Page 31 of Shattered

I feel my face flush under his stare, but I uncap the flask and take a long swallow. The familiar liquid burns my throat and warms a trail all the way down to my stomach.

He keeps looking at me, and I can’t stop looking at him. He causes these feelings inside of me I’ve never felt before. For the first time in a long time, in this moment, I’m happy. I know Katie is smiling down on me. This list is doing everything she hoped it would. I’m stepping out of the shadows little by little. I’m having fun, and trying new things. And it’s a fucking blast.

8

START A BAR FIGHT

We drive for hours before we stop in another small town to grab some lunch. It’s so nice outside that I can’t bear to sit in a crowded restaurant. We run through a drive-through and find a nice, quiet park.

We sit at a picnic table while we eat. The sun is shining bright, warming my skin. A slight breeze blows, keeping me from getting too hot, and the soft rustling sound of the tree branches moving relaxes me. There is a small pond that has at least a dozen white ducks floating along the top. They look so cute. I’ve never been this close to ducks before. I’ve never really been close to any animal other than a dog or cat.

I see a squirrel run down a tree, and he runs across the grass to another tree. I grab a french fry and toss it out onto the ground between the trees, almost to the water.

The squirrel stops what he’s doing, looking around cautiously before he finally jumps down and rushes to the fry. He picks it up with his mouth and rushes back up the tree.

I giggle and throw another.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” River says sitting across from me.

“What? Why? Do you think I’m going to be attacked by a squirrel?”

“No, I’m more concerned about those ducks.” He uses his head to motion toward the water.

I look over and see that all the ducks have seen my exchange with the squirrel.

I smile. “I have plenty for them too.” I grab a handful and toss them onto the ground. They move quickly to get the fries while squawking noisily.

When all the fries have disappeared from the ground, they all look at me angrily. I quickly throw another handful down to keep them busy.

“Wow. They must be starving.”

“They’re not starving. Ducks will eat anything. When I was a kid my mom used to take me to this one pond in the city to feed the ducks,” he says before popping a fry into his mouth.

“Did you feed them french fries too?” I ask with a smile, happy he’s telling me about his childhood.

He lets out a laugh. “No, we were pretty poor. I didn’t even know what a french fry was until I was old enough to find food for myself.”

His confession makes me a little sad. Is this why he’s never volunteered much information about his past before?

“We didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up so I never got to do the things normal kids did. But the one thing I did get to do was going to that pond and feeding the ducks because it didn’t require any money. If we had bread left at the end of the week, she would take me. I loved doing that with her. It was our time together. She worked all the time to provide the little she could. Just to make sure I got that time with her, I would eat sandwiches with only one slice just so we’d get our time together that week.”

“Awe, it sounds like you were a sweet little boy. I’d love to meet her one da— Oww!” I turn and look to see what just caused the blinding pain in my side. A duck stands next to me, squawking, rearing back to bite me again.

River laughs. “They can be demanding little shits.”

I toss more fries and it waddles away.

“You better make sure you save some for the walk back to the car or we’ll be chased.”

I hold up the fry container. “They’re all gone.”

He goes stock still as more ducks start moving in our direction.

“We better go.” He stands and reaches for my hand as the mob nears us.

The ducks must have a sixth sense for this sort of thing because it’s like they all turn on us. I freeze, and they do too as they all stare at me. I swear I can see a shadow of fire dancing in their beady eyes like they all came directly from Hell.

“Let’s go!” River tugs my arm as we rush towards the car with every last duck quacking and chasing after us. I laugh and squeal as we run with them on our heels.

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