Chapter 9: Fish in a Basket

The next week again passed rather uneventfully, that is to say nothing too interesting happened to go into detail about. To me however, it was one of the happiest weeks of my life. Dandelion had begun to make an effort to learn how to read. She struggled at first, but it is quite a bit easier to teach a fully cognitive adult their first language than a new born.

"Wa… Wa… Waamart?" She read as we biked past the supermarket.

"Walmart." I pronounced for her.

"Walmart."

She was a diligent student all things considered. To further help her, during the nights we would watching various movies with subtitles turned on.

"Why doesn't Jack just get on board with Rose?"

"I… don't know."

"This movie's weird,"

"I… don't disagree."

Explaining the concepts of directing inconsistencies proved slightly tedious so I usually gave non-answers like that one. In any case, the week passed by in a flash and although I was on a bit of a wayward road so to speak, I felt more at home with Dandelion than I had ever been in Nothingtown 1. About 3 weeks total had passed now since Dandelion first dropped into my dumpster and into my life. In another town, on another Friday, we decided to take a rest day and visit a river.

Well… I say visit but the truth of the matter was more that Dandelion had gotten bored from our delivering and wandered off on her own when we reached a spot that happened to be near one. Without any hesitation upon seeing the river not being very deep, she took off running towards it.

"Dandelion… what are you…"

Before I could stop her, Dandelion ran straight into the water not bothering to take off her sandals.

"Kane!" She shouted turning to wave at me. Sighing, I parked my bike and ran to the edge of the river.

"Kane!"

"Yes?"

"I'm hungry,"

"Why did you run into the river then?"

A small smirk appeared on Dandelion's face. Pausing briefly to look around the water depths that went up to her waist, the vagabond girl quickly locked in on her target and swiped down fast onto the water with on bare hand managing to catch a fish and triumphantly lift it into the air.

"How did you…"

"I'm hungry,"

Do you plan to eat that?"

She nodded.

"Raw?"

She shook her head.

"How then? We don't have anything to carry that home in."

She tilted her head slightly looking at me puzzled. Then, without second thought, she made a dash for my bike.

"Hey wait, you can't just…"

All that time spent outdoors had made Dandelion quite a bit more athletic than me as she made it to my bike before I could catch her dropping the fish into the basket.

"Okay… I suppose," I said panting, "We should just head back then, the longer we wait, the less fresh it'll be when…"

"More fish!" Dandelion shouted not bothering to listen as she sprinted back to the river.

"Okay, maybe that first one was a lucky catch, there's no way she'll…"

But before I could even walk back to the river, Dandelion had already begun running back towards me and the bike.

"Alright… guess I'll just sit down then," I thought sitting down on the grass next to the river. For the next 15 or so minutes, Dandelion repeated the process of grabbing a fish from the river and transporting it to our bicycle basket a total of 5 times. By the 5th time, it looked like she was having a lot of fun so I decided to take off my shoes and socks and hop into the river myself. It would appear however, that my ability to catch fish mirrored Dandelion's ability to pick up noodles. Each attempt I made to swipe down and catch a slippery prey proved as fruitless as the last.

"Just grab it." Dandelion said before effortlessly reaching her hand into the river and grabbing another fish. However, as I attempted to reach into the water to do the same, the fish slipped out of my hand before even breaching the top of the water surface. Unlike Dandelion who had the heart of a fighter in her battle for noodle consumption, I could not say the same for myself as I quickly walked out of the river giving up in shame.

By the 7th fish Dandelion had caught, she seemed satisfied and nodded upon seeing the 7 fishes gasping their last breathe in my bike basket.

"Dandelion…"

"Yes Kane?"

"There's a problem here…"

She looked at me and again tilted her head.

"What is it?"

"There are 7 fish occupying the bike basket."

"Yes."

"And you also occupy the basket when I ride it."

"Yes,"

"So…"

"So…?"

"How are you and 7 fish both supposed to occupy the same bike basket?"

At the question Dandelion took a glance at the bike basket and placed a hand on her chin. If someone observed her from far away, they would have likely thought the most strenuous of puzzles was occupying her mind.

"I got it!" she said, "Kane get on the bike."

"Sorry?"

