From Chex: I know. I know. And I'm sorry.
Anna felt lost and confused. The bright lights. The soft music reminiscent of that you'd hear on an elevator. The shelves upon shelves of canned and packaged food. Even the endless 'ding' of cash registers didn't make her feel any better. This place was baffling to her. Particularly all the people in various states of dress from pajama-esque lounge-wear to business suits.
It reminded her of a convenience store she'd once been to. Only much larger and much more crowded.
"Where did you say we were again?"
Krystal sighed in exasperation. "Mega Mart. And how many times do I have to tell you not to stand in the middle of the aisle like that?" Her roommate was pushing an odd contraption-a metal cage atop a plastic child's car, inside of which was her son Bryan.
"Mooom! Don't forget the fruit snacks!" He pushed furiously on the horn, which produced a hollow squeak.
"Yeah, yeah, we're going to get them right now."
Anna followed behind them aimlessly. Krystal's cart contained a box of some colorful, fruity cereal, a few cans of vegetables, packages of ramen, a quart of milk, cookies, chips, a box of microwavable mac-and-cheese, instant coffee...
Nothing Anna would consider eating. For the past couple of weeks she had survived on little more than the white rice that came with Krystal's Chinese takeout and the salads Skippy bought her for lunch. Without her diet pills, she would succumb to the occasional hunger pangs. But nothing so bad that it would force her to eat the greasy fat-filled diner food. Not yet, anyway.
While thinking of diner food, her mind wandered to Skippy. He bought her lunch everyday now and did most of her work still. (She had been promoted to salt-shaker refiller.) She couldn't for the life of her figure out his motives. He never came on to her. He didn't seem to be after anything she could possibly give him. His selflessness was an enigma to her.
But then again, so were his messily-spiked hair and Hawaiian shirts.
"I wanna go see the lobsters!"
Krystal sighed. It was the sigh of a mother who, though busy and a bit tired, couldn't manage a refusal. She looked to Anna. "Take him?" Anna blinked, coming out of her train of thought and looking at Krystal as if she were speaking Chinese.
Bryan, not catching the question in Krystal's voice, immediately jumped out of the car-cart and grabbed Anna's hand. He towed her away from Krystal with sugar-induced strength from the popsicle he'd had before they came. Anna hadn't the slightest clue where they were going, but curiosity got the better of her. Lobster? We're having lobster? That was the best news she'd heard in weeks.
Bryan's slightly sticky hand tugged on hers as they trudged through aisles towards the seafood section. The smell of uncooked fish bothered her, but the little boy didn't seem to notice. He raced towards an aquarium tank full of live lobsters. Anna stood behind him peering inside. It seemed unusual to her to have live animals around a place like this. She had been to a couple of five star restaurants that had lobster tanks for cooked-to-order lobster dinners. But they definitely weren't in a restaurant.
"Look at that one! It's so big!" He jabbed a finger at the glass. Anna bent over a little more, staring at a near motionless lobster with blue bands around its large claws.
"Why are they tied up like that?" she asked without thinking.
"Mommy says they might snap you if you don't tie their claws," Bryan responded quickly.
Glancing at the boy out of the corner of her eye, an idea started to form. "Hey, um..." She still couldn't recall his name. Whatever. Skip it. "Where are we?"
"The grocery store," he replied, looking up at her with innocent blue eyes.
"Right. And what, exactly, is a grocery store?"
He didn't bat an eye. "It's where everybody goes for food and stuff. They have all the foods here. All of them. And sometimes they have toys, and at the front there's candy and a bubblegum machine that gives you superhero stickers! Mommy said I can have one if I don't climb on the shelves."
Disregarding the unnecessary info, she got to the heart of the explanation: Groceries are where people get their food supplies. This is where her former chef got the thin wheat crackers she liked crushed over her salad, and the strawberry and grape mineral water that used to stay stocked in the fridge. It had never occured to her that someone might need to acquire these from a specific place before they had appeared in the fridge.
And Bryan...she'd found a goldmine. Devoid of judgement, he had answered a question that probably would've made anyone else (ie. Krystal) laugh. Maybe he thought he was being quizzed, or maybe he simply didn't find it odd that she didn't know basic facts like that. It didn't matter. What did matter was that he would be extremely useful to have around now. To him, a question should simply be answered. It didn't seem to occur to him why she needed to know or didn't already. She could ask him all (well, most) of the questions she was too embarrassed to ask his mother. He was just old enough to speak English fluently, but too young to pick up on the social cues and intricacies, body language, and hidden meanings of it.
He was perfect.
"Would you like one?"
