Leaving Laurabelle Falls

Chapter 8

"How are you holding up?" Deacon asked. The sizzling of a grill behind me was all that I could focus on as I continued to flip through the book. Last night, my brain had stopped working. I had laid awake for hours before my stillness finally forced my mind to rest, and the thoughts to stop racing.

This morning, they were already at it again.

"You can only ask that so many times before it becomes repetitive." I responded. I was partially teasing, but really didn't want to hear that again.

"And I'll keep asking until I get the truth." He said. He scraped two of the pancakes off of the pan and onto a clay plate, and slid it towards me.

I sighed heavily. I glanced up towards him, and he gave me a smile that showed he knew he'd won. I grabbed a fork and cut into the pancakes, beginning the slow process of mashing them to a pulp.

I am a firm believer in pancake mush superiority.

"I guess I just can't really process it like I should yet." I admitted. I reached for the bottle, grabbing the syrup and drizzling it on over the section I had already mushed. My stomach cramped. I hadn't realized how hungry I was.

"It's a lot to take in."

"There are still a lot of questions that I don't have answered." I said. I shoved a bite into my mouth, chewing a couple of times before swallowing. God, they were perfect. Fried in butter and just a little bit burnt, with real maple syrup.

"Do you want me to have a go at answering them?" He offered.

"Ib ou tink you cn." I responded. I forced a bite down my throat, shivering in discomfort as it made its way down. I should have chewed that better. I fully cleared out my mouth before clarifying, "If you think you can."

"Shoot." He said.

"Why did you just make me pancakes if we could have just used magic instead?"

"Magic food gets boring if that's all you eat. There are no imperfections, no deviation, every bite of the chocolate chip cookie has the perfect amount of chocolate chips. These taste better when I can cook them how I know you like them."

"That makes sense." I agreed. I took another bite before asking my next question, and he patiently waited for me to swallow. "What about all the extra people on the fake-earth?"

"Some are real human souls that volunteered to live lives inside the system. They take breaks here in between human lives. And some of them are programs installed by the Deerman made to cause as much misery as possible."

"...That woman who yelled at me for not knowing what I wanted at sonic?" I questioned, deadpan.

"A drone, yeah." He said. He laughed a little, looking down. My eyes were immediately drawn to his now-uncovered ears. "You still haven't let go of that incident?"

"You've heard about it before?" I questioned.

"Only about a hundred times." He laughed. "Mostly right after it happened. Most Karens are part of the system, though."

I sat back, digesting what he had said. A question sat on the tip of my tongue. I spun my unused spoon against the wood grain of the table, begging myself to keep the question in.

"Was anyone I loved part of the system?"

The air suddenly felt cooler.

"I'll tell you what," He said, slowly, "Why don't we play 20 questions after you're finished with breakfast?"

I took another bite of my pancakes.

The tension slowly melted.

~~~