There was nothing there for me.. this was the right decision. I thought. This still doesn't feel comfortable though.
Moving across the country had been a huge decision. It was a quick spur of the moment thought that landed me in the middle-of-fucking-nowhere-Ohio. All I have is a backpack,some cash, and a guitar I kinda know how to play.
I'm going to miss the warm California beaches. And the sun, why did I come here? I shake off the thoughts. It doesn't really matter why I came, I'm here now and I need to focus.
First things first, getting out of this airport would be great. Except I don't know what I'm doing or where I'm going. Maybe I should just get a flight home. It would be so easy just to buy a ticket and... No! I can't, or all of this would count for nothing and I'd be right back where i started.I would have basically achieved nothing. Except making myself look like a dunce when I show up in front of my family and beg for my room back. Imagining that play out makes me feel nauseous.
I sigh, and make my way through this maze, looking for an exit. Who the hell designed this place! I haven't seen a single sign since I've gotten off the plane! This is quite a shabby place though. Makes sense since there are almost no flights to here. What kind of person would want to come here anyway? Me apparently. I usually like airports. They give off the vibe of adventure. But this one is a bit off. Some of the lights start flickering ahead of me. Gotta love the creepy deserted theme! Really lightens the mood. I should be grateful none of them are going out, especially because it's nighttime. Finding my way around somewhere I've never been in pitch black darkness doesn't exactly sound like my idea of fun.
I feel a strong tap on my shoulder. Spinning around I face a strange old guy in a worn coat.
"Excuse me, is this your wallet?" He rasps.
He's definitely been smoking. Ugh, his breath reeks of nicotine.
"Oh, yeah it is. Thank you."
He walks off in the opposite direction without another word. I have a bad feeling. After continuing to walk for a few minutes I realize I should check my wallet and see if anything was stolen. I open it up. Of course there's only 500 dollars left. There goes almost all of my money! I look behind me but the guy is already long gone. Dammit! I should have been paying attention. At least he was "nice" enough to spare me some money and my ID. He did take my credit cards though. Jokes on you weird guy! I'm broke! There wasn't any money in the cards anyway! Haha haha... ha..
I'm fucked.
I guess there's nothing I can do about it now because there doesn't seem to be any dam security in this place. I'll... come up with something. Yeah! Everything will be a-okay!
Hopefully... After searching a bit more, I managed to find the exit. This is the only good thing that had happened so far. Hallelujah! I'm saved! I'm finally about to leave this dump when I feel a tug on my coat.
I look down to see this little girl in tattered clothing. She's covered in dirt from head to toe and her hair looks like a rats nest.
"Um, I don't want any Girl Scout cookies.." I choke out, knowing full and well that's not the case but hoping she'll go away anyway.
"I'm not a Girl Scout, I just need some help."
I lower myself down to her level. " Where are your parents?" I ask in the sweetest voice I can muster.
"I-I don't know," she starts, looking up at me with puppy eyes, " they told me to wait here. But it's been a month and I haven't seen them."
I immediately feel bad for this girl. It takes a special kind of asshole to dump your kid off at an airport and never come back. Just what am I getting myself into? Instead of thinking about it and being a rational adult(well late teen but who's counting anyway?) I say the first thing that comes into my head.
" Then uh what do you want me to do?"
Oh god, I really don't know how to deal with children.
She looks down at her feet. "Well, I was wondering if you could take care of me.. or something. I'm really hungry... I promise I'll make it up to you! I don't have any money but I can do something.."
I attract all sorts of weird people, I guess orphans are no exception.
I take a breath and try to comprehend the situation. Ok so I'm in some random airport in who-knows-where Ohio. A kid comes up to me and asks for me to care for them. What do I do? My first thought is that I obviously can't leave her here. It's a miracle that she hasn't been kidnapped. I can't leave her to die. But.. I barely have enough money to care for myself. In addition, I don't know how to care for a child! My only experience with that is that I am a former child. She must have taken my hesitation as a sign that I would leave. She immediately hugs my leg tight and starts crying.
"P-please don't leave meeee!!!"
If there were any people in this deserted-ass-airport they would definitely stare at me. But nope. This is definitely what you would call "making a scene".
I wave my arms around frantically, "Shh! No, it's okay! I'll take you! J-just please for the love of god stop crying!"
