dromomania |carl grimes|

6

STRANGERS

"You look a lot better today even if you just passed out," Carl says as he leads me through the town.

"Thanks."

We walk in silence, Carl still leading Amaretto. We stop by a small barn where a woman with white long hair was tending to the other animals.

"How was he?" She asks Carl, not even acknowledging me.

"He tried to bite me twice but other than that he was okay," Carl explained.

Amaretto looks young, maybe 2 or 3 but he's a stallion, not a gelding so that's why he might be more of an ass.

The woman finally turns to me, "Who is this, Carl?"

Well, that's a way to interact with others, I understand being old but at least a little bit of friendliness would be appreciated.

"Alora, we found her yesterday. My dad knew her from before too."

It feels like my first day of Kindergarten all over again, somehow almost 15 years ago the memories still flood back.

"Momma please no, don't leave," I begged. I remember tugging at her pants, wanting her not to abandon me.

"Alora, You're gonna stay."

I was forced into an uncomfortable situation at 5 years old, in a room of other kids' eyes bugged at the small girl that stood with tears brimming her, at the time, bright blue eyes.

"Hi sweetie, would you like to tell us your name and your favorite color?"

Panic rose over me, I didn't know, colors are colors I don't have a favorite. They make up many of my favorite things, my blanket, my stuffed dog, and my mom.

"My name is Alora, I don't know what my favorite color is..."

I remember running to the restroom in tears after all the kids laughed, those that have had a chance to learn in preschool meanwhile my parents couldn't afford it. I was thrown into the public education system at barely five years old.

That was a funny day too, my mom never picked me up, in fact, she never came home after that. My aunt had to pick me up, she was in town visiting and left me with my father, no one knew about him, how could they, he put on a show for anyone who could pose a threat to the lifestyle he had.

My favorite color was red, but now it's not. Red is the color of blood, red is the color of death, and red is what you see before you die. Now my favorite color is yellow, yellow is the sun on the next day, and yellow is the color of sunflowers the flowers that will always find the light.

Carl and the lady had discussed other things while I had zoned out. I rarely get reminiscent like that, only when I feel safe enough to dissociate.

We walk to another house, after leaving the horse with that lady.

"That was Carol, she can be nice but a bit much sometimes," Carl tells me.

We walk up the steps to another house, Carl knocks on the door and an Asian man answers.

"Hey, Carl!" The man exclaims. He might be late 20's early 30's, possibly Korean.

"Hi, Glenn. This is Alora, she was the girl we brought in yesterday," Carl grins.

Glenn smiles but is interrupted by a woman calling him from in the house. She walked around the corner with a baby propped on her hip. It was the lady from yesterday.

"Glenn, let them in," She tells him.

Glenn chuckles and opens the door wider for us to come in.

"Anything for you, m'lady."

Carl and I take a seat on the couch, their house was slightly smaller than Rick's home but I suppose if houses are given based on the size of the household it would genuinely make sense. I'm not sure what kind of authority Rick has over this town.

The lady looked surprised to see me there but she handed the baby to Glenn and he disappears to do fatherly duties.

"Carl and...?" The lady started.

"Alora," I tell her, a gentle smile coming on my lips as I was the one to introduce myself at this point.

"Alora, pretty name. I'm Maggie. How are you guys today?" She asks.

Carl looks over at me, "We're good. Alora's gonna stay in Alexandria for a while so I figured I'd introduce her to some people so she's not a stranger."

Maggie raises her eyebrow, "Where does Rick have her staying?"

Yeah, this conversation is one I was just taken out of. Talk about me as if I'm not right here, right in front of your eyes. This would happen a lot at camps, but never with Elowen, she always made sure people knew I was with input. Being that I look younger and tend to look on the weaker side I get dismissed pretty easily, which is probably why they thought they could easily kidnap me yesterday.

"With us."

Glenn rounds the corner without the baby this time, I assume they put the little one to nap.

"That's unusual, doesn't he usually y'know make sure they're safe?" Maggie asks, I could tell she wasn't trying to spell out what she meant for me to understand.

"He probably would have but before the apocalypse, my dad knew her and she would sometimes sleep on my couch when I was 12."

I genuinely don't think he knows that I was abused, or he actually respects me enough not to tell total strangers.

"So were you guys friends?" Glenn asks, I can see Carl look over at me in my peripheral vision.

I don't answer, I don't know how Carl remembers things. Whether or not he saw the strange girl that he had breakfast with a number of times he could probably count on one hand. The same girl who wouldn't be there when he went to sleep but when he woke up she'd be on the couch some rough knitted blanket pulled over creating a static hair mess.

"I don't remember," He told them, that was a safe answer. Maybe he doesn't remember.

I remember though, I remember hearing Lori and Rick fight over Rick letting a "runaway" sleep on their couch and pose a danger to their son. I was just another mouth to feed and this was a situation that was none of their business. I was young, I knew what fighting sounded like, I saw the lack of love in their relationship. It was ironic since I had not once seen what actual love was supposed to look like, I saw it in the media, by couples swooning over each other in the parking, all around me but never around me. Despite their fighting, not once did Rick raise his hand, he never harmed Lori or Carl or even threatened which in my mind made him more of a man than my father could ever be.

"So you're from Georgia, Alora?" Maggie questions.

I nod, "Yeah I lived in Roswell."

Carl tilts his head, "I didn't know that."

There's quite a bit that he doesn't know, I can only assume he forgot about me after I left for the last time. I wasn't that important in his life, I was a practical stranger.

"I delivered pizzas in that town, it's nice," Glenn tells me, he was a pizza boy, interesting.

"I lived with my father out in Senoia, Roswell was far but like Glenn said it seemed pretty nice."

Carl smiled, he hasn't seen me interact with a ton of people, I don't like many to be fair. I don't like being all friendly with people, as I've seen I can't get close or even create friendships with people without them dying a horrible death.