"Trust,"

"She'll probably just walk" I thought as I got onto my bike. "I'll just bike slowly so she can keep up."

Dandelion however, seemed to have other plans. Instead of walking alongside the bike due to lack of seating, she decided to create her own seating.

"Dandelion…" I said flustered seeing her back in front of me and her thighs brushing against my own as she decided to use my lap as a seat.

"Let's go!" She said pointing forward. As she did, she leaned back her lower body into my crotch area.

At the time, I remember not being able to balance the bike properly as we rode. Whether this was due to Dandelion's extra weight or my heart doki doking too much, I couldn't say exactly. In any case, we ended up both dismounting from the bike and walking back to the hotel.

"Dandelion…" I began as we walked, "You really shouldn't sit on people's laps like that."

"Why?"

"Why? Well…"

"I use to sit on papa's lap all the time."

"Yes, but that's because he's your father."

"Did you not like it?"

"Huh?"

"Did you not like when I sat on your lap?"

"…"

"…"

"Huh?!?!?!"

I nearly dropped my bike turning away to hide my face from embarrassment.

"Kane?"

"Ahhh well no no, it's not that I didn't like it just…"

"Just?"

"When you do that it makes me uhh… unbalanced on my bike! Yeah! It's not practical. Haha… haha…"

She paused for a moment to stare at me.

"Then, can I sit on your lap at the hotel?"

"…"

"…"

"Huh?!?!?!"

This time, I accidently titled my bike too far and the fish flew out of the basket. While I scrambled to pick them up, Dandelion suddenly crotched down next to me and stared.

"Can I?"

My face went as red as a tomato as I dropped the fish again.

"No no, I don't think that's a good idea!"

"I can't then?"

"No no, I mean if you wanted to… I wouldn't…"

"I can then?"

"No no, I mean…"

"You're weird Kane."

"Yep, that's me, good old weird Kane! Can't make up his mind on things! Ha, haha, ha, haha."

"I think I like weird though."

As I stood up and looked at Dandelion again, she wore a soft smile. A warm gentle smile I'll never forget, with those same round black eyes that stared into my soul like they did on the day we met.

"Ah well… guess I'll keep being weird then."

She nodded helping me pick up the last fish from the ground. We walked the rest of the way back in silence enjoying the peaceful sunset colors above the horizon. The colors showed brilliantly upon the landscape of Nothingtown 2, and even more so on the beautiful girl next to me. In that moment, I could truly say, I was happy.

It is now however that I must remind you dear reader, that sadly I live in the real world. And in the real world, happily ever after tends to be a myth. No, the truth is happiness is something that is always fleeting; something that one must capture and recapture throughout the entirety of their lives, something one must work hard to maintain, and something due to unfortunate circumstances, one can lose from factors completely out of one's control. For example, a letter dropped outside our hotel door.

I nearly fainted when I picked up the letter. A letter whose envelope had a single plain word printed on it.

"Warning"

And in the front sealing the envelope shut, was a crest sticker; a blue sun.

As I opened the letter reading its contents, my stomach dropped. Printed on the letter was a message that was very short. Very short, very scary, and very to the point.

"Please escort Dandelion to the bus station near the central town hall building of Nothingtown 2 by tomorrow at 1 PM and we won't cause you any trouble _______ ___________"

That was it, just one sentence. If you have been paying attention since the start, you will have noticed something peculiar about this story. I have told you in the beginning that the towns of this story have been referred to as Nothingtowns not only due to their mundaneness, but also due to protecting my privacy. Something else however, you will notice has also been omitted; Kane, Dandelion, my name and the name of our protagonist. You'll notice only our first names have ever been stated. Our last names I am afraid, I very much cannot reveal.

And that is because as of this writing dear reader, I am still on the run. Mr. Tusin my publisher is also very much a pseudo name to protect him and his family. The Blue Suns as I mentioned, are an organization still very much at large. And although I can omit and hide my identity to tell this story, the Blue Suns knew of me all too well. The last two words printed there on that very short and very to the point letter "_______ ___________"were the scariest two words one could possibly read in such a situation. And the 2nd word I very much must omit.

"And we won't cause you any trouble, Kane ___________"