Priceless

Chapter 2

His deep brown eyes stared into my emerald green ones and I refused to move. More like I was afraid to move.

What was this man planning to do?

My eyes flickered to his eyebrows when I saw one of them flinch. Suddenly, he reached his hand out towards me and I flinched away.

"Calm down, I won't hurt you. My wife is making some food for you. Will you accept it?" His hand was still extended towards me and I continued to stare at it. I reached my hand up and wrapped my fingers around his wrist. In one swift movement, he pulled me off the ground and back onto my feet. We stood in silence before I tried to run again. Instead of letting me go, the man wrapped his arms around my waist. I pushed him off me and continued to run.

"You'll starve out there!" He yelled but I ignored him. I ran until he was out of sight and slowed down. Huffing from the sprint, I looked around for a rock to sit down on. I found a fairly large one, big enough for at least 3 people, and set my bags down before sitting on it. I allowed my heartbeat to settle before my mind did. I looked around and stared at the dead land in front of me. There was weeds and dirt as far as the eye could see and no water in sight. Birds flew scarcely but no other life existed. He was right; there was no life out here and there was no way I'd keep up my strength to keep traveling. But should I really accept his offer for food?

What if he was lying?

Only one way to find out...

I reached into my back pocket to make sure I still had my knife. Begrudgingly, I began to walk back. Within a few minutes, I looked up to see the same man and a shorter woman looking at me.

"We knew you'd come back. Now come eat and shower. And get some sleep. You look like you haven't slept in ages." The man held his arm out in gesture for me to follow. I smiled small and walked slowly back with them.

They walked towards a small two story home. It was mostly white with black trim on the roofing and the wooden fence. The porch wrapped around all the way to the back and a balcony stood watch in front of the two door upstairs window. Beside the house, there was a clothing line with clothes clipped to it. The breeze blew them slightly and they swayed in sync.

My boots thumped against the wooden floor when I stepped into their house. The woman shuffled into the kitchen and stared at me to follow. I looked at her and slowly walked towards her. The oval table was covered with food, which was strange for a family of only two. The man slipped my bags off my shoulders and carried them to the corner of the room. I continued to stand, my lips pursed with thought.

Should I really sit down? I asked myself. They don't seem too bad. Hell, it's more food than I could get myself.

The man and woman stared at me with smiles on their faces. They sat on opposite ends of the table, leaving me to sit between them. There was a chair across from me, with a plate set up as if someone was joining us.

"So where are you from?" The woman stole my plate away and piled it with food. Mashed potatoes, my favorite, green beans, grilled chicken, a short cob of corn, and garlic bread.

"O-Ohio." I stuttered out with my raspy voice. I hadn't talked to anyone for awhile so my voice was pretty rough.

"Wow, you've been traveling for awhile now, haven't you?" The man leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

I nodded. "Since August." I continued to stare at my food. My mind wandered back to the reason I left and how hard it had been since then.

"What town are you from? And eat your food, young lady." The woman looked me so I picked up my fork. I poked at the chicken and finally took a small bite. It was beyond delicious and I had to resist the urge to moan.