He sees her curled up like a ball with his leather jacket as a blanket, and feels a little sorry for her.
“Hey, don’t get too comfortable,” he tells her, “ if you get too comfortable, you will fall asleep and catch a cold.”
She looks back at him with her pretty brown eyes. He is tall like a basketball player, with short chestnut-brown hair. No hair gel in his hair; she likes that. She likes the smell of hair gel, but she hates how guys spike their hair and make it all greasy looking. He’s wearing a white shirt and solid black pants with a funny looking pair of black leather shoes. His outfit makes him look like a waiter, and he talks like one, too. He’s very polite and he smiles every time he talks. She likes guys that smile.
“Are you hungry? Would you like something to eat? Or to drink?” he sits down beside her on the floor. “Sorry that I was gone for so long. I had to make a phone call.”
She is a little hungry. Actually, she’s not a little hungry, she’s really hungry, but she trained herself not to feel hunger in freshman year. All the girls at her school are skinny; well, at least the ones who have a boyfriend. She stopped eating lunch since sophomore year but she still has no boyfriend. Now, she drinks a glass of skim milk for breakfast everyday; one glass of skim milk is two measuring cups, that’s about 180 calories. In sophomore year, she took Health and Fitness with Honey Williams, and they learned how fat foods are. She used to have a big bowl of Lucky Charms cereal in the morning before school, until she found out that one bowl of Lucky Charms with 2% milk can add up to almost 350 calories.
She stopped eating a lot of food after Health class, but Honey didn’t. “God made me this way, I ain’t gonna change.” Honey always says. She went to Honey’s house for a project once, and the Williams invited her for dinner. They had meatloaf, mashed potatoes with gravy, butter glazed carrots, and cheesy broccoli. She didn’t want to eat anything but ate everything. When she was little, she ate everything with Goldfish Crackers, and her mom allowed her without protesting one sound. Now her mom thinks she’s fat and won’t let her have any carbohydrates. “When I was your age,” her mom would start, “ I weighted 100 pounds. How much do you weight?” She always wants to scream back “Well, you had no breasts and I am three inches taller than you” but never has the guts to do so.
She nods her head at him. She decides to feel hunger today.
“You are? Cool, what do you like? I mean, what do you want to eat?”
Before she answers, he touches her shoulder lightly and tilts his head to the right, “You gotta know, don’t tell me you want lobster or steak, I got no money for that. Say something affordable, okay? ”
he nods her head, and he cracks a smile at her, a really nice smile, “ I want Goldfish Crackers.”
“What?” he looks at her in disbelief.
“Hum, they are crackers, and they look like little fishes… They are fish-shaped crackers,” she tells him. Where on earth did he grow up? How can anyone never heard of Goldfish Crackers?
“I know what they are, I’m just surprised that you’d request something so cheap. I mean affordable, like under 10 bucks, 15 tops. Those crackers are about what, two or three dollars?”
”I don’t know how much they cost, but I want that. If you can find tomato soup, I’ll be really happy,” she flashes him a big smile, with teeth and all.
He leaves her, drives off in his navy blue Saturn, and returns in 10 minutes with a brown bag that shows the words “Super One Foods”. He kneels down beside her and shows her his bargains: a bag of Oreo cookies, three or four bags of Goldfish Crackers in different flavors, two cans of Campbell’s tomato soup, seven or eight candy bars, and a box of Kix cereal. She looks at him, “impulse shopper?” she jokes.
“Well, I’m not going to buy a bag of crackers and a can of soup. Plus, I’m hungry too. I got all those under 15 dollars,” he replies with a strange sense of pride.
“Good deal,” she plays alone, “no milk, eh?”
“Damn, I knew I forgot something. How can you eat Oreos without milk?”
He runs off again, only to return with a bowl of tomato soup. He uses a large piece of cardboard box as a tray and puts the tray on her lap, “what flavor do you want? I got cheddar, parmesan, and original.”
”Tomato soup goes best with cheddar, don’t you know that?”
“Yes ma’am, cheddar it is,” he opens the bag of Goldfish and dumps the little fish-shaped crackers in the bowl. “Enjoy.”
She starts eating her meal. The familiar taste of semi-soft crackers with warm tomato soup instantly brings her back to childhood. This is heaven, she thought. Then she laughs at herself for being an idiot who’s easily satisfied with a bowl of tomato soup and crackers.
