Chapter 3: A Bike Ride

The next day I awoke to the sunlight hitting my face once again. It must have already been around noon. Not really a surprise considering after Dandelion and I made a stop by a late night fast food joint, our gruesome trek back from "Narnia" as Dandelion called it ended up taking a grand total of 7 hours. Several pit stops were made along the way at random points as Dandelion seemed to wander off to stare at some mundane things. By the time we arrived back, it was already 2AM. Add another hour for Dandelion story time and 3 AM arrived before I could catch any shuteye.

"Jeez" I thought seeing Dandelion fall asleep on my floor before I even finishing chapter 3 of Dr. Doolittle

"She didn't even shower…"

At this point though, I was too tired to care much. The girl looked much too peaceful to awake anyway. Quietly, I tiptoed to my bathroom for a shower before jumping into bed straight away.

"Ah bed,"

A true romance story where I couldn't use my bed for a whole night but was now reunited,

"I'll never let you go again!"

That night I slept peacefully with calming dreams of living in the forest with various animals each with their own personalities. It was such a vivid dream in fact I could still smell the forest wood when I awoke the next day. It felt so realistic that smell. So realistic in fact that… wait a minute,

"Da… Da… Dandelion?!?!"

Only a couple inches away from my face on the same bed lay the sleeping homeless girl. The sound of my crashing onto the ground upon noticing woke her up immediately.

"Ouch…"

I got up from the ground and looked up to notice her pure black eyes staring down at me from the bed.

"Dandelion… why are you sleeping on my bed?"

"It's more comfortable here."

"Yes… but I was also sleeping on that same bed,"

"Yes."

"…"

"…"

"Is there a problem?"

"Nope! I'm just a silly man!"

"Kane,"

"Yes?"

"I'm hungry."

After heating up two more bowls of ramen, I stared amusingly once again at Dandelion's exhilarating battle to master fork dexterity. It appeared she had gotten slightly better at least as I could see she leveled up to being able to grab a hold of a small string of noodles.

"I'm so proud…"

Another thought that entered my mind however, was what exactly Dandelion did during most of her days? One day off had already been too much for me as I quickly finished my bowl preparing for work.

"What are you going to do today?" I asked Dandelion.

"What am I going to do?"

"Yes, what are you going to do? What do you usually do throughout the day? I have to work today to cover yesterday's meals and make rent for the month."

"I look for food."

"Aye well that's certainly one way to spend your time. Either I should get goi…"

"Can I come with you?"

We stared blankly at each other for a moment.

"Can I?" she asked again her eyes wide and as googly as ever. "

"Ah well…"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Are… are you sure this is comfortable?"

Having a basket attached to the back of my bike served a variety of purposes. Mostly, when I am out delivering food, it served the purpose of being a compartment to carry orders. Occasionally when I needed to restock on ramen, it served the purpose of holding multiple containers. On this particular day however, it served the purpose of carrying a petite homeless woman who sat in a curled up position with her bare feet resting on my back and shoulders.

"It's comfortable," she responded giving me a thumbs up. Well, if she spent most of her days sleeping under a tree, I suppose her statement was believable.

"If you say so," I said clicking to start my delivery driving app from my phone. Afterwards, I began pedaling away towards the busier areas of Nothingtown.

"Beep Beep,"

Suddenly my smartphone started beeping signaling a delivery opportunity in the area.

"Beep beep," Dandelion repeated also signaling a delivery opportunity in the area.

"Looks like a McDonald's order," I said stopping my bike to look at my phone.

"About 10 minutes away. Can you hold the food when we pick it up Dandelion?"

She gave me another thumbs up for assurance, but for some reason I felt less assured. Well, not like I could ever get fired anyway. Trudging along the sidewalk with Dandelion in my basket, I slowly made my way to the McDonalds.

"Okay, just stay here and I"ll…"

I paused my statement reconsidering after seeing Dandelion already begin to stare at some nearby trees.

"Actually just come in," I said dragging Dandelion with me inside.

"Order 298 2 Happy Meals, 2 Happy meals," the counter lady shouted.

"That's us," I said picking up the orders. As I did, I noticed Dandelion had wandered to the toy display case and was staring at the toys inside.

"Looks like it's animal toys with the happy meals." I said squatting down next to Dandelion.

"Roger," she said pointing at the toy moose in the display case.

"Did he shrink overnight?"

