Follow Me! (The Golden Ridge Saga)

Chapter 22: Gaia, Part 2

TRINITY TOWN, 22 YEARS AGO

"SNAILS!" Louie cheers, opening up a box full of them.

The eyes of the child in front of him widen, her mouth clipping through the ground. She takes the flower headband on her head and rushes herself into the container box.

She puts her head inside it.

"Bob..." She says with stars in her eyes.

Her name is Pital.

"Pital?" Her aunt interrupts. "We're going to the mall now. Let's go!"

"Coming!" Pital says as she runs towards her aunt's embrace.

Her aunt looks directly at Louie.

"How did the session go, Doctor Larry Lemming?" She asks.

"So far, she's been showing signs of IMPROVEEEEMEEENTTT!" 

Party poppers everywhere.

"Really? That's good to hear..."

"I'll be talking more about Pital in her upcoming appointment right... here." He says, selecting a date in his out of nowhere giant calendar. "Oh, and if you want me to be her lifetime doctor, just tell me!" He gestures with excitement.

"If she does... she gets to change my first naaaameee!"

"...I wanna call him Floowie." Pital suggests.

"Anything but that, my young child!" He points with swag.

Minutes after sunset, Louie, with his backpack, walks through rush hour. Happy and content, he makes his way for his shift at a local community college.

He rests his bag against his wall and relaxes himself inside the guard house.

"Ah... Security guard Larry..." He says to himself.  

Everything is pretty chill. The sun is setting, the lights are on, and the cars are beeping...

A young woman walks out of the college, a downer, to say the least, her clothes a bit ragged. With her are a few papers torn to shreds, littered everywhere in the schoolyard.

"Hey! Miss Lady!" Louie says. "Littering in Trinity College is a no-no!"

She elicits no response.

"Lady?"

"One more word, and I'm going to fucking kill you." She says, barely even looking at Louie.

"...Mayonnaise?"

A random word, indeed, but it is enough to make the lady look back at him with confusion.

"What?"

"See? You didn't kill me!" Louie shrugs.

"...Maybe if you say something else, I will."

"What's the problem?" Louie slowly mutters about.

"I don't know. You?"

Louie looks back at the shredded papers everywhere.

"Your papers say otherwise."

"...They're not accepting enrollment. That's all." She says.

"That's not everything there's to it. You got a knife in your left pocket!"

"...Planning to kill someone?"

"No."

Louie uncomfortably zooms into the lady's face.

She changes her answer.