The Blue Orchid Years

Chapter 7: Entangled Lives, Intertwining Hearts

August 28th 2626

Izumi is a pretty pleasant girl to work with and I'm grateful Moira had suggested that she assisted me in spreading the words about public speaking classes for the disabled and the upcoming documentary on the half-seahorse half-dolphin hybrid species. The past few days, I have been in the library with her to find more information on the Kulambas but also on the psychological reasons people tend to fear those they do not know. As it turns out, it has something to do with human evolution and the lizard brain. When humans still live mainly off of hunting wild animals, fear of the unknown was a natural fight of flight response—if something is unfamiliar or suspicious, it is in the human's best interest to flee the scene. I can see how it was all "eat or be eaten" back in prehistoric era, but in the context of respecting people with disability, that mentality is outdated. Someone who is disabled isn't going to attack you because they are actually more likely to be the one on the receiving end of the attack.

Speaking of the unfamiliar, this afternoon I experienced something I never expected to experience. It all started innocently, with Izumi asking if I want to go with her to eat burgers. I asked if I could bring Moira and Nardhia along, but Izumi said she wanted to ask me something private. Uh-oh. Several different scenarios ran in my mind but I brushed them off. Still, I asked why she couldn't just speak with Johan. As a resident assistant, Johan is used to having dormitory students come to him with personal issues ranging from "help, my grades are getting worse and my scholarship is in danger" to "I think my professors hate me" to "I feel blue lately and need to vent" to "my parents are divorcing and I'm scared". Wonder what's up with Izumi.

Because it's embarrassing and I feel safer talking with you, anyway was the text she sent me.

I see. My brother is a not a judgmental person, that's why he's a resident assistant. But I guess if you wanna talk with me you can. Just keep in mind I may not know how to solve whatever problem you have, so if it's something serious you better go to him at some point, I texted back.

The Giant Burger Shack was just ten minutes west of campus and it was always popular with Blue Orchid students. I remember going there with Tony last semester and he had an eating competition with me—I lost because I couldn't finish my burger in under three minutes. Now, if it had been something like root beer ice cream or soda drinking competition, I would have won.

The shack was crowded this afternoon because we had come during what seemed to be the peak hours. I would do anything for a juicy burger, but I wasn't sure if Izumi wanted to wait in line.

"The line seems pretty long. Do you wanna go somewhere else or is it okay? If you still want t a burger you can just sit on the booth over there, I'll order for you. What would you like?"

"The burger is giant, right? What about we split the burger? That saves money too. You can get whatever you like, but I'd like extra lettuce and tomatoes."

I chuckled to myself because Izumi is so different from Moira. Not to talk badly about my own girlfriend, but sometimes I do wish Moira isn't averse to vegetables. I'm not judging her vegetable aversion but I do want her to be healthy and she needs to eat veggies. I still don't get what's so repugnant about vegetables, but then again I don't have developmental disorder affecting my sensory processing. What I could do, however, is to keep on trying different methods of cooking vegetables until I hit the jackpot and find a foolproof method that Moira is willing to compromise with. She could eat my bell pepper stew but I would try more recipes.

I ordered the one-pound burger. For reference, most places only have double quarter pounder, but this is a giant burger we're talking about. A quarter pounder has roughly 113 grams of meat, so a one-pound burger has 565 grams of meat. I am glad I'm splitting it with Izumi—I don't count calories but ever since I become friends with Tony he makes me self-conscious about nutrition and Giant Burger is an express lane to high blood pressure and obesity. Now, I'm being a killjoy so I'll shut up and just munch on the monstrosity. I'll find Tony at the gym later.