Forgive Us Our Sins (Moral Orel Fanfic)

Chapter 13

About halfway into the trip, the Puppington family decided to take a small breather at a motel for the evening. Most of the time when it came to family trips, they would laugh, take pictures, joke about how ridiculous the creation museum was. This trip was not a fun family journey on the other hand. It felt like hell. Everyone had what could only be described as a weight in their stomach, so in order to get rid of that anxiety, it was time for them to branch out at the "Ball of Wax" motel.

Orel listened to a podcast and meditated, trying his hardest to stay calm. He could feel himself reverting back to a kid, bottling up his emotions as he teared up with every word of affirmation he heard. Christina got really into prayer, well the philosophy of prayer. She figured that she could lesson plan as she relaxed.

"Christian.. wake up.." Mary shook her eldest brother, wanting to get up to no good already. "Mm, Mary go bother mom and dad. I'm trying to nap." Christian groaned, half-asleep as he attempted to block his anxieties out. Mary frowned, just grabbing a small fanny pack and snapping it onto her waist. The Puppington family attempted to calm their nerves, not knowing what the next few days held.

All except Mary.

Mary never saw herself as a "girl", in fact she never really saw herself as anything. Girls her age were into specific things like boys, Mary liked slugs. When people would ask if she wanted to be a unicorn or dinosaur for Halloween, she replied "I want to be a bookshelf." Which stumped everyone. Orel and Christina, equally as confused, asked around why this was. All they got in reply was a "She'll grow out of it."

Mary had set out to explore the area around the motel, hearing from other grown ups on how there was an overflowing creek. "The damn frogs keep getting in." An old man complained. Mary saw this as an opportunity, to do what exactly? She hadn't thought that far. Bring back a frog? Find a cool rock? Maybe a stick? She didn't really know.

As she ran into the nearby wood, the smells and sounds of the forest surrounded her entire being. To anyone else, she was a kid just playing in the woods. But to Mary..

"Log 2.45.. I've walked miles and miles in order to find my way through this heavy jungle. I've grown tired, and I'm really thirsty. I may have to hunt so-" a scream of what sounded like terror broke her immersion. Immediately jumping into action, she ran toward the direction of the sound. Mary grabbed rocks and anything that could be used as a weapon and stood fiercely. "Halt, evil-doers!" Mary yelled, practically growling. But she couldn't find anything.

The only thing she could find was a girl who looked to be her age. Mary put the rocks down and walked toward her "Is everything okay?" Mary asked her. The girl pushed her long black twists and blue bobbles out of the way, revealing her soft smile "Oh, yeah! Everything's super cool, look!" The girl shoved a brown frog into her face "Look at it! So cool, I've never seen one like this before." The two both sat down to admire the animal, who was really just standing there at this point.

"Whoa.. gross." Mary laughed, but the girl gasped "Not gross! That could hurt its feelings." The girl frowned, causing Mary to raise an eyebrow. "Uh, no it's okay! I like gross things." She reassured the girl. The girl smiled "I like you, you're weird. I'm Waxine."

"Mary."

"Cool."
The two spent what felt like hours staring at different color frogs, finding cool rocks, and just playing with eachother. The two laughed and played, quickly becoming friends.

"My dad's gonna love you, maybe you can stay for breakfa-"
"Waxine! What did I tell you about running off from me and your mom?" Waxine stood still, sighing and turning to the sound of the feminine voice. "I'm sorry." Waxine frowned.

Out of the blue came an older woman, taking Waxine's face gently in her hands. "You scared us both. I'm not mad, but you can't run out like that." Mary couldn't help but look at her, noticing the grey hair and piercings. "I guess you're the girl that she dragged along? Come on, I'll take you to your parents." Mary took the woman's hand and bit her lip nervously. She forgot that she may be in trouble.

Leading her up the stairs, Mary admired her tattoos and made faced at Waxine. They giggled the entire way up. "You two are so weird." The woman teased playfully. Mary knocked on the door to her parent's room, waiting nervously for the result. "Mary! Oh thank god, you're safe. I was so worried about you. Thank you for bringing her.." Orel slowed his speech, eyes going wide and stepping back. Instead of being mad like she expected, his mouth curled up into a smile. "Oh my god." The woman laughed, shaking her head.

"Orel Puppington? It's been a while."

"Stephanie, what a surprise."