wanted.”
A deep, subdued rumble escaped from the back of Harrison’s throat as he began to laugh. “Sounds like there’s a story there,” he hinted.
There was, and I smiled at the memory of it. “The earliest Christmas I remember was when I was four. The first gift I opened under the tree was a BB gun. The next gift was a flashlight. The third was a fishing pole.” Already Harrison was grinning, understanding where I was headed. “These weren’t exactly the kind of gifts a four-year-old girl wants.”
“No, not exactly.”
“But I got lucky. Someone must have educated him because when my birthday rolled around I got a doll house.” My dad’s face flashed before my eyes, lit up and laughing, which made me laugh too. “It must have been hard raising a girl…”
“Especially when you’re a man like that,” Harrison added.
I got the impression that he was reading between the lines of what I was telling him, picking up on the details of what I wasn’t, details about why my dad had given me those gifts. I already knew Harrison was incredibly astute. For a guy who spent most of his time on the plains, he picked up on the fine points about people and their personalities fairly rapidly. In fact, he understood me better than anyone else ever had…or better than anyone else had ever taken the time to.
Oblivious to my train of thought, he continued his questioning. “What about your mom?”
“I never really knew her,” I said, peeking inside a janitor closet.
When I turned back around, he was giving me a questioning look.
“She died when I was two.”
He nodded somberly. “So we both grew up without a mother…”
“Yes, we did.” And without him having to tell me, I knew what he was thinking…we’d found another similarity between us.
We’d reached the library, which was vast enough for us to split up, but neither of us did. Instead, we quietly roamed the stacks until making it back to the door. There, he stopped and asked me a question that seemed to weigh on him in a way that was more than just thoughtful consideration. It was personal.
“The Infected outside,” he said, “it doesn’t seem like you’re scared of them.”
“Well,” I replied with a shrug. “I know I should be, but no…no, I’m not. I was taught not to be afraid of anything.” While that had actually been the gist of my life growing up, admitting it and speaking the words out loud was slightly disconcerting. Harrison, thankfully, didn’t seem to pick up on it.
“Good,” he replied decisively as he pushed open the library door, indicating that was all he wanted to know. But as he held the door open for me and I walked through, he exhaled behind me…with discernible relief. As he came up beside me, and fell in step with my pace, I tried to chalk it up as a sign of him caring for my well-being, as he would for anyone, but his sigh lingered in the back of my mind as we headed down the hall, because I felt like it symbolized a window into his soul, showing me his true feelings again.
Both of us, being lost in thought, reached the gym in silence. There, he opened the door and went in first, as he’d done for the duration of our inspection. I noticed it was fine for me to leave the room first, but it wasn’t safe for me to be the first to enter. That made me smile.
The gym was cavernous, and the accordion stands having been stacked along the far walls made it feel even more hollow. We walked straight through and into each of the locker rooms. The lights were still on in both from Harrison’s rounds in the night. I stopped at my locker and opened it, pulling out a bag of personal items, deodorant, spare toothbrush, some toothpaste, and a few tubes of makeup that I hadn’t touched in months. Not knowing how long we’d be stuck inside our school, I figured I’d need these things. At some point my teeth would grow gritty and my personal body odor would start to make itself known.
Harrison, however, was a step
A deep, subdued rumble escaped from the back of Harrison’s throat as he began to laugh. “Sounds like there’s a story there,” he hinted.
There was, and I smiled at the memory of it. “The earliest Christmas I remember was when I was four. The first gift I opened under the tree was a BB gun. The next gift was a flashlight. The third was a fishing pole.” Already Harrison was grinning, understanding where I was headed. “These weren’t exactly the kind of gifts a four-year-old girl wants.”
“No, not exactly.”
“But I got lucky. Someone must have educated him because when my birthday rolled around I got a doll house.” My dad’s face flashed before my eyes, lit up and laughing, which made me laugh too. “It must have been hard raising a girl…”
“Especially when you’re a man like that,” Harrison added.
I got the impression that he was reading between the lines of what I was telling him, picking up on the details of what I wasn’t, details about why my dad had given me those gifts. I already knew Harrison was incredibly astute. For a guy who spent most of his time on the plains, he picked up on the fine points about people and their personalities fairly rapidly. In fact, he understood me better than anyone else ever had…or better than anyone else had ever taken the time to.
Oblivious to my train of thought, he continued his questioning. “What about your mom?”
“I never really knew her,” I said, peeking inside a janitor closet.
When I turned back around, he was giving me a questioning look.
“She died when I was two.”
He nodded somberly. “So we both grew up without a mother…”
“Yes, we did.” And without him having to tell me, I knew what he was thinking…we’d found another similarity between us.
We’d reached the library, which was vast enough for us to split up, but neither of us did. Instead, we quietly roamed the stacks until making it back to the door. There, he stopped and asked me a question that seemed to weigh on him in a way that was more than just thoughtful consideration. It was personal.
“The Infected outside,” he said, “it doesn’t seem like you’re scared of them.”
“Well,” I replied with a shrug. “I know I should be, but no…no, I’m not. I was taught not to be afraid of anything.” While that had actually been the gist of my life growing up, admitting it and speaking the words out loud was slightly disconcerting. Harrison, thankfully, didn’t seem to pick up on it.
“Good,” he replied decisively as he pushed open the library door, indicating that was all he wanted to know. But as he held the door open for me and I walked through, he exhaled behind me…with discernible relief. As he came up beside me, and fell in step with my pace, I tried to chalk it up as a sign of him caring for my well-being, as he would for anyone, but his sigh lingered in the back of my mind as we headed down the hall, because I felt like it symbolized a window into his soul, showing me his true feelings again.
Both of us, being lost in thought, reached the gym in silence. There, he opened the door and went in first, as he’d done for the duration of our inspection. I noticed it was fine for me to leave the room first, but it wasn’t safe for me to be the first to enter. That made me smile.
The gym was cavernous, and the accordion stands having been stacked along the far walls made it feel even more hollow. We walked straight through and into each of the locker rooms. The lights were still on in both from Harrison’s rounds in the night. I stopped at my locker and opened it, pulling out a bag of personal items, deodorant, spare toothbrush, some toothpaste, and a few tubes of makeup that I hadn’t touched in months. Not knowing how long we’d be stuck inside our school, I figured I’d need these things. At some point my teeth would grow gritty and my personal body odor would start to make itself known.
Harrison, however, was a step
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