Grandfather

I heard a loud bang. At first, I thought I was dreaming. I then realized it was the door. I opened my eyes, knowing exactly who it was. Belladonna had warned me. “Open this damn door,” Edgar yelled from behind it. “Or no food.”

  Great. Edgar was back to his usual self.

  It was dinner time. I actually contemplated staying in bed and ignoring him. That would’ve made him angry. But I had to admit that I was pretty hungry. If not now, I wouldn’t be able to eat until morning, so I forced myself out of bed and dragged myself to the door.

  “Okay,” I said as soon as I opened the door.

  “About damn time,” Edgar said. “Don’t want ya to go hungry. Let’s go.”

  Edgar led me down the hall. There were others leaving their rooms, probably headed for the dining hall as well. I watched them as Edgar talked about where the restrooms were and how most of the doors were rooms just like mine. He also mentioned that I’d soon be given some clothes.

  These other people I saw looked rather average with their plain clothing. They didn’t look like they belonged within the wall or outside. More importantly, they looked happy, unlike the people I was used to seeing around the orphanage. Why were they so happy? I mean, they lived under the freaking ground.

  Edgar led me through some double doors at the end of the hall, and we entered a large room where there were about thirty old, round wooden tables, each accompanied by six chairs, also made out of old wood. Splinters poked out everywhere, so I had to be careful.

  On the other end of the room was a small line of people, which started at a long table. Two ladies and two guys helped prepare sandwiches for people. Beside the long table was a large bucket of water. I watched as an older lady dipped her cup inside and take a sip. This was definitely no luxury dining experience. In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the food was worse than the orphanage’s. But hey, I was still better off.

  “Not much,” Edgar commented, leading me toward the table. “But it gets us by.”

  Edgar led me past those waiting in line and straight to the table where the food was being served. “Wouldn’t do this normally, Linda,” Edgar told one of the older ladies serving the people. She had a lot of wrinkles and short silver hair. I’d say she was about sixty. She wore a white sweater and jeans. She looked average, just like everybody else. And she even seemed pretty happy.

  “Oh, Edgar,” Linda said, handing us a ham sandwich and an apple on an old plastic tray. “You’re the one who gets us all of this.”

  “Ah,” Edgar said, dipping a cup in the water bowl.

  I did the same thing. I wondered if it was sanitary. No. There was just no way. Hopefully it wouldn’t make me sick.

  “That may be, Linda, but I won’t take advantage of that.”

  “Which is why we love you,” Linda flirted. Again, I was in disbelief. She seemed to actually like Edgar. What did she see in him? He even smiled at her. It was as if he was a completely different person. I supposed he just didn’t care for me too much. Oh well.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Edgar said. “I’ll see ya around, I’m sure.” Linda nodded as she helped the next person in line. Edgar walked slowly, inspecting every table. Nearly every one of them was occupied. But a few were empty. “There she is,” I heard him whisper. I followed him to a table where a lady in her forties sat. Beside her was a girl around my age. They both had long, wavy brunette hair and blue eyes. The older lady was dressed in a bright yellow short-sleeve shirt and jeans. She was pretty, but I had to admit that she was nowhere as pretty as Belladonna. The younger girl wore jeans also. It seemed to be pretty common underground. Her shirt was maroon. Both of them had fair skin. They were both attractive.

  “Who is that?” I asked Edgar quietly, but he ignored me, leading me all the way to them.

  “How ya doing, Mae,” Edgar asked when we reached the table.

  Mae looked up and grinned, revealing her dimples. “Oh, good, Edgar,” she said in an extremely cheerful tone. “Just been helping out Dr. Mac as usual,” she told him. When her eyes landed on me, that smile grew even wider. I honestly didn’t think that was possible “Well, you must be Carsyn,” she said. Once again, some random person knew my name.

  “Yeah,” Edgar said. “But watch out. He’s got a lot of questions and he’ll give you one hell of a time.”

  Mae snickered. “I’m Maebelle, but everybody calls me Mae.” She then pointed at the girl sitting next to her. “This is my daughter, Marley.” Marley looked at me, her mouth wide open. She couldn’t take her eyes off me. It was actually really awkward.

  “Hi,” Marley said slowly. Mae nudged her in the arm. Marley quickly closed her mouth and smiled, revealing dimples just like her mother’s. They were both way too happy-looking. Something told me that was going to get annoying. Quick.

