Oasis in Ohio

Chapter Eleven

At one point Bella and I had passed out after putting our backpacks with the suitcase and taking off our shoes. I do remember waking up to a deep voice saying, "It's time to eat dinner."

I opened my right eye, squinting against a bright light. Once the light was moved I could see the face of who woke me up.

Hazel eyes against a male Korean complexion was in front of me with short wavy black hair covering the tops of his eyes. He had a necklace with a heart charm that dangled above me, along with the strings of his plain gray hoodie. Looking at him I coul tell he was in his late 30s. I saw he was holding a red flashlight in one hand, and everytime he moved his hands his ring clinked against the flashlight.

He backed away once he knew I was at least up. I sat up, nearly hitting my head on the underside of the staircase, before I made sure Bella was up. Together we got up and went to the couple, who were sitting between two bookselves where they had the  flashlight providing light as Honey sat above them.

"Um you two never told us what to call you. So, what's your names?" I asked.

"Oh! Right. I'm Riley and this is my husband Scott." The women told us.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Bella and this is my big brother Xavier, Xavy for short." Bella followed what she said with a yawn.

"Nice to meet you two as well." Scott said.

"Come and sit down with us." Riley said, patting one of the two cushions next to her.

Bella and I walked over, still sleepy eyed, and sat on the cushions. I sat next to Riley while Bella sat next to Scott. Riley pulled out four containers, each holding different foods. On of the larger containers held chicken, surprisingly, another had homemade Mac n' Cheese, the smallest one held gravy, and the last held mashed potatoes.

After opening and placing the containers in the middle of all four of us Riley pulled out four plates and sets of utensils. She handed us each a plate and our utensils. Starting at Scott we went around and placed food on our plates.

We all had similar portions, except for the gravy. Riley had none at all, I had very little, Scott had an average amount, then there was Bella. Bella completely drowned her mashed potatoes in gravy. She's always loved gravy, and like Riley's voice it gave me a sense of that home feeling.

We ate in silence for a few minutes before Riley asked, "How old are you two?"

"Bella's 7 and I'm 14 and 1/2."

"Why are you two alone at such a young age?" Scott followed up with.

"Well our parents died when we were really young and we didn't have contact with other family members. Not to mention our house started becoming overgrown with plants, so one day we packed up a few things and left."

"That's so tragic. How long ago was that?" Riley asked.

"Only two years ago." I told them nonchalantly.

They looked at me with shocked faces. They shared a glance with each other before Scott asked "You've been living in your own since you were 12?"

"Yeah. It was had at first but we managed. I almost never made supply runs in the beginning so I could be with Bella for a while. Once she turned 6 though I made some rules about when she was alone what she had to do and what she couldn't do."

I didn't even know why I was telling them this. I did feel comfortable with them but not this comfortable. Staying quiet for a while I thought over what I felt. Was I comfortable with them? Had I been longing to tell someone what happened? Did I want to just talk the stress out of me? I didn't know.

As they looked us up and down Riley finally noticed Bella's broken arm.

"Oh my, what happened to your arm Bella?"

"Oh. I was just kinda careless and slipped, landing on a rock. But it doesn't hurt now!"

They asked a few more questions about what happened which I ended up answering.

"Well on a lighter note, why did you two check out our library?" Scott asked.

"Your library?" Bella asked.

"Yeah, this is our library. It's the reason we're staying here." Riley told us.

"Well answering your question, I had noticed your library poking out slightly above the trees, causing Bella to notice it. Once she did she was determined to know what it was."

"So you were walking along the street outside? Why?" Riley asked.

"We were heading for a rebuilt city in Ohio. It's called Oasis."

"Rebuilt city?" Riley and Scott shared a look of shock and excitement.

That's when I remembered our map. I panicked for a moment before realizing that I had put it into my backpack. Bella was too busy stuffing her face with food to notice my face but Scott had.

"What was that look for?"

"I had thought I lost our map but remembered I put it away earlier."

"Are you talking about a paper map?"

"Yeah...." I gave Scott a puzzled face.

"I haven't seen one in ages!" Riley said as Bella placed her plate down with a clack.

"You've seen a paper map before?" Bella asked.

"Scott used to teach kids how to read paper maps so they can make their own."

"So you can read paper maps?" I excitedly asked, completely forgetting about my slightly growing stomach.

"Yep."

"Good. I can barely read ours. Could you teach me?" I asked, noticing out of the corner of my eye that Bella had stolen some chicken of my plate.

Riley stifled a laugh as she saw Bella. I just rolled my eyes at her.

"Of course I can."

"Thank you." I said, relieved.

With that we finished up the last of our food and got ready for bed. Riley and Scott actually had pajamas to change into and they had enough to lend us another pair. They were oversized on us but the feel of clean clothes was amazing. To give us a place to lay down they pulled out another blanket from their suitcase, placed it on the unused half of the space, as I pulled out ours. At one point Scott disappeared for a minute before coming back with a plain body pillow, placing it at the head of our bed.

Bella quickly fell asleep, Puppy in her arms while she was in mine. The comfy, clean clothes matched with the safe environment made me fall asleep quickly.