In any case, I told Dandelion we had to deliver the happy meals to preserve my app rating. A great tragedy as I saw Dandelion look somberly at the display case as I dragged her away. Sacrifices must be made to ensure the important job of food being delivered on time however.

"Okay, hold these please," I said handing Dandelion the two happy meal boxes. She gave me another thumbs up grabbing the meals. What could possibly go wrong?

"Alright only 10 minutes until we arrive," I said glancing at my phone, "When we arrive just place the meals at the doorsteps of 313 Anywhere Street, got it?"

"Got it,"

I saw at the corner of my eye a thumbs up and I responded with one in return. Maybe I was stressing out for nothing after all. For a delivery job, I'm sure anyone could…

"Roger will help too!"

"Roger?"

I stopped my bike to see if any moose were in the area. You can never be too sure of these things with Dandelion around. No moose could be seen however.

"Don't startle me like that," I said turning around. "I don't see any…"

I paused my sentence in horror as one moose did in fact exist in our vicinity. The very small moose Dandelion held in her hand, the same hand that held a very much opened happy mean container.

"Dandelion… what did you do?"

"I found a small Roger!" She exclaimed cheerfully holding out the toy in front of me."

"Dandelion…"

"Yes Kane?"

"Why did you open up the Happy Meal Box?"

Her stomach gave out a growl.

"I'm hungry and found small Roger!"

"Dandelion…"

"Yes Kane?"

"…"

"…"

At this point I sighed resigning myself to the reality of the situation. Turning on my phone again, I pressed the cancel order button selecting the option "Order taken by someone else." Real criminal I am.

"How about we stop for lunch?" I asked. It had only been an hour since we ate our ramen but if you're going to commit a crime, I suppose you might as well not waste the rewards.

"Yay!" Dandelion said with a smile.

As she did, I paused the delivery app and changed course for the park nearby.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The park bench we sat on happened to be the same park bench I sat on just 2 days prior. I munched on one of the happy meal's contents with Dandelion who, true to its name, seemed extremely happy enjoying her meal.

"Is this some sort of duck?" I asked Dandelion as I held up the toy from my meal.

"Platypus," Dandelion said swallowing her apple slice.

"Oh platypus, right… what's that?"

For those reading this thinking I am an uncultured individual for not knowing what a platypus is… I can't really defend myself. I slept through all of my biology classes in high school. Later that day I did search up the creature and I will saying they seemed more boring than when I asked Dandelion about them.

"They're magical guardians of the swamp!" she said.

"Haha… right."

In any case, we continued to munch on our happy meals for half an hour making idle chit chat here and there but mostly just doing the same thing we did the day before. That is, looking out into the distance staring at seemingly nothing and creating a story out of whatever creatures were in the area. At times when no creatures showed in the area, my mind began to wander into supernatural territory.

Perhaps in front of us invisible from our view floating in the air was a ghost. A ghost whose name is Orville and he's happily looking at the two of us sitting at the exact place he used to roam in a past generation. It was strange really, only two days ago, and many a times before, I had sat at that very same spot. Yet somehow this time, this time it felt I was actually really seeing where I was. I could see now the subtle patterns of the tree leaves that contained countless bugs and the small ripples of the lake that were no doubt caused by the various fishes under the water. 2 days ago I tried to come up with a story, failing to see around me all the stories happening at once, like seeing an elephant inside of a snake, instead of a hat.

Only one creature's story seemed to my hold attention for an extended period of time however, the story of the smiling girl next to me. And if there was one story I wanted to know more about, it was hers. Both what her past contained and what her future holds.

"Kane…"

I faintly heard my name called.

"Kane?"

The voice repeated.

"Kane?"

"Huh… oh yes Dandelion sorry," I said breaking out of my daze, "Did you finish your meal?"

She nodded.

"Kane are you okay?"

"What? Yes of course of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You've been staring at me for a while now,"

"Oh ahaha is that so?" I said looking away embarrassed and blushing, "Sorry about that."

"No, it's okay," Dandelion said with a soft smile, "Dandelions are meant to be looked at."

And although I did not agree at all with that statement, the smile on her face made it so I couldn't even dream of correcting her, even if it meant a million dandelions invaded my apartment the next day.

"Right… Right," I said turning away from her gaze, "Shall we get back to work then?"

She nodded. And as we hopped back on my bike, a thought reached my mind.

"Finally… a story worth writing."