Some kind of trouble....

[jukeboxartist]

The new internship was going really well. They were good kids; really good kids. Different conditions: two genetic disorders, two car accidents, and ... Luke ... but they were all responding well to getting their hands around a paintbrush or a pair of safety scissors.

Luke less so, not because his injuries were more severe -- in fact, they were less so than several of the others, but because he couldn't seem to relax. Then.... she could tell by the way he fumbled with the art supplies. The damage that had been healing after his previous accident ... or 'accident' ... was renewed. Kind of subtly, easy to miss if you weren't kind of studying this sort of thing obsessively.
Caroline calmly put in the call to DFYS ... but what about that night? Luke definitely wasn't talking enough to make anyone else take definite action immediately, and law-abiding citizen or not, Caroline wasn't sure she trusted the system to act quickly. Maybe she did have a little of Momma's revolutionary streak in her after all. She managed to keep him late, but eventually, the sun had long set, the center was closing... "Hey, Luke, I'm gonna walk you home, okay?" She didn't really give the kid much choice as she accompanied him. "Maybe have a talk with your Mom about how good your art's coming along."
"Mom'll be at work. And Dad... won't want to talk about art."
"Okay. Well, I'll just walk you home anyway."

Comments

[jukeboxartist]

Caroline knows how these things work, putting on the helmet, climbing on, and grabbing around him.

[fear_the_rider]

Tommy takes her to diner in question, which isn't far. They park in the parking lot and he notes the '50's style decor. He likes this place already.

"Shall we?" he asked, dismounting the bike and offering his arm to her.

[jukeboxartist]

A familiar old-fashioned gesture is a welcome relief on the brink of the evening catching up and overwhelming her. She'll take his arm and in fact lean on it. A nervous giggle is reflected in her instinctive wind-chime sounds.

[fear_the_rider]

Tommy stopped and looked around for a moment, thinking he heard wind-chimes somewhere nearby. His mother used to keep wind-chimes all over the place back home. He loved those old things.

Then he remembered what his mother did to him and pushed the thought down.

They entered the diner and found a table, with Tommy waiting for Caroline to sit down before he did.

"So, Caroline. Where are you from?"

[jukeboxartist]

"Kentucky. Cumberland, Kentucky. Oh, and sorry about the sounds. I'm a mutant, and it's just habit." The rather homelike traits are helping with her becoming not as rattled. "And you?"

[fear_the_rider]

"Kentucky Caroline. That sounds like a flower." Tommy said, using it to remember her name.

"Hey, it's totally cool that you're a mutant. I'm not one of those people, you know." he said, hoping to keep her at ease.

"I'm from Loving, Missouri. About as far south as you can go before you hit Arkansas." he said.

[jukeboxartist]

And there's the wind-chime giggling again.

"I've heard nice things about Missouri." Heard lousy things, too, but nothing that wasn't wrong with other places, nothing that couldn't be fixed.

[fear_the_rider]

"You have? Can you tell me a couple because I haven't heard any." Tommy said, laughing just a bit. Honestly, he wanted to hear the wind-chim sound of her laughter again.

"Really, though, Missouri can be nice. It can also be really crappy, like St. Louis." he said.

"How long have you lived in New Jersey?"

[jukeboxartist]

"The cake, for instance. Hear the cake's nice. Just a couple of months. Transferred to Rutgers for grad school, moved in with my cousin and his crew. Before that, I was at ESU in New York."

[fear_the_rider]

"I just came from New York and I have to go back soon. But I've been traveling across the United States with my...partner." Tommy said.

[jukeboxartist]

"So who's the --" and the word she uses is in a language less than a dozen people on Earth know, so Tommy can't be expected to have any idea what it is. "How did they do this to you..." And, with a mournful expression, she remembers a few of the stories for getting humans into the wildways circuit ... "Did you sign something? You never sign anything an interdimensional creature hands you, Tommy." Yes, the girl who's only just met him is almost teary-eyed. "But there's always a way out, somehow."

[fear_the_rider]

"I didn't sign anything. I just consented. And I think that's all I should say about it. I was going to die and I found a way out of it. Everything requires an exchange." Tommy told her.

She was starting to cry and Tommy didn't exactly know how to deal with it. He reached inside his leather vest and passed her a blue handkerchief.

"It's okay. Don't cry for me because I really don't deserve it."

[jukeboxartist]

"What you deserve's between you and Aunt Lucinda's God, but all I know is you helped Luke and me tonight, and you've been nothing but nice, and you can't stop my worrying about you. Besides, even if you're a complete --" and there was her mother's native tongue again. "-- no one deserves to own a sentient being and do... that." What she saw earlier. "But if you say it was consensual, I'll try to shut up about it. For Now." And she takes the handkerchief to stop the tears, and takes a heavy breath.

[fear_the_rider]

"Hold on. What's that word you keep usin'? I don't know the language." he said, trying to understand what Caroline is saying.

The waitress comes over to the table and sees Caroline's tears. She gives Tommy the evil eye as she asks for their orders.

"Just a burger and fries for me, please." Tommy requests.

[jukeboxartist]

"Oh, sorry. It's ... Momma's not from Kentucky originally; she was a refugee. Basically, it translates to 'shill for the oppressors.' " But then she smiles at the waitress and asks for a BLT and a peanut butter milkshake

[fear_the_rider]

"Peanut butter milkshake? Never had one of those. Is it good?" Tommy asks.

The term 'shill for the oppressors' sounded about right, though he knew his prison was one of his own making.

"You're a very nice woman, Kentucky Caroline. Thank you for...listenin' to me."

[jukeboxartist]

"It is. You can try some. I'm a real peanut butter addict." She smiles. "You're real welcome, Tommy."

[fear_the_rider]

"All right, then. I will do just that." he said, smiling at her. Her smile was infectious and Tommy liked that. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so at ease.

That said a lot about him, he figured.

"So how is living with your cousin? Do you get along?"

[jukeboxartist]

"He's great. Really good musician and a wonderful cook."

[fear_the_rider]

"That's not a bad combination at all. Sounds like you two are really close." Tommy said.

The waitress came back with their drinks and noted that Caroline wasn't crying anymore. Her attitude toward Tommy softened, but only a little.

"It's pretty late. Your friends aren't gonna send out a search party, are they?" he asked.

[jukeboxartist]

"I'll check in, just in case." She got her phone out and texted that she was okay, without having an actual phone call to have to explain yet.

"So... do you have anyone back in Missouri who has to worry about...stuff?"

[fear_the_rider]

"If you mean what I think you mean...no. No one back home at all. Whole family's gone." Tommy said.

[jukeboxartist]

"I'm sorry to hear that," she says sincerely.

And when the food comes, she'll happily dig into her sandwich and put a second straw in the milkshake

[fear_the_rider]

"Don't be. They were bad people." Tommy said. It sounded cold, but in his mind, it was the truth.

He bites into his food as well, enjoying for a bit before he tries out the peanut butter milkshake.

"Wow. That's...that is really good. I'm gonna have to try order that from now on." Tommy said, grinning a bit.

[jukeboxartist]

"I'll have to try to take your word on that, but I can still be sorry there's no one waiting up for you. Immediate blood, it's always been just Momma and me; the cousins are distant genetically, but we've got a big family in practical terms, and ... it helps. With a lot of things."

And then his milkshake enthusiasm brings windchime giggles.
"You should. Besides, protein is good for the blood sugar." And very little else in a milkshake was, but hey...