Something about her called to him. The girl couldn’t have been more than
fourteen, and she was alone in the table across the restaurant. He made up his mind. As
soon as I’m done with this burger I’m gonna ask her why she’s here all by
herself, he thought. He ate the
rest of his meal in silent concentration, glancing at the girl every few
seconds. When he had taken his last
bite, he dumped his trash into the can nearest him, then walked over to
her. “Hi,” he said, startling her a
bit. She looked up at him and ate
another fry, not saying anything. AJ
took the bench spot next to her and leaned closer. “I saw you sitting by yourself and thought you might want some
company,” he tried again. The girl
shook her head and slid away a little.
AJ’s face fell. No teenage girl
had ever denied him, and it felt like a small slap to his face. “O-k, then...” he said, stalling. He finally gave up when she didn’t look at
him again. “Well, you can’t say I
didn’t try,” he mumbled, standing up to leave.
“See ya around, kid,” he said to the girl, then walked out the double
doors.
As he reached his car, he heard a noise and turned around. There stood the girl, in her loose jeans and
tiny tee-shirt, a pair of ragged tennis shoes on her feet, and a small duffel
bag in her arms, looking at him with wide eyes. She walked toward him in baby steps, and he could immediately
tell she was homeless. He unlocked his
car, but didn’t open the door; instead, he kept watching her as she cautiously
approached him. When she opened her
mouth to speak, her voice came out barely above a whisper. “You want some company?” she asked him,
shrugging up her shoulders to bare her skin.
He caught the implication in her voice and shook his head. “Not that kind, honey,” he told her, opening
his door now. The girl’s eyes grew even
larger, and she put her hand out as if to stop him from leaving. “Wait!
Could you at least gimme a dollar or two, man? I’m real hungry.” AJ
noted the ribs leering at him from under her dusky skin, and decided to do
something really stupid. “How about a
ride and a meal?” he asked.
“Jesus, man! I thought you were takin’ me down the road to Denny’s, not
Buckingham palace!” she said in awe of AJ’s house. He knew it was stupid, but what did he do? Take a little homeless girl back to his
house. Oh yeah, he’d berate himself
later, but now he just wanted to get out of the car. “It’s my house,” he said, turning off the engine and getting
out. The girl followed him to the door,
and he stopped and turned to her. “Do
not go off, don’t touch anything. Just
follow me into the kitchen,” he said, hoping she’d get what he meant by
that. He didn’t want her taking
anything, and she would have if he hadn’t said that.
AJ made her a large turkey sandwich
that she downed in less than a minute.
She washed it down with a big glass of orange juice, and wiped her mouth
on a napkin he gave her. “So what’s
your name?” he asked her when she was done.
“Marlowe,” she said, sighing in satisfaction. AJ could only speculate as to her age. “And you’re what, fourteen?
Thirteen?” he wondered, looking
her over. She straightened up in her
stool and gave him an ‘excuse me’ look.
“Uh, no. Try sixteen,” she bit,
sounding very offended that someone would think she was that young. AJ was taken aback. The girl had very small breasts, equally
small hips, and no defining facial features to distinguish her from any other
thirteen-year-old girl, and she was telling him she was sixteen? No way,
he thought.
“Well, Marlowe, I have an extra room,
so if you want to stay the night you can,” AJ said, not quite sure why he’d
offered. He supposed it was his
night-in-shining-armor characteristic coming out. He dismissed any other thoughts and looked at Marlowe
expectantly. She took another gulp of
her orange juice and swiped at her mouth again, eyeing him. “Yeah, I guess,” she agreed reluctantly,
then looked at the floor. That was about as painless as I was hoping
it would be, thought AJ to himself, smiling. “I don’t suppose you’ve got a job or anything, do you?” he asked
her. Marlowe shook her head ‘no’ and
continued staring at the floor.
“Hmm... Well, I can see you’re
not really in a talking mood, so I’m going to go straighten out your room for
you. When you come up the stairs, it’s
the third door on your left. My room’s
the one across from it, if you need anything.
Oh, and the bathroom’s connected to your room, and the towels are in the
closet by the bathroom sink,” AJ recited as he stood and placed his stool back
under the counter. He still wondered
why he’d taken her in for the night.
After all, what did he know about her?
She could be a drugged up homicidal psycho-killer for all he knew. And he didn’t, but he wondered.