COURTNEY AND ADRIAN'S BOGUS ADVENTURE
A Lane Family Ficlet for Roger
Posted by Lawndale Stalker on Mar-29-2003 2:13pm
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Courtney walked down the sidewalk, looking all about her for signs of Adrian. She was pretty sure that he would have come this way, and as soon as he came to a good place, he would stop and wait for her. Courtney and Adrian had done this many times before, and they had sort of developed a procedure.
It was much easier to slip away one at a time. Summer had gotten crafty and wise to some of their tricks, but Adrian was adept at taking advantage of any unguarded moment, and once Summer started to look for him, that would give Courtney the opening she needed. This time she'd even managed to bundle up a few things into a shirt to take with them.
It had been fun visiting Grandma Amanda and Aunt Jane and funny Uncle Trent, but Courtney hated to stay in one place more than a day or two. Once she and Adrian had seen and done all there was to see and do at the Lane house, the need to be going returned. She wanted to walk down new streets and roads, to see new places, smell new flowers, meet new people. That was one of the most fun parts, to find someone who would take them in and talk to them and make a fuss over them, and give them stuff to eat and maybe even a place to stay the night; and yet to be smart enough to be long gone before Child Services got there.
Courtney listened for the sound of a slide whistle. Adrian had had one earlier, and he'd made sure she saw that he'd had it. This was part of their secret escape procedure. The first one to go, usually Adrian, would have something to make a noise with that the other one could home in on, so they could connect up easier. Courtney hadn't heard the slide whistle yet, but she was still confident thet Adrian had come this way.
This was a nice older residential street, with big trees and small houses. The kind of houses older single women often lived in, Courtney knew from experience. Women who wished they had children. They were some of the easiest marks, and most of them were better cooks than Summer.
Something blue and yellow lying at the edge of a lawn up ahead caught Courtney's eye. It was a slide whistle, just like the one Adrian had been playing with earlier in the day. She ran to it and picked it up. Why would Adrian have dropped it here? He must have wanted her to stop here. He must want her to signal with it. So she blew in it , sliding the slide in and out, sort of making music, while slowly walking along the sidewalk and looking all around for Adrian.
Courtney heard a door open. Looking toward the sound, she saw a fat lady in a flowered housedress standing in the door of the house in whose front yard she had found the whistle. The woman smiled and waved, but didn't say anything.
Courtney waved back, and walked back up the sidewalk to where it was joined by the walk that led to the woman's front door. Putting on her third cutest smile, she called out, "Hi. I'm looking for my brother. Have you seen him?"
"You mean Adrian? Yes, he came in and I gave him some milk and cookies. Come on in and I'll give you some too." The fat woman turned and went back into the house, letting the screen door close behind her but leaving the wooden door open. Courtney wasn't sure whether she'd meant that Adrian was still inside, so she went up the walk and stepped just inside the door. "Lady?" she called.
"In here, dear. Here's your milk and cookies." The fat woman appeared in the kitchen door holding a saucer of cookies in one hand and a big glass of milk in the other. The house was filled with the wonderful odor of chocolate chip cookies just out of the oven. Summer never baked cookies.
Courtney entered the small but cheery-looking kitchen and sat down at the table where the milk and the saucer of cookies were set. She took a big bite out of one of the huge, soft, warm cookies. It was delicious. This was one of the best parts of running away from home. She took a big swallow of milk to wash the cookie down with. Mmm. Whole milk. Not that watery one percent mess that Summer bought. "Ma'am? Where's Adrian?" she asked.
The fat woman turned from the counter where she was mixing something in a bowl and pushed a ringlet of black hair out of her eye. "He's, uh, washing up right now," she smiled. "He'll be out in a few minutes."
She probably meant that he was in the bathroom, Courtney thought. That wasn't surprising. When you were on the road, you took advantage of toilet facilities when you had the chance. Some old folks didn't like to just come out and say it, especially to strange children. Courtney said, "Oh, okay," and turned back to her cookies and milk, and the woman turned back to her mixing bowl, humming cheerily.
A few minutes later, having finished the cookies, and an extra one, and drunk all her milk, Courtney was feeling very relaxed and ready for a nap, which was unusual, because she and Adrian never took naps anymore, even though Summer tried to get them to. "What's your name, Ma'am?" she asked the fat woman. For some reason, she sounded like she still had a cookie in her mouth.
"You can call me Mrs. Johansson, dear," she replied, looking at her strangely. "Would you like to take a nap?"
Courtney would indeed like to, but she knew she and Adrian needed to get as far away from Grandma's house as they could before they stopped for the night. "Where's Adrian, Mrs. Joha... Johan... Mamum?" she asked, having trouble with her tongue. She was feeling a little chilly too, maybe from drinking that big glass of cold milk.
"Oh, I think he's down in the basement now," Mrs. Johansson replied, smiling cheerily and stirring the contents of her bowl vigorously with a large wooden spoon.
Wherever Adrian was, Courtney really wished he'd come on. She blinked and tried to focus on the fat woman's face. "Whass he doin inna basemen'?"
Mrs. Johansson took a long, slow lick off the wooden spoon. "Aging, dear. I always age my meat properly before I cook it or freeze it. That makes it nice and tender."
Courtney badly wanted to jump up from the table and run away, back to Grandma's house, but her legs wouldn't do what she wanted. "Adrian!" she tried to scream, but all that came out was "uhh..."
Mrs. Johansson waddled over to the table and pinched Courtney's cheek really hard. Courtney tried to jerk away but found she could not move her head. Through blurry eyes she saw Mrs. Johansson smile very unpleasantly, and then everything went black. The last thing she heard was: "Adrian's down in the basement, dear, where it's nice and cool. Don't you worry, I'll hang your carcass right next to his."