She jolted. A man in an apron stood behind the counter. She realized that she and Bryan had been standing in front of the lobster tank for quite awhile. "Uh, sure. Give me that big one in the back?"
"Would you like me to steam it for you?"
"Well, I'm not going to do it myself."
Taken aback by her smart remark, the man didn't respond and simply went about his task.
"Hey, um, B?" Adopting his mother's nickname for him, she looked down expecting to find him at her side. "B?" He wasn't there. Hn. Wonder where he went... With a shrug, she examined the array of seafood, her mind drifting off to richer times. Like eating sushi rolls with the ambassador to Japan...
After her lobster was boiled, weighed, and packaged she carried the bag up and down several aisles. Conciously, she knew she should be looking for Krystal, or at least Bryan. But Anna's mind and eyes couldn't help wandering as she purused the store. She came across several things she thought she might like. Fat-free, low-cal, organic things. Expensive things.
And then she came across Krystal.
"What the hell is all that?!" The blonde balked at seeing Anna with her arms full of food. "Who told you to-Is that a lobster?!"
The auburn girl shrugged as best she could while holding everything.
"I told you to take B to see the lobsters! Put that down, we can't afford it. Put all that stuff down."
The former heiress wasn't sure if she felt more disappointed or irritated. She contemplated simply dropping everything onto the floor.
"And where is B?"
Again, the half-hearted shrug.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Where's my son?!"
Anna hesitated, detecting genuine anger in Krystal's voice as opposed to the tired aggravation she'd gotten used to. "...I don't know. He went off somewhere," she mumbled.
"What do you mean 'he went off somewhere'? You were supposed to be watching him!"
Well, you never told me that, she thought. "Since when does 'take him to see the lobsters' equal babysitting?" Her answer came in the form of a hand cracking painfully across her face.
Krystal was seething. "You stupid little bitch, he could've been kidnapped!" Anna recoiled, anticipating another slap. But Krystal's focus had already shifted back to Bryan. She went off in search of him, leaving Anna with an armful of food and an angry red mark on her right cheek.
It took her less than a minute to realize she wasn't alone. Shoppers had stopped to stare and snicker at the humiliating display. Some looked apalled, others sympathetic. Anna began to feel the beginnings of a panic attack; she shook violently, her breathing quick and shallow. Refusing to embarrass herself any further, she dropped everything and ran.
What the hell is her problem?! So what if the kid went off for awhile? He'll be back... Her mind clouded with images from her childhood. Running in and out of stores, banks, theme parks, all over Townsville, in fact. Sure, she'd been chauffered wherever she pleased, but once outside of the limo she was more or less on her own.
"He could've been kidnapped!" Krystal's voice screamed at her. Anna was at a loss. No one, not her father, her nanny, her servants...no one had ever worried that Princess be kidnapped. And her being the richest kid in all of Townsville...now that it occured to her, she was surprised that she hadn't been. Not a single villain in Townsville, crime capitol of the world, had bothered to snatch up the snooty rich kid for ransom. Her childhood was perhaps luckier than she'd even realized.
But who the hell would want me? She choked back a sob. Staggering, she found she couldn't run anymore. Her chest ached and her lungs burned with the effort of both running and crying. Looking around, she realized she hadn't gotten too far. The grocery store was located in a large strip mall off the highway. She had run maybe half the length of the huge parking lot, but she was still within the vicinity of the surrounding stores. The one closest to her was an office supplies store, and next to that was a pharmacy.
Out of which came a familiar figure in a Hawaiin shirt.
She attempted to move by quickly to avoid being seen, but there was no place to hide. "Anna?" She cringed when he called her name, already heading towards her. Oh, God. Now he's gotta see me like this again. She cursed under her breath. If there was anything she hated more than the painful, helpless feeling of a panic attack it was looking so weak in front of people. The ridicule, the humiliation... No more, dammit! No more!
With more effort than she thought she was capable of, she straightened up and faced him. "Oh. It's you." Her voice was slightly unsteady, but as uninterested as always.
Skippy stood before her in a particularly hideous green and blue tropical shirt. He held a small paper bag with the pharmacy logo, and his usual goofy grin. The smile, however, disappeared once he got a good look at her. He took note of her flushed face, red eyes and running mascara. "Are you-"
"I'm fine," she snapped. Rather than trying hide her face, Anna looked him dead in the eyes, daring him to contradict her.