  “Hi,” I said quietly. I honestly didn’t have much more to say.

  Edgar sat down, so I did too. We ate as he and Mae talked about the Dr. Mac guy Mae had mentioned. He was apparently the only doctor in the underground facility. He, like Edgar, was pretty rich, and Mae made him out to be one of the greatest doctors out there. I, of course, didn’t know if that was true. “He’s gone to get more medicine,” Mae told Edgar. “Left this morning. Roselyn still has the flu, but she’ll be perfectly fine.”

  Marley focused primarily on her food, not saying a word. I guess I couldn’t really judge since I kept quiet too. I tuned out of Edgar’s and Mae’s conversation to focus on my sandwich and the other people eating around me. The sandwich actually wasn’t that bad. I wondered if it was because I was just so hungry. And the water . . . it didn’t taste bad. I figured it was safe, or at least I hoped so.

  Watching the people was interesting. They talked and laughed with one other. Actually, that was really all you could hear in the room: talking and laughter. They really seemed to like it there. They were so . . . normal-looking! I wondered who they were before discovering the underground community. Were they poor, or were they rich like Edgar?

  I tuned back to the goings-on of my own table to see that Edgar and Mae had stood up. Leaving their unfinished food on the table, and without saying anything, they left. What were they doing? Edgar was just going to leave me there alone. I sure did wish I’d been paying attention rather than looking at everybody else. Was I supposed to go with them?

  “They’ll be back,” Marley said, responding to my looks of confusion. “They’re just going to ask Andria how Roselyn’s doing.” I followed Marley’s finger to a table occupied by several ladies, all laughing with one another. Edgar and Mae went to one woman in particular. I assumed that was Andria. I was too far away to hear what they were saying, but they didn’t seem too worried.

  Andria looked like she was Mae’s age. And not to be mean or anything, but she didn’t look nearly as good as Mae. But she did look happy like everybody else.

  “Oh,” I said, twisting my body back around.

  “Yeah,” Marley said. A few awkward seconds of silence passed. “You like it here so far?”

  I waited to swallow the last of my sandwich before answering. “I’ve not been here long.”

  “You’ll love it,” she said excitingly.

  There was another pause of silence.

  “How old are you?” she asked.

  “Sixteen,” I replied, taking my apple from the tray.

  Marley took a sip of water. “I just turned sixteen,” she said. “And Ashton is your age, too.”

  I think she was waiting for me to ask who Ashton was. I nodded, pretending to be interested. I honestly just wanted her to leave me alone. I wasn’t sure if Edgar needed me for anything else that night. If I knew he didn’t, then I would’ve left to take another nap.

  “Me, you and Ashton are the only teenagers in here,” Marley said once it was obvious that I wasn’t going to say anything to keep the conversation going. “Then there’s four other kids, all under ten. One of them is just a toddler. He’s so cute.”

  I nodded.

  I could
feel Marley’s eyes watching me. She probably thought I was kind of rude, but I didn’t care. “You don’t talk much, do you?” she finally asked.

  “Not really,” I said.

  She didn’t say anything else. I was thankful. There was nothing wrong with her. I just wanted to be left alone.

  Eventually, Edgar and Mae came back to the table to finish their sandwich and apple. They continued talking about getting new supplies and how they were worried about the food shortage. And, of course, Grandfather came up, briefly.

  “Belladonna mentioned there will be a new report soon.” Mae said.

  “Yeah,” Edgar said. “We’re pretty sure it’s just about the tracking law. People been questioning it, so I imagine he’s gonna make something up about it, just to get people feelin’ better.”

  “Yeah,” Mae said. She looked at me. “I’m assuming they told you everything?”

  “Yeah,” Edgar answered before I could swallow a bite of my apple to answer for myself. “He’s havin’ a bit of a hard time believing it all.”

  “Well, I do imagine it’s hard to grasp at first,” Mae said, smiling at me. “But you’ll be able to understand soon enough.”

  I said nothing. I’m just glad she didn’t try to force the idea on me like Edgar and Robert had been doing.

  She kept on. “Have you had time to explore the place?” she asked, sounding as if the underground facility was some sublime paradise.

