Apple Core

Three: Eyes

It's weird how people act when they meet their first friends. I, for instance, almost set out at eleven fifteen.

After waking up at eleven, I took a look at my new room, now with furniture, and went back downstairs for breakfast. After a few slices of toast, I urged my mother to let me go early.

"Look, Clyde," she said after a while, "I have an idea. Let's go to the nearby department store. I'll get you a watch, so you won't be late today, and we'll pass the time."

"Okay." I replied, "thanks, mother."

The department store was pretty huge. It took us a while to find the place where they sold the watches. I picked a blue digital one on which I could set the date. It was a bit expensive, but I don't think my mother cared about that anymore. She even let me get a toy from the toys section, and a few clothes. I picked a toy cheaper than the watch.

By the time we were done shopping, my watch (which I had worn immediately) read 11:45. The department store was even farther away from the park than my home, so mother and I separated at the front door of the pink house. "Lunch at two thirty." she said.

I walked towards the park, checking my watch regularly. I arrived there ten minutes earlier than I was supposed to.

By five minutes past twelve, I saw two boys walking towards me from the road that led left.

"Hey! You're early!" said Derek as they approached the gate. Ralph had a football under one arm.

"So," said Ralph, "who wants to be referee first?"

For a few hours we kicked the ball, playing one on one with the third as the referee, scoring goals and yelling in triumph, losing and sighing in defeat. It felt strange to have friends. A positive feeling, yes, but it felt like I was dreaming. Like I would wake up any moment and be back in that big city I used to live in. And honestly, I didn't want to.

The sun climbed higher in the sky, then slowly lower, and that's when I remembered to check my watch: right after the seventeenth match, as we were catching our breaths. It was two twenty.

"I gotta go, guys." I said, as they were about to begin the eighteenth match.

"But we were having so much fun!" said Ralph.

"You guys can keep on playing." I said.

"We can't without a referee." said Derek.

"Sure you can," I said, "anyway, my mother almost grounded me yesterday."

"Whoa." said Derek, "My parents would never-"

"Your parents would never do many things," said Ralph.

"It's still a stupid reason to ground him." said Derek.

"She was worried, Derek," I said, "I could have been kidnapped."

"Kidnapped?" asked Derek, "Like those people in cities they talk about on the news? That stuff probably isn't even real."

"I lived in a city," I said, "and I know at least three people who got kidnapped there. Or, well, at least went missing."

"I went to the city once," said Ralph, "and I never want to go back there again."

"Me neither," I said, "but I really have to get home now. Don't you two?"

"Why would we?" asked Ralph.

"Lunch." I said, "don't you have lunch with your families?"

"My dad comes home for dinner, not lunch," said Derek, "You know, he works late, till six, and out of town too, so he only gets home at seven."