Red Spider Lilies [TPN]

Chapter 15

"Ever heard of knocking, dumbass?" Ray glares at me.

I quickly close the door, blushing from second hand embarrassment. I really should start knocking.

"I'm sorry, it's just you're usually dressed and ready by now so I just assumed that-" I bang my head against his door. "Let's change the subject, my bad."

"Yeah, better if we do change the subject. How about you tell me what you so urgently needed to say?"

"Well, I was going to ask you if you wanted to hang out today? Like not on the streets, mom says I should be encourage the kids to leave the house, but like around the house."

Ray opens the door, fully dressed and ready to take on my invitation of domestic life. You see that he was happy to do so, on account of him nodding and giving me a simple 'sounds fun'.

With that, the day begun at 8:30 am, May 17th, a little windy but not a cloud in the sky. We started with cleaning the counters, which meant moving things around and arranging things we didn't even know existed. One particular piece of paper caught my attention.

"Hey, Ray, do you know where this goes?" I unfold it.

Ray walks over and looks over my shoulder. "I'm not sure, what does it say?"

I skim through the paper, it's a letter to mom. Looks like an official kind of paper.

"Dear, Isabella, we have come with news that we have been able to accept the children under 16 for our program. We are aware that 3 of you're children have already been taken and you must be wondering what will be the difference and why we waited this long. To put shortly, we will be taking those under 16 to refuge on August 4th to a base instead of a home. The reason for this is we have to set up spaces for them to occupy and take them at the last possible chance, which we predict will be August 4th..."

I raise my eyebrow. Predict? What's gonna happen in the 4th?

"You should put that back where you found it. I don't think She wants us to read this." Ray snaps me from thought.

I nod and set down the price of paper on the counter, we quickly move onto the living space to clean.

—-

"What's the status on food? You still want me to hunt or do you want me just help cook whatever vegetation we can find? I'm asking because we don't have a pot for big meals."

Ray shrugs. "Just because we're on the road doesn't mean you get a break on hunting. But our food is gonna be more restricted, and by that I mean meat on a stick." He pauses as in thought. "Meat on a stick with any vegetation we come across."

I turn away and stick my tongue out. Any vegetation we find will have to be thoroughly cleaned and prepped before we can eat it, on account of it being wild and untamed. That is unless we find a farm that hasn't been robbed of its produce already.

"I wonder what soldiers eat. Probably something boring, like mashed potatoes and some meat dish, they might not even get any dessert." I gasp. "They probably don't drink anything but water!"

Ray pats my head and chuckles at me, a good thing. "You're right. They probably think a side of gravy is a privilege."

I cover mouth and let out a snort before giving in a giggle. "Oh, and if it's beef gravy they must have a heart attack-wait! When they get their serving of vegetables they freak out when they get sweet potatoes, excited for something dessert like."

Finally Ray gives in and joins me in my giggle fit. Before this I don't think Ray laughed as much, maybe he laughs with me a lot now 'cause we might not get to do it again on a later occasion.

"You think of the weirdest things, honestly." He takes a deep breathe and regains composer. "I love that."

His words take me by surprise, they actually surprise both of us. He doesn't really say things like... that. Things that sound so sentimental.

"Ah, well, I mean..." Ray covers his mouth and turns his face from me. "Never mind, where do you think we should stop for tonight?"

—-

"Ray, did you get embarrassed today?" I ask.

We're in our makeshift bed and shelter when I say this, a perfect place to ask since there isn't a place for him to run away. Not that he's one to do so.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because it's funny when you're embarrassed. Makes you seem more human." I joke.

He punches my shoulder and scoffs. "God, you say the stupidest shit sometimes."

"Ow, and you can be so rude. Always have something to say." I smile and close my eyes, the crickets shipping into the night.

"Why wouldn't I? Having the upper hand of twisted remarks is always fun in conversations. They also distract the other person from the previous talk."

I open my eyes. "If you hadn't said that you might have swindled me, but you're dumb enough to remind me. So by that I'm assuming you did get embarrassed cause you said something sentimental to me."

Ray grimaces. "Yeah, you got me... I spoke from the heart blah blah blah, I really do love you blah blah blah, wow." He turns his head to me. "You happy? Tired enough to go the bed now? We have to get up and start walking as soon as possible tomorrow."

I pout and kick my feet. "I'm not really tired, at least my mouth isn't. I wanna keep talking but I don't wanna move."

"Well, what do you want to talk about?"

"I dunno, you're the smart one. You think of something to talk about."

He turns himself over and lays on his abdomen with me, using his arms as a pillow. "You know you're smart too, right? You're perfectly capable of coming up with conversation starters on your own like a big girl, Emma."

My eyes begin to close and I hum, trying to think of something to talk about. But the only thing that comes to mind is... Norman.

"Are you falling asleep."

I burrow my eyebrows, why's that all I can think about? God, out of all the things.

"So much for wanting to talk."

I have to talk to him about that.