  “I’ve not had time,” was my simple answer.

  “Basically just got here,” Edgar said. “Might be a good idea to check everything out, though,” he continued, finishing off his sandwich. He picked up the apple, tossed it a few inches in the air, and caught it.

  “With all these tunnels, it’s like an adventure,” Mae said, snickering. “I think everybody needs an adventure every now and then. Makes life exciting!”

  I didn’t respond.

  “Maybe Marley here can give you a bit of a tour,” Edgar said.

  Marley smiled but didn’t look at me. She probably knew I wouldn’t like the idea. I was pretty sure I got the point across that I wanted to be left alone.

  “That’s a great idea!” Mae said. “There are only two others your age down here. You might as well get to know them.” I remembered the Ashton guy Marley had mentioned.

  “I guess,” I said.

  Edgar looked at me and frowned. “You guess?” he said.

  “Don’t sound so down about it,” Mae said. “You probably just need to get some rest before the tour. We’ll give him a few days.”

  “Should be good by then,” Edgar said.

  Um, no. I wasn’t going to be good by then. I wasn’t going to ever be good.

  “And, like I said, you never know what there is to discover down here,” Mae said. “Certainly could be fun.”

  After another thirty minutes sitting at the table, awkwardly, just listening to the boring conversation about Edgar’s and Mae’s high hopes to expose Grandfather soon, I left to be alone in my room. When I got to my bed, I found the clothes Belladonna and Edgar had mentioned. There were a few pairs of jeans close in my size and several shirts and sweaters. I still don’t know who brought them, but I was thankful. Who knew people living underground would have decent clothing.

  I basically stayed locked up in my room for the next few days. I’d usually wake up pretty late because I never got the chance to do so at the orphanage. That meant I didn’t make it to breakfast. But I did make it to lunch and dinner. I tried to sit by myself, but that didn’t always go as planned. Edgar would sometimes find me, and he’d have me sit with him, Mae, and Marley. Other times, they would join me.

  I continued not saying much to anybody. I did, however, ask Edgar when I was going to be able to go with him on one of their missions or whatever they called them. He still wasn’t happy about me participating but assured me that they would let me know when that time came. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was lying to me. I’d have to bring it up to Belladonna at some point.

  And speaking of Belladonna, I hadn’t seen her at all those past few days. She didn’t even come out to eat, so where was she getting food? I asked Edgar where she was, and he told me she did things best when kept to herself. I didn’t blame her.

  Then, one day, I was just lying in my room, actually reading a random book I had found about a boy and his dog. I remembered seeing a copy of it at the orphanage, but I never picked it up. A knock came at the door. I assumed it was Edgar and hoped he was ready to take me with him and Belladonna. I opened up the door to find Marley and Belladonna standing next to each other.

  “I hope you’ve been adjusting nicely,” Belladonna said with a bright tone.

  “Oh . . . yeah,” I replied, glad to finally see her. “It’s been nice to have some peace for once.”

  “Orphanages can get rather loud, I understand,” she said. “I don’t remember it ever being quiet, unless everybody was sleeping.

  “That didn’t happen very often,” I said.

  “Well, I’m glad you don’t have to deal with any of that anymore,” she said.

  “Yeah.” I looked at Marley who was, of course, smiling. She must have been trying really hard to get me to be her friend or something, and I just couldn’t figure it out, especially if she already had Ashton, whoever that was.

  “It came to my attention that you still haven’t explored the place,” Belladonna said. “You know . . . it might help to get out of this old room and get to know your new, temporary home.”

  I didn’t say anything. I knew exactly what Belladonna was getting at, and I was pretty sure that Edgar had put them up to it. I didn’t like it one bit.

  “Marley, here, knows the place really well, so I took it upon myself to bring her here to give you the grand tour.”

  I forced an obvious fake smile.

  “It’ll be alright,” Belladonna said. “Now, Marley, don’t get him into any trouble or anything.”

  “I’ll try not to,” she said. “But you know me.”

  Belladonna chuckled and took a step back. “I’ll leave you guys alone,” she said. “Just be sure you’re in the dining room at six. Cornelius is addressing the nation then.” Marley told her she would make sure of it, and Belladonna left us alone.

  “You ready?” Marley asked me.

