That night I bolted with Dandelion onto the nearest train not even bothering for the morning after for a proper check out. We left behind the newly bought bike and the 7 fishes Dandelion had caught lying in the hotel freezer as a sort of gift to the next guests. On our way out, we picked up some tacos from the restaurant next to us one last time before leaving it behind for good.
At that point, I was still paying rent for my now abandoned apartment in Nothingtown 1. That combined with the new bike and hotel fees were burdening my already less than ideal financial situation. Not that such things at a time like this occupied my mind space too much, but still, I had to wonder how much longer I could sustain being on the run.
"Ready?" Dandelion asked as we stood on top of another hill awaiting another train to take us far far away.
"Ready," I affirmed giving her a thumbs up.
"Choo chooooooooo," the train roared coming in below us. Without hesitation, Dandelion leaped dragging me with her. This time, being more prepared, I spread my body out evenly to distribute the impact upon landing on the hay stacks, this time of the cubicle variety.
"Phew," Dandelion said, "Safe,"
I nodded though with a grim expression still on my face. When the Blue Suns are involved with you, nowhere was ever entirely safe. Safety burdens, financial burdens, mental burdens, emotional burdens, the weight of it all dawned on me once again in that train cart. But I had made my choice. I made that choice to protect the vagabond girl who at this point in time, was chowing down on some soft shell tacos. Despite it all, she was still able to enjoy the small things in life, like the tacos of a random Mexican Restaurant.
That precious smile from earlier that day was still deeply ingrained into my mind like a tattoo for my brain etched in the ink of my memory. A precious smile, a smile I wanted to protect.
Lame don't you think? I'm not an action hero, or a chosen warrior, or even the protagonist of a faraway land. I'm just an ordinary man, from an ordinary town, living an ordinary life. But perhaps even ordinary men and women have a part of them that makes us human; an innate desire, an innate desire to be extraordinary.
To ensure our full safety, Dandelion and I decided to stay on the train overnight. Next to me, Dandelion slept peacefully occasionally moaning about tacos. I however, was wide awake looking up at the sky. I suppose the correct phrase to describe where we were currently is the phrase "nowhere," the nicest possible place to look up at the night sky.
The stars that illuminated across the entire milky way could be seen perfectly by my naked eye as "nowhere" tends to be a place not affected by light pollution. For the past couple hours, I had been contacting my parents, Mr. Tusin, and maybe the handful of acquaintances I still cared for through text. Not that I saw many of them outside of Mr. Tusin anymore anyways, but best talk when you have the chance I suppose. You never know when you're on the run what the future holds.
By this time of night however, the beep bopping of my phone had stopped as my contacts had all fallen asleep. The only things left awake, were me and my thoughts. In a way, despite my troubles, I felt more at peace than I had ever been. There are times I feel one is very reflective about their life, thinking very internally about their problems, their relations, and their place in the universe. However, in truth, if one really thinks about it, this is a very silly thing to do.
If one was to objectively look at the night sky and at the billions of twinkling stars, and yes there are billions if not more, all of which are billions of miles away, one would realize thinking about oneself is the equivalent of thinking about the life of one ant in the forest, or one fish in a river. So as I looked up into the night sky, my mind instead began to wander. Maybe right now, in a world millions of miles away, world peace was being negotiated. A silly war fought between species of aliens with 4 legs, and ones with 2 legs. Peace was finally established however when the first species of 3 legs was born from lovers of both sides.
In other words, a story.
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Another week passed as Dandelion and I made our way to Nothingtown 3 and repeated the same cycle in Nothingtown 2. During this time, Dandelion developed a keen interest in stories related to romance. Sometimes, when she chose to stay home instead of accompanying me on my delivery journeys, I would return home to find her watching various movies instead of the usual nature documentaries.
"They always separate," Dandelion said one morning as she rode in my basket as we delivered food.
"Sorry?"
"In the movies," she said, "they always separate,"
I hadn't really thought about this much until then, but the movies we watched did indeed have the main hero and heroine always separate in them for one reason or another.
"Yeah..." I replied, "That's true."
"Why?" She asked.
"Why?"
There really wasn't one answer to the question Dandelion proposed. Each movie and each story was unique after all with each character having a variety of reasons why they would go separate ways. Still, I didn't really want to give that answer even if it was the technically correct one. Not that when it came to something as abstract as the concept of love, there ever was a technically correct answer to things in the first place.
"If you love someone, you let them go," I said again reciting the old cliché.
"If you love someone then let them go," Dandelion repeated. I nodded.
"And if they come back, then it's true love"
Disgustingly generic of a line like the 4 chord progression found in every modern day pop song, but no less effective in ringing true to the human heart. In fact, I had used the trope myself in many of my works and even considered finishing my current story with such a trope.
Like most humans however, I suffered from the chronic plague of procrastination and thus despite having a meeting with Mr. Tusin at noon the next day, I still had a chapter of my story to write. A chapter I very much planned to finish that night and the morning after. And oh how I wish I did.
The day is Friday 6 PM, another any day Friday a month after that first Friday when the Vagabond girl first dropped into my dumpster and into my life. Dandelion's education had improved sharply at this point as she had begun writing full sentences.
The night before I finally showed her the stories her parents undoubtedly loved; The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. Unlike the previous nights of watching movies however, I decided for this occasion to return to the first form of storytelling by reading aloud a copy of The Magician's Nephew eBook copy on my laptop.
"Narnia is spelled N A R N I A," I said out loud for her. "Can you write that?"
Dandelion nodded typing the words on a word document. She really was a hard worker. Even after I had gone to sleep, she continued to practice typing.
It was the next day during our usual food delivery time that she had posed the question of why in romances the protagonists always separate. Outside of that, the day had gone on the same as any other day.
"If they come back then it's true love," Dandelion repeated, "like the Prince?"
"Sorry?" Prince Caspian was still 3 books ahead in the series so I was confused about what Dandelion referred to.
"Like the Prince to his rose."
I blinked a couple times before finally registering that she referred the first book I had read to her.
"Yes... like the prince who came back to his small star. Just to see his rose."
KAMU SEDANG MEMBACA
The Vagabond Girl of Nothingtown
RomanceHer large opal eyes that glowed brighter than any star in the vast night sky were staring directly at me, as if they were piercing into my soul, as if they were controlling me. Read the story about the extraordinary Vagabond girl, who on one fateful...
