Bathing in Moonlight

Karlnap: Change of Plans

THIS CHAPTER IS RATED 'A' FOR ALL AUDIENCES

Sapnap whistled as he walked along the street, the crisp fall air filling up his lungs as crunchy leaves crackled underneath his footsteps. It wasn't too busy downtown- most people were at work by ten am, but Sap's part-time job at Best Buy called for unusual shifts.

Today was his ninth day of working in a row without a break. His boss was a real hardass, which for Sap meant minimal breaks, bare minimum communication, and constant passive aggressiveness. And for those reasons, Sap didn't mind traveling to work on foot if it meant he got a few minutes of peace and quiet before his shift.

As Sap was walking along the sidewalk, something caught his eye at the end of the street. Sapnap thought he was going crazy, because he could have sworn it was a little girl, maybe three at best, walking around on her own in only pajamas.

But sure enough, as Sap carefully stepped closer as to not spook the child, his initial thought was confirmed: she was all alone, not a single adult in sight.

Sapnap just observed her for a second, then she began to wobble closer to the crosswalk and into the street, so Sap acted quickly by grabbing onto her arm.

This touch spooked her, as she turned around to face Sap and began to cry, her terrified face breaking Sapnap's heart.

"Hey, hey, it's okay!" Sapnap said gently, scooping the child up into his arms.

The little girl stared at him for a second, looking at his blue work uniform and baseball hat at first, then her vision landed on Sap's keys dangling out of the side of his pocket.

"You like my keys? Look at this." Sapnap said, trying to distract her so she wasn't terrified by a random man holding her.

He pulled his keys fully out of his pocket, bringing them up to the toddler's hands. She grabbed onto the keys, her attention immediately grabbed by a tiny Lego man attached to the keychain.

"That's a Spiderman Lego guy. Do you know who Spiderman is?" Sapnap asked.

Sap pulled the girl's shirt down slightly to cover her belly up and snuggled her into himself, as it was too cold out for her to be wearing only pj's.

"Spiderman..." She said, bending the Lego man's arms and legs, pretending to make him walk.

"Yeah, Spiderman." Sapnap said, the tone of his voice light and airy.

"Brudder...brudder likes Spiderman." The girl said quietly.

"Brudder...?" Sapnap asked, confused.

But then he thought it over and realized what the toddler was trying to say.

"Oh, your brother likes Spiderman?" Sap asked, relieved that he got even the smallest bit of information out of this little girl.

"Yeah, the movies..." She replied, now getting bored of Sap's keys and dropping them into Sapnap's hands.

"Ohhh, he watches the Spiderman movies. Where is your brother right now?" Sap asked.

"Mmm...home." She responded, trying to wriggle out of Sapnap's arms.

"Home? I should have expected that answer, okay!" Sap said to himself.

He set the girl down, but told her she had to hold his hand as they walked.

"What's your name, sweetie?" Sap asked, as he kept a firm grip on her hand and they slowly walked downtown, trying to find someone to help them.