  I wanted to tell her that I wasn’t, but they were going to continue forcing it on me until I actually went with her. “I guess,” I said, shutting the door behind me and following her down the hall toward the dining hall.

  “All of these doors are rooms like yours,” she was saying. She then pointed at the door I had used every day. “You know that leads to the dining hall.”

  I followed her down a couple of other halls as she talked about the routine. Of course, breakfast, lunch, and dinner were always at the same times because it helped organize the small community. According to Marley, there were about 150 people in the facility, but they were planning to gather a few more, especially after the tracking law passed.

  Soon, the hall grew dark as torches no longer lit up the place. Marley took out a flashlight and shined it forward. I hadn’t been paying much attention to where we were going, so I was pretty much lost. No surprise there. I started seeing grass growing between the cracks again. The place was starting to smell pretty muggy. There was obviously nothing there being used, so why had Marley led me there. And how big was this freaking place?

  “This place is like a maze,” I said, more to myself.

  She took it as an opportunity to have a conversation. “Yeah,” she said. “That’s what I thought at first.” She slowed down to make sure we stayed side-by-side as she talked to me. “It’s not too bad once you get to know it.”

  We were silent for a while. I walked with her, wishing for the tour to be over. The silence between us became awkward. Marley eventually asked what I had seen of the underground facility.

  “My room,” I told her.

&
nbsp; She laughed. “I knooow that,” she said. “I mean anything else?”

  “Nah,” I said. I thought about the first room I was in. I had completely forgotten. “I did meet Belladonna and Robert in this really nice room.”

  “Yeah, it’s really nice,” she said. “I’ve only been in it once. It’s mainly where Edgar, Belladonna and Robert plan for things.”

  “What do they plan?” I asked.

  “That’s where they plan before any of them goes into the city to learn more about Grandfather. They talk about any problems and concerns going on with people down here and work out a way to fix them. They’re really good at it.”

  She turned down a hall to the right. I forced myself to keep up beside her. It was a little difficult since I didn’t know where we were going.

  After a few minutes of more silence, I figured I’d force myself to talk to her. Perhaps that would make things less awkward. “What do you think about this whole Grandfather thing?” I asked, not believing I was the one bringing it up this time. But I was curious to see if she had the same opinion as the others.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, sounding shocked.

  “Well,” I started. “I mean, do you believe it?”

  “Do I believe it?” Marley asked loudly, as if she had never heard anybody ask such a thing.

  “I mean . . .”

  “Yeah I believe it,” she said.

  I said nothing.

  “Don’t you?” she asked.

  I scratched my head, not sure if she would be mad if I said no. Perhaps that was a terrible question to ask. “I don’t really know.”

  “How can you not know, Carsyn?” she asked immediately.

  “I don’t know,” I repeated. Marley stopped in the middle of the hall. I did the same. Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t seem angry, really . . . just a little suspicious. Or maybe she was angry, and I just couldn’t tell. I never got the chance to talk to other girls. The houseladies were the only women I was around, and . . . well, you know how I feel about them. I wondered if all girls were like Marley.

  “You can’t not know, Carsyn,” Marley said. “There has to be a reason.”

  I thought for a second, making sure I didn’t say the wrong thing. “Well, I did just learn about all of this yesterday.”

  “So,” she said.

  Now I was getting annoyed.

  “Okay. Well, Edgar tells me that something big is going to happen one day. He pretty much attacks me. Then, the president is killed. He and Belladonna then tell me that these Grandfather people and their Imperial leader dude needs me for something, which apparently means that I’m in danger.”

  Marley didn’t say anything.

  “That all happened within a day.”

  Marley looked at the ground. Then, slowly, she started walking again. If I had known how to get back, I probably would have left. But I didn’t. I was lost. I walked with her.

  “I guess I didn’t think about it like that,” she said. “Sorry.”

  “I’ve not seen proof,” I said. “I’ve not had time to see proof yet. The only thing I have is that Edgar knew my name, and he said that something huge would happen the night the president was killed.”

  I had been talking to Marley to try and take away some of the awkwardness, but if there was one thing I did, it was make things more awkward. Oh well. I wasn’t exactly taught how to communicate with people. That could’ve been my fault too since I didn’t even try.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I get carried away sometimes.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I just want to see for myself and find out on my own. Nobody but Belladonna seems to understand that.”