He took a slight step back as if he were dealing with a vicious dog. "Um, okay. Well, funny running into you here. Are you doing errands? Is Krystal with you? She told me last week she had to-"
"No, I'm not, and I don't know where that bitch is. I'm going home." She turned on her heel, then inhaled sharply. The word had come so naturally. Home? What home? Her place with Krystal, that was far from home. That was a temporary thing. If it still was a thing at all...
She clutched at her chest, gasping for breath.
"Anna?!" She barely registered Skippy standing next to her, his hand on her arm. "What's wrong? Are you hurt? Anna?"
"I...I'm f-fine," she panted. "I need to go...I need to go..."
"Where? Where do you need to go?" Already he was guiding her by the arm towards his car.
She gasped for air. "Anywhere. Anywhere, j-just get me out of here."
Ten minutes later, they were pulling in front of an apartment complex that Anna recognized as being about a block away from Up Joe's. She'd spent the ride in Skippy's ancient Toyota Camry attempting to control her breathing. Now that her senses were returning, she began to question her own judgment in asking him to take her anywhere.
Skippy lived on the third floor. When they entered she immediately noticed an old woman sitting in front of a TV. Skippy immediately went up to her while Anna hovered near the door.
"I'm back, Gran." Skippy placed the small pharmacy bag on a little coffee table. "I hope you don't mind, but I brought a friend." He looked back at Anna and smiled, making her feel awkwardly obligated to meet the old lady.
She approached cautiously, placing herself in the woman's line of site. "Um…hi? I'm, uh, Anna."
A pair of old eyes slid over her slowly, without any sign of comprehension. The woman was clearly in her seventies or eighties. She had ghostly white hair and was hunched over in a way that Anna had to assume was painful, wrapped in a little shawl that had seen better days. She didn't introduce herself.
"Gran's not much of a talker," Skippy said casually. He was shaking a pill bottle.
"Right…"
"Are you hungry? I was just about to make us some lunch. I normally make soup on Sundays, and I found a recipe for butternut squash that I want to try." Skippy grinned at her, excited as he always was when talking about food. "And there are some great wheat crackers to go with it—" At the moment he seemed to take note of Anna's hesitation. "Oh, um, do you need to get back to Krystal? Do you want me to take you to the diner?"
Jolted by the idea of facing the woman who so recently assaulted her, Anna quickly shook her head. "N-No! Um, soup. I want soup."
Skippy's face lit up visibly. "Great! I've never tried roasting the squash before, but it sounds like it would hold more flavor than boiling. Have you ever had it before?" The boy talked animatedly while whirling around the small kitchen. Anna watched, mesmerized as he deftly sliced apples and onions into neat little squares in a matter of seconds. He moved swiftly between the oven and the stove and the cutting board, seeming to do a million things at once. "Do you cook?" he asked suddenly.
"Uh, I…no. Not…really." Anna suddenly felt fairly useless standing before him while he assembled seemingly arbitrary foods into one coherent meal. "I've never used a stove before."
"Never?" Skippy exclaimed, looking at her in utter disbelief.
Anna jumped slightly, suddenly feeling defensive. "Well, why would I?" she countered indignantly.
Skippy's ears started to burn red. "S-Sorry, I only…well, um, do you wanna try?"
Part of her wanted to deny the offer with a biting remark. But it would be a lie to say she wasn't curious about how the whole cooking thing worked. Having seen Skippy in the kitchens at work, she'd never really understood before that it was quite an extensive process turning basic ingredients into a meal.
That…and she was also learning, slowly but surely, that insulting people when you're in their homes is rarely a wise move. Especially if you're in any way dependent on them.
"…I guess I could try." She came to stand beside him at the stove. On one burner was a large pot with boiling liquid and various chunks of apple and onion. Steam rose up to meet her, carrying an enticing smell that set her stomach roaring.
Skippy handed her a large wooden spoon. "Stir it a bit so it all cooks evenly." She moved the spoon around, somewhat awkwardly at first, watching the soup bits float around in the bubbling liquid. "Good. Keep stirring while I add a few spices."
Anna felt something like a witch brewing a potion, and the thought made her laugh a bit involuntarily. Skippy turned to her with a smile. "It's fun, isn't it?"
She almost lied or gave him her usual sarcastic response. But something about the look on his face begged for honesty. And after the past few weeks, she was starting to get a bit tired of her own derisive act.
"Yeah…it's kinda fun."
From Chex: It has quite literally been years since I wrote the first half of this chapter. For so long, I couldn't think of how I wanted to end it. (And I'd be lying if I said I'm fully satisfied with this...) But I have so many ideas for this story that I want to get out I couldn't wait any longer. I know I'm not the most reliable updater, but if you're still reading please bare with me. Anna's story is nowhere near done yet.