Food

"What happened?" she demands. I open my mouth, but Max fills in the words.

"I think he SIMed it." I nod weakly. I haven't done a SIM that unpleasant in a while."

"Why?" she asks, this time more gently.

I make a face. "Habit." I try to sit up, but Max pushes me back down.

"Whoa there, there's no hurry."

"I'm fine," I insist. "Nothing really happened to me."

"Nothing except you made yourself sick and nearly passed out."

"Usually I don't do SIMs like that standing up."

"I can see why." Finally he lets me sit up. "If I'd known that was going to happen, I might have picked a different place to have this conversation." I look around. Lights are still on in the lobby of the Centre, but there are significantly fewer people around.

"So, where're we headed?" he asks me. I look at him blankly--does he want me to read his mind? "I said it was your choice next," he reminds me.

Now that I think about it, that's an easy one. "Food."

"Yeah, I'm hungry too. It's been a long day." He pauses. "Where do you want to go?" I look at him, confused. Didn't I just tell him? "For food!" he clarifies with a laugh.

"He doesn't know anything about food," Parker speaks up, saving us a lot of trouble.

"What's there to know?" I ask.

Max looks at me, confused, then at Miss Parker. She, however, is still speaking to me. "They don't have daily nutritional supplements out here."

Max STILL looks bewildered. "What is a 'Daily Nutritional Supplement'?"

Parker and I answer simultaneously. "Supplement designed for optimal health and nutrition," I say.

"Awful goop they fed to everyone in the Centre," is Parker's explanation.

Max grins. "That's what I thought," he responds, chuckling. He looks to Parker. "Where should we go?"

She smirks. "You could take him to an expensive restaurant to celebrate the fall of the Centre, but I can tell you now he's obsessed with fast food. I swear he lived on grease, last time..." She trails off, becoming aware of what she is saying.

I look to Max. "We gotta work on getting my memory back... It's not fair for her to know more about me than I do!" I automatically lighten the tension.

Max smiles. "Patience, we're gettin gto that." He gestures to us. "C'mon, my car's this way." I follow immediately. He looks back. "Miss Parker, are you coming?"

I look back and see her hesitating. Still looking at Max, she answers, "Maybe you should go on ahead... I don't think Jarod wants me around."

I pause, looking at her. I realize that now that I understood what happened, my anger is gone. Smiling, I call, "C'mon, Parker! If you took my memory of this 'fast food' away, the least you can do is reintroduce me to it!" Max's attitude is contagious, apparently.

I look forward and catch Max looking at me happily, proudly, like Syd sometimes when I finished a hard SIM. I catch my breath, willing the tears to go away... Why can't it be Syd there, taking care of me and introducing me to this new world?

I feel someone give my shoulder a squeeze, and I'm surprised to see that it's Miss Parker. "I know..." she whispers. "I miss him too." I appreciate the gesture. A moment later she has released me and everything is back to 'normal.'

We reach Max's car, which looks more like a truck to me. In fact... I kneel down and examine the undercarriage--that's what I thought. I look up to see Max chuckling at me. "What?"

"If you're done examining it, can you get in? I'm hungry!" Obliging, I take the seat next to him in the front as Parker voluntarily relegates herself to the back--what a day of surprises.

I enjoy watching the world as we drive by it. I know everything about the mechanics of these vehicles, but I never understood what it's like to have the world fly by you. It's dark but I'm glad for what I can see--for once, not cement walls in every direction!

Finally we pull into a parking lot, and in front of us is a brightly lit establishment with lots of people inside. Above there is a sign that reads, "Jack-in-the-Box."

We walk in--it's loud. I hadn't expected that. Then again I don't know if I've ever been in an enclosed space with this many people before. I look around curiously. There are lots of families, and I watch as parents help their children eat, chase them around the restaurant, or just laugh with them. What would it have been like to be one of these children?

I'm startled out of my thoughts by Parker grabbing my arm. "Come ON! I think Max might eat YOU if you don't hurry--and I might help!" I follow, wondering if cannibalism is more common than I was led to believe. Parker turns and sees my expression. "I was joking, Genius!" she exclaims exasperatedly.

I look up at the lit board. Some of the names have pictures, others don't. "What are 'egg rolls'?" I ask Parker and Max.

Max laughs. "There's a hard one to explain--let's get some and you can try." When we finally walk away from the counter, the workers look bewildered and I catch others staring at our three trays of food.

Miss Parker is one of them. "Who is going to all of THAT??"

"Us!" respond Max and I in unison.

There are so many different tastes--I don't think I even understood what a taste WAS before. And Parker is right--this stuff is good! I can't imagine anything better.

I share this thought with Max and Miss Parker. They laugh at me. "Wait 'til you try ice cream!" adds Miss Parker.

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Slowly but surely. I must go back to work--I have about 8 hours of lecture recorded that I have to listen to... AHHH!!! Oh, by the way, sorry if there are any sentences that sound awkward... I'm convinced that my Italian is trying to creep into my English. And sometimes I REALLY want to use an italian word/expression instead of English. I guess you all are just going to have to learn Italian! ;-)

Thanks so much for all the wonderful reviews, I will get more out as soon as possible!