaved. The prince is no longer in hiding.

I go to the kitchen to get my breakfast which I hope is not a cold bowl of gravy with a hair in it. This is something my mom used to offer to my dad after a night of drinking. I start to think about mom and dad and wonder if they are alive and what they are doing. Are they thinking about me? I start to get all weepy feeling again. Wonder what Steven is doing right now?

I still don't feel so good. Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp. I can feel my heartbeat in my eyeballs. It is loud. It is matching the sound from outside in my backyard. Someone is out there, and they are making a hell of a lot of noise.

I peek through the curtains and see a girl or woman, it looks like a woman, but she is acting like a girl. She is digging through the trash and taking things out and sniffing them. Then, she either tosses it to the side or puts what she finds in a large, heavy duty trash bag that she has brought along for the game she is playing. What is she doing?

She must hear me too because she looks up at me and for a split second looks like she might run, but then she decides I am harmless. She waves at me like we are old friends. I open the door and step outside. "What are you doing?" I ask.

She does not answer and acts shy.

I begin again. "I'm Eliot. What's your name?"

"I am Cindy Lou Who."

"Cindy Lou Who?"

"That is what they call me. Dr. Zeus. I love to read. I love that cat in the hat. I don't like Grinch."

"Me either," I agree.

"I was in a Dr. Zeus play. I was Cindy Lou Who. I am an actress."

"Oh, that is great. Where's your mama?"

"My mama didn't want me, but my Granna did, but she's dead. I live at Glenhaven Group Home with my friends, but they are all gone."

"Where did they go?" I ask.

Cindy shrugs her shoulders.

Left behind, I am guessing. All the hospitals and nursing homes evacuated to the south or the west the first week when the power went out, and there was still emergency personnel to help. Even when the power came back on temporarily, the weak never came back. I guess the emergency crews were occupied with other problems by then. Our elderly and sick were luckier than the poor souls in the bigger cities up north where there was no one to help them and nowhere to evacuate to.

People like Cindy, who were able bodied, were left behind to fend for themselves. It did not look like she was doing so well.

"Where are the people who look after you?" I ask.

She shrugs again, then says, "Gone to their families. They love me, but they said family first, and I am slow and eat too much. I will be just fine. I'm a brave girl."

"Where did your other friends go? The ones who lived there too?"

"Some went with family, but my friends John John and Benny Boo and Myrtle and her baby dolls got lost. They can't come home. They are lost."

"For a long time?"

"Yes, Benny Boo and John John got mad and left a long time ago after the bosses left. They said they was going to the fair and getting some cotton candy. Myrtle went to the library yesterday. She wanted a new book to read to me. She likes to read to me. She got lost."

"And you are by yourself?"

Cindy nods. "I am collecting. I am a collector."

"What are you collecting?"

"I am looking for dolls for Myrtle so she will come back. We like baby dolls." She shows me hers - a baby doll that might be even dirtier than her. "There is no dolls, so I am looking for toys. For my friends when they get not lost."

"Toys, huh?"

"Yes, and cat food."

"Cat food?"

"I like cat food. It is yummy. The cat does not care if I eat his cat food because she is gone."

"You are eating cat food?"

"Yes, it is yummy."

I am worried about what she is eating because cat food is bad enough, but no one has cat food now. So I ask, "Where're you getting cat food?"

She points to Mr. Thomas's house.

"The big man is gone," Cindy says. "I hope he did not go where his kitty cat went because I like the cat food."

"Are you sure?" I ask, "about the cat food?"

"Yes." She shows me some empty cans from her collection that she is saving for Myrtle. "She likes crafts. These is for her crafts."

I ask out loud to myself, "Where did Mr. Thomas get cat food?" Come to think of it, he does or did have a cat.

Cindy answers me. "From his friends, they bring him food. He don't know his kitty cat is gone." She laughs. "He just keeps on feeding it." She laughs again and rubs her stomach.

"Are you hungry?"

"Well, when I don't get cat food, I eat a lot of ketchup. Every house has got some ketchup." She shows me a bottle as she offers me some.

I smile. "How about some spaghetti and meatballs."

"With real sketti noodles and all and meatballs?"

"Real noodles and real meatballs."

"I would like some, thank you, please, you're welcomed."

Cindy Lou Who eats all of the leftover spaghetti and drinks two Cokes. I give her some apples to take with her. She won't stay because she says her friends might come back.

"Myrtle is afraid of the dark. I have to be there when she gets not lost. She will cry. She is a cry baby, but she is still my friend."

I invite her to come back later.

"Maybe," she says like she has a million other options.