  “I understand,” Marley said.

  I wasn’t sure if she actually did or if she was just saying that to make me feel better. Either way, we didn’t say much more during the next few minutes.

  It was pretty obvious that there was nothing but tunnels ahead. I knew people didn’t sleep this deep inside. There was absolutely nothing but darkness, except for the little bit of light coming from Marley’s flashlight.

  “So where are you taking me?” I asked, a little bit worried.

  “The coolest place ever,” she answered, excitedly. “I actually don’t think we’re supposed to be there, but I don’t really care.”

  Whoa. I definitely didn’t get the vibe that Marley was a rule breaker. “What happens if we get caught?” I remembered what Belladonna had told her. If there was one thing I didn’t want to do, it was to mess things up with Belladonna. She was the only person I actually liked.

  Marley laughed. “They won’t do anything unless we do something really bad. Like leave this place for a few hours.”

  “Oh,” I said. I assumed Marley knew best since she had been there longer than me.

  “We’re almost there,” she said. “Come on,” she stopped in front of an old door. “The good thing is that nobody ever comes this deep inside because there’s nothing here for them.

  “So nobody knows about this place you’re taking me?”

  “Nope,” Marley said. “I don’t think so. Only me and Ashton.”

  I still hadn’t seen who this Ashton kid was. I didn’t even see him during lunch or dinner. What was he like?

  “You’ll meet him tomorrow,” Marley said, as if reading my mind.

  I hate when people do that.

  “He went with Dr. Mac to get some more medicine. About once a month, Dr. Mac meets some friend of his outside the wall. Ashton likes to go. ” Marley opened the door, which caused a loud screeching noise to echo throughout the entire hall.

  I glanced around, wondering if anybody would be able to hear it. She didn’t seem worried. “Come on,” she said, shining the flashlight inside. I followed her.

  Once inside, Marley shined the flashlight all around, allowing me to get a look at the entire place. It wasn’t a large room at all . . . probably half the size of my room. Mold grew on the walls, which couldn’t be safe. The air had a musky smell, which wasn’t pleasant. Was this the big surprise? Wow, this girl had been stuck underground for way too long.

  That’s when I noticed a ladder in one corner leading straight up to the ceiling.

  Great. I was already tired of ladders.

  Marley walked to it. I took a closer look at the ceiling where the ladder ended. I saw a small crack forming a square. I knew at once that it had to be another trap door. Maybe the room wasn’t the finale.

  “You hold this,” Marley said, handing me the flashlight. “I’ll go up first to open the door since I’ve been here before.”

  I stood still, shining the flashlight at the door. Marley climbed the ladder slowly. She reached the top, and with one hand, she pushed the trap door open. Sunlight burst through the hole, lighting up the entire room.

  I turned away to keep my eyes from burning too badly. Once they adjusted, I turned around and looked up, seeing blue skies. Sunlight. I turned the flashlight off as Marley crawled out of the room.

  “Hurry up,” She said. “You’re going to love this.”

  Was it safe? Marley had been up there before, so I trusted her, which was weird since I didn’t know her that well. I put the flashlight in my pocket and slowly climbed the ladder. It may have taken me longer to get to the top than Marley, but I eventually made it. I pulled myself out of the ground to find myself at the edge of a small grass area surrounded by trees. It was like a perfect circle.

  “You’ve never really seen the city, right?” Marley asked. She stood at the edge of a cliff.

  What I saw past her was absolutely astonishing. I had never seen anything like it. In the far distance was a skyline made up of hundreds of tall buildings behind the tall wall, each ranging from fifty to over a hundred stories high. The tallest one seemed to be directly in the middle. The city had to be a several miles wide. And hugging it tightly, of course, was the gray wall. I had lived right outside of the wall my entire life and never
really knew how big it was. I knew it was extremely tall. But seeing it from a distance was amazing.

  I didn’t even think there were that many skyscrapers left in the United Regions. I had read about them and how most of them were destroyed during the 2nd civil war.

  The site was just spectacular. Until I remembered what it all stood for. I’d heard protests about the separation and those inside all the time. None of my kind liked them.

  I walked to Marley’s side and looked down. The ledge wasn’t too high up, but high enough to break several bones if one was to fall off. I made a mental note to not get too close.

