Deuces Are Wild

4

Before they set off Steph loaded them up with water, food and what caps they could spare so it wasn't too bad of a deal. MacCready could get used to this.

It beat sitting around Goodneighbor with his thumb up his ass. And so it went- a tiny settlement at the ass end of nowhere, a scuffle or two and long stretches of nothing, rain or shine.

They took shelter at nightfall before it got too dark to see or if the rainfall was too heavy. She never barked orders at him, never treated him any differently. Most importantly she didn't foist her problems on him or blather on to fill the silence with awkward small talk.

That was a blessing early on but as the days turned into weeks MacCready if he'd made some error, some blunder that made her not want to speak to him in any other way except business.

He was getting paid, that was the important thing. But he knew nothing about his employer. He reasoned that if he started the dialogue -spoke of himself- she might speak of herself.

There was something that made him uncomfortable about people who were exceedingly withdrawn and private, something MacCready instinctively did not like. But he started the process anyway. He spoke of his trip from DC, of Little Lamplight. Zelling was interested in that, at least.

"I wish I could have lived there." She said. "My mom died when I was ten and she never talked about my dad."

"Well, at least you had her for a little while. I never knew my parents."

She frowned. "Why not?"

MacCready shrugged irritably "Doesn't matter. I got along fine without them." Then he realized how bitter he must have sounded. But it was true. The other children in Little Lamplight did their best to look out for one another. An adult would just want things done their way, a way that benefited them and no one else.

The hardest truth he learned upon leaving Little Lamplight was the schemes that went on behind smiling faces. How many of the former Lamplighters had fallen for these deceptions. He heard of former residents joining raider gangs, becoming prostitutes and all manner of terrible things to get by. Or they became a mercenary and lied to their wife about it.

"So they probably died." Zelling said.

MacCready sighed.

"Most likely. I have no idea. Either that or they abandoned me."

She shook her head. "I don't believe any parent would willingly abandon their child. Especially not with the way things are."

MacCready tried again to change the subject. His parents gave him a name and that was it. If they did just die then that was only a tragedy.
He never liked to think they just abandoned him.

It was the case of lots of children at Little Lamplight- some sought better circumstances. Some left chem addict parents, some escaped slavery. Others were turned out because the parents thought they could find someone else who could better provide for them.
He recalled one of the girls mentioning she would awaken to her mother's boyfriend watching her and her mother threw her out saying she was 'stealing' him from her.

Then as now he wished he knew that piece of shit's name so he could put a bullet in him. But he remembered her face clear as day. She'd left for Big Town not long after he'd arrived. Wonder what happened to her.