She loosens up and stares right into my eyes.
"P-promise?"
I sigh, " Yeah whatever kid, just please don't do that again. My ears hurt.."
"Yay!"
Guess I'm a parent now.. Hurray!.. Not much I can do about this now. Just gotta roll with the punches.
"Here lets clean you up."
I reach into my backpack and grab my brush and some wet wipes. I always carry around wet wipes or hand sanitizer. Do you know how many germs you get just touching a handrail?
I'm not willing to get sick because of something dumb like that. I start wiping her down. How much dirt can you get on you from just being in an airport!? Jeez... Well, this isn't the nicest airport anyway. Arms, legs, hands, neck, face, back and done. That took a surprising amount of time. Now that I get a good look at her, I'd say she's about 5 or 6. She looks at me happily with bright green eyes. Time to brush her hair. It's not too long so it looks like this won't be too bad. Except for the fact that it's tangled as hell. Jeez, it looks like this girl went through a hurricane. Her hair color is really nice though. It's light brown that fades to blonde at the tips. I wish I had that type of hair. I start brushing and immediately hear complaints.
" Ouch! That hurts."
"Well I'm sorry I'm not a freaking hairstylist!"
I need to control my temper. I can't lash out at a kid like this. Is this what parents have to go through all the time? How do they even do it!?
" I'm sorry. It's not your fault your hair is like this. I'm just under a bit of stress now."
She just pouts in response. After some trial and error, I figure out how to brush it without hurting her. It's not perfect, but it's better than before. I get up and dust off my jeans. We haven't moved away from the door this whole time. As stupid as it sounds, I didn't want to lose it. I check my slap-on watch. It's 11:50! Already?! Ok, it's time I-we start heading out.
"Do you have anything on you? A bag or something?"
"I used to have one. But someone took it yesterday. All my food was in there."
Her parents may have been scum of the earth but at least they left some food. It doesn't make them better people though. Obviously. Well here's the part where I should start doing stuff.
See, I don't really plan things out. So, I never thought to get a hotel room before coming here. I'd figured I'd just go with the flow. It's hard to do that now when you have almost no money and a random child depending on you in the middle of nowhere. If I just walk around maybe I'll find something? I send a quick message to God asking for help. It doesn't hurt to try. The child just hangs onto my coat and looks up at me expectantly. Oh yeah, I have to be doing something.
"Ready to go?"
She just nods.
It's surprisingly not as cold as I thought. That's a relief. I take in my surroundings. Lots of trees. Few lights. There's not a single car on the road. Strange. We walk a bit in some random direction. I pretend I know what I'm doing. The child doesn't even question me. She follows without a word. All you can hear is the crunching of our feet along the sidewalk and a orchestra of crickets that won't shut up. Having some background noise eases me a bit. If it's too quiet then something is bound to be wrong. It's midnight now, too late for anywhere to be open. I see some lights in the distance but they're far and fading. Luckily, there's a bus stop with a bench nearby. It's not exactly a luxury suite but it's good enough for now.
"We'll rest her for the night. In the morning we'll figure everything out." I assure her.
"Ok."
Her stomach growls. I knew I was forgetting something! I forgot to feed her! I search my bag. Thank god I bought some snacks and water at the airport. I figured I'd need them for the plane ride but I never ate them. I hand her a granola bar and a water bottle.
" It isn't much but we can get more food later."
"Thank you so much." She looks like she's on the verge of tears. This poor child...
I eat some trail mix and slump against the side of the bench. As soon as she finishes eating she falls asleep. It has been a long day. I get up and place my coat on top of her. She needs it more than me, after all. I slide my guitar under the bench. I almost forgot I even had it. I then lay on the ground, exhausted. My backpack becomes a pillow. It's better than the ground I guess. I hope we're not in any danger. I look around one last time. There's no one here. Not a single soul in sight. It's the last thing I do before I fall into a restless, dreamless sleep.
A/N
G if you're reading this let me know about any errors, or if there's anything I can do to make this better. I forced myself to write and this is just what came out of my head. I just wrote things down as I thought of them. I do want to continue this because I actually like it. It's the middle of the night so I don't really feel like editing it right now. I publish it now and come back to it later. Nobody's really gonna read this anyway.