  “Bet you didn’t know we were this high up, did you?” Marley asked.

  I shook my ahead. We were actually very high up. From the orphanage, the mountain was always visible in the distance. There I was on that very landmark. I gazed at the city and the wall completely circling it. Wow.

  “I was bored one day,” Marley said. “People were arguing about what we should all do about Grandfather. You’ll learn to get tired of hearing about that here.”

  “It seemed to me that you felt strongly about Grandfather and everything,” I told her, remembering her reaction earlier.

  “I believe they’re secretly gaining power, but I still get tired of it.” I watched as a square aircraft glided over the city. I would see them sometimes fly above the orphanage. I never knew what they were doing.

  “So they mention it that often?” I asked as the aircraft lowered out of site.

  “Yeah,” Marley said. “I believe they exist, but I don’t want to hear about it constantly. Sometimes, I just want me and momma to live normal lives.”

  I nodded, actually understanding. I wished for a normal life too. But I never had one and wasn’t getting one.

  Marley continued. “I guess normal is too much to ask for when you’re living inside of a mountain.”

  I snickered. “That would make it difficult,” I said. “But hey, at least you have your mom.”

  She somehow took that the wrong way. “Oh,” she said quickly. “I’m sorry . . . I didn’t mean to . . .”

  “It’s okay,” I told her, knowing exactly why she was freaking out. “I accept that I’m an orphan. I was just saying, it’s cool that during all of this, you and your mom are together.”

  Marley still had an apologetic look on her face. She looked back at the city. She sat down on the edge of the cliff and let her feet dangle over. I, slowly and cautiously, did the same. “And all of that is controlled by Grandfather,” she said. “People just don’t know it yet.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  Marley noticed my silence and said, “Well, at least that’s what us ‘believers’ think.”

  “I’m not judging,” I said, smiling. “Just need some time to get things straight.”

  “Yeah, and I understand.” She said. Once again, I wasn’t sure if she actually did or was just saying that.

  I imagined what it would be like to live within the wall. I pictured all the men dressed in suits like Robert’s, and beautiful women like Belladonna. Again, my eye caught the tallest building in the center. “Is that where the president stays?” I asked. “The tallest one?”

  “I don’t know,” Marley said. “But if I was the president, I’d want to live far away from the city but still be close enough to get to it pretty quickly.”

  “Like here?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Marley answered. “Like here.”

  “This is the first time I’ve been to a place like this,” I said, looking up. “Even the sky looks different.” In the distance, behind the city, the sun began to disappear behind the skyscrapers.

  “I think so too,” Marley said. “I figured you would like to see this more than the other things below. There’s not really anything down there. Momma made it sound like it was heaven on Earth.”

  I laughed. “She seems nice.”

  “Oh she’s great,” Marley said. “She’s my mom and my best friend. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

  “She seems to get along with Edgar really good, too,” I said.

  Marley snickered. “Yeah, they get along really well.” Marley looked at the sun and stood up. “I wish we could stay longer,” she said. “But the new president should be making his address soon. We should probably find Edgar and Momma.”

  I stood and followed Marley back to the hole in the ground. I glanced at the city once more.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll bring you back,” Marley said. “Tomorrow, Ashton gets back. We can all come here. Just please don’t tell anybody. Not even Momma or Edgar. They’d say it was dangerous.”

  Well, Marley certainly didn’t have to worry about that. I didn’t plan on having a conversation with many people. I definitely wasn’t going to confide in Edgar about anything.

  “Just curious,” I said as I found a step on the ladder with my feet. “You barely know me. Why did you bring me here? Why do you trust me?”

  Marley looked at me and back at the city skyline. “I don’t know,” she said, looking back at me. That’s all she said.

  “I won’t tell,” I told her again, climbing down the ladder. When I reached the bottom, I took out the flashlight and turned it on before Marley slammed the trap door shut, leaving us in darkness again.

  I definitely didn’t remember the way back, so I just followed Marley again. I tried remembering the turns in case I wanted to come back alone, but after a while I realized it was impossible. I supposed it would just take a little time and a few more trips. A few more trips meant that I’d have to go with Marley again, which I guessed was okay. While I still wanted to be left alone, she didn’t annoy me… yet. As long as she wasn’t knocking on my door every day, I was good.

  Chapter Four