“Tell me,” he starts, “how’s it like to be the mayor’s daughter?”
“Not much difference,” she shakes her head, “I didn’t change. Dad didn’t change. My mom was the only one who changed. She started dressing up and stopped cooking. We moved to a bigger house, and we eat out more often. But most of the time when we eat out, I stay home because I don’t feel like going out.”
“Why not?”
“Well, this town is too small and everyone knows who you are. People stare at you and look at whatever you do. It’s annoying. ”
“I’d imagine so.”
“Tell me about you,” she says, finishes her bowl of soup.
“There’s not much to tell,” he honestly answers, “I am very plain. Can’t you tell?”
“That’s not true,” she cracks a smile at him, “everyone’s got a story.”
“Well, yeah, everyone’s got a story, but some stories are boring,” he looks at her shyly. “ What would you be doing right now, if you weren’t here?”
“Don’t try to change the subject, tell me your story and I’d tell you what I were supposed to do today,” she grabs one of the candy bars, it is an O’ Henry; so she throws it back and grabs another because she hates peanuts.
“Fine,” he sighs, “my dad’s a baker, my mom works at a day care center. I have a sister who’s married with two kids. I have a brother and this is his house. He’s a crack addict. I was going for my Masters degree in Biology but my brother borrowed all my money and I don’t know where he is. That’s why I’m living in his house, because I’m broke and can’t pay my rent.”
“Oh, wow, I’m sorry,” she didn’t know what to say, so she apologizes like her dad does every time he runs out of words.
“Don’t be, it’s not your fault,” he replies and smiles.
“Wait, you were going for a Masters degree?” she asks, finally reaches one candy bar that she likes; it’s a Milky Way.
“Yeah, in Biology. What, I don’t look like a well-educated person?” he jokes.
“Well, how old are you?”
“Too old for you,” he jokes again, but decides to be serious and answers her question. “I will be thirty in April. How old are you?”
“I just turned 17 last month,” she stares at him. “You are different. I like you.”
“You shouldn’t,” he smiles, “whatever you do, don’t like me.”
The two of them sit, quietly, eat Oreo and Kix without milk. He eats Oreo likes a kid; he licks the cream off first. She has never seen a grown-up eats Oreo that way. She puts on his leather jacket and it’s way too big for her.
“Do you like me?” she speaks, her voice so loud that startles the both of them.
“What do you mean, like?” he asks while tearing away the bar of her abandoned O’ Henry bar.
“Like, as in having romantic feelings.”
Right now there’s only him and her in the room, and she’s not afraid. She’s not afraid when she’s with him.
“You know...”he pauses for a moment, “you are really young. I’m thirty years old. You are not even legal yet.”
“Since when do you care about legality?”
He didn’t answer. He couldn’t. Yeah, he likes her; she’s so innocent and cute. Naïve is the word. She’s naïve. “I’m going to let you go.”
“I don’t want to go. Take me with you. Please?” she hopes by using the word please, he might actually take her with him.
“Don’t be silly. You are going home. ”
“Tell me, what’s it like to be grown up?” she looks at him in an almost idolizing way.
“Well, you have a lot of things to take care of. Pay your own bills. Live your own life. Make your own decisions,” he smiles, “it’s fun. You will do very well at it. You will succeed in life.”
“Yeah, I will major in Biology and live in a crack house,” she jokes.
“Right,” he laughs, “someone will love you, I promise you that. And if he doesn’t show up, I will. Okay?”
She nods her head and smiles. She likes the sound of that promise.
She doesn’t know when she fell asleep. When the police rescued her from his house, he wasn’t there anymore. He left his jacket on her, took away only a bag of Goldfish Crackers; the opened, cheddar flavored one. One female cop escorted her out of the house, through the crowd of hundred reporters—and directly into the arms of her crying mother.
“Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor,” one of the reporters yelled in an extremely annoying voice, “what do you feel about this kidnapping?”
“I am very fortunate that my daughter is safely returned to me. However, the kidnapper escaped and the Sheriff has promised me that he will be caught...”
In the arms of her mother, she cried for the first time since he had kidnapped her. Her tears were for him, not for herself.
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