Niall:
The woman handed us our ice cream and we sat down at a picnic table. Laney sat on the table, and I sat on the bench. Her feet were dangling by my side and she was humming a song I recognized. “What are you humming?” I asked taking a bite of my ice cream. Her eyes shot up and met mine. She spit a chunk of cookie dough onto her spoon and put it back in her bowl. “Don’t laugh okay?” her voice was soft and her lips curved into a smile every time she spoke. “I promise” I said shoveling a spoonful of whipped cream onto my tongue. “Away in a manger.” I felt myself begin to laugh but I stopped before it escaped my mouth. I nodded “good song.”
We finished our ice cream and got back into my car. I put the keys in and just let it run for a minute. I turned to face Laney after pulling my seatbelt across my chest. “Where to next?” I asked. I watched her pull out her phone and check the time. I tried not to watch her, but I couldn’t help it. Under the time was a picture of the little boy that answered the door. He was asleep in the picture and he had his middle and index fingers in his mouth. His other hand was tangled in his curls.
“Whose that?” I asked. She quickly tucked her phone into her pocket and shook her head “no one.” I understood she didn’t want to tell me so I left it alone. She stared out the window for a while and then turned to me. “You know, all I did was give you a soda. You didn’t have to do all this.” She looked down at her hands that were twisted together. I started to drive, knowing exactly where we were going next. “I know. I wanted to.” She swallowed hard “why?” I looked at her. Her head was still down and she was slumped in her seat. “Well” I cleared my throat. “For one thing, you smell nice.” She let out one of her cute little laughs. “Also you didn’t freak out when you realized I was me.” I took a left turn. “And you’re pretty.” She looked out her window “no I’m not.” I stopped the car at a walmart. “Oh stop it of course you are. Now come on.”
We walked into the store and headed straight for the toy aisle. “What are we doing here?” she asked trying to keep up with my fast steps. “You ask a lot of questions don’t you?” I said picking up a box of sidewalk chalk and throwing it into the trolley. She hopped on the front of it and I pushed her down a couple aisles. Our cart now held chalk, bubbles, a soccer ball, a blanket, two jump ropes, ten cans of silly string, teddy grahams, goldfish and oreos.
While piling the stuff into the trunk Laney decided to ask more questions. “why do we need all this stuff?” “where are we going?” “why wont you tell me?” I answered every question with “you’ll see.”
We pulled into an empty parking lot in the middle of nowhere and parked in the very corner. The lot was surrounded by trees and it took a dirt road to get there. “Alright, come on.” I said undoing my seatbelt and pushing open the door. Laney followed me to the back of the car and I popped the trunk. Inside were our walmart bags and immediately I started unloading them onto the ground.
“I still have no idea what’s going on.” Laney confessed as she pulled a bag out of the trunk and laid it on the ground by her feet. I laughed “Okay, okay.” She raised an eyebrow at me and put her hands on her hips.
I closed the trunk and turned to face her. “Well, let’s get started.” She rolled her eyes as I took the blanket out of a bag and laid it on the concrete. I placed the snacks on the blanket and then went to the bag that was holding the soccer ball. I went to the far end of the lot and watched Laney look at her phone. She put it down on my trunk and looked up at me with a smile.
“Shall I kick it?” I asked, projecting my voice so she could hear. She cupped her hands around her mouth and told me to go for it, so I did. The ball left my foot and travelled across the lot to where she was. She kicked it back to me with energy I didn’t know she had.
After we kicked the ball around for a while I ran over to where she was standing. “I’m hungry.” I said rubbing my stomach. We sat down on the blanket and ate snacks and just talked. I was shocked by how real she was.
