I turned the small, rectangular-shaped plastic card between my fingertips.
I glanced shortly at the blue and purple tie-dye design on the front of it, the words 'Gift Card' in one corner, the printed Walmart logo in the other, and then set the card down into a pile by my right leg, right on top of another, which had a cupcake adorned with sprinkles imprinted on it. I afterward twisted a little to the left from where I sat, atop the bed that I had only slept in once, which was only last night, and picked up another card from a separate stack.
I brought the next card upward and held it over my lap as I flipped it over to view its frontside.
I bit my lip as I studied a partially rubbed away scene of snowy hills and dark clouds.
Then, suddenly, a knock came from the door across the room.
I shot my head upward and took a deep breath.
"C-Come in," I said, probably not as loudly as I should have.
Slowly, the door creaked its way open, and Ace revealed himself from the hallway.
"Hey," he casually greeted, now letting himself in.
I forced one corner of my mouth upward a bit but didn't speak.
He pushed the door to a closed crack, and then began to pace along the opposite wall of the room from where I sat. He looked over the empty, flat top of the dresser nearby and, afterward, spoke once again.
"Now, 'Nesia," he began, now turning to look at me. "I told you that you've gotta put those pictures out, or else I was gonna put up a bunch of my headshots instead."
I smiled a little but, again, remained silent.
Ace then turned away, promptly made his way over to one of the two duffel bags I ended up bringing, picked it up, reached inside, and pulled out four black picture frames. After that, he dropped the bag back onto the floor, stepped back over to the dresser, and began to place each one on top of it.
"So, you hungry yet?" he questioned as he set down the picture of me holding my younger baby cousin.
I looked his backside over a second before answering.
"Not really."
"You gonna be hungry?"
I paused a moment, and then replied.
"Probably not."
Ace put the last picture frame he held into place and turned around to face me.
"Well, alright," he stated, now stepping over to the bedside on my right. He then looked over the two piles of cards by my legs and went on. "What you doing, there?"
I glanced back down at the card still in my hands, studied the snowy photograph printed on it, and then decided to speak.
"I... I don't actually... know."
Ace let out a quiet laugh, let the air fall to silence, and then spoke up once again.
"Well, I think I know what you're doing."
I looked over and up at him as he stepped forward and took a seat on the edge of the bed beside and slightly in front of me.
"W... What am I doing?" I managed out.
He looked down at the card as I lowered it down to my lap.
" 'Nesia, there's snow on it."
"There is?" I questioned, somehow completely forgetting that that was what I had been looking at for the past four minutes. I gazed back down at the card, and then continued. "Well... that's just a coincidence."
I quickly placed the card into the pile on my right and looked up to the wall behind Ace's head.
I could see Ace glance at both piles of cards from the corner of my eye and could hear only his breaths in the sixty second silence that he took on.
"You know, I know how it feels," he eventually piped up.
I gradually glanced back at his face.
"How... what?" I interrogated.
"Well, kind of," he began, pretty much ignoring my question and just continuing on with what he had already started saying. "I never had parents."
I studied his blank expression.
"Really?" I asked.
He slowly shook his head, and then went on.
"Nope; I grew up in foster care. And, I had a different home every... well, sometimes I was in a new place each month but, more often, it changed about once a year. So, I never had one real family or anything."
I paused once he was done explaining, and then tried to think of something to say back in a quick manner.
"Well... I... Sorry about that, I mean, your luck, w... with that."
Yikes.
Contrary to how I had expected him to respond to my statement, though, Ace flashed his usual, bright smile.
"Right back at 'ya," he replied.
I smiled only a little bit back, then looked back down to my lap and began to roll my hands over each other, just giving myself something to do for a short moment.
"So..." Ace started to pick up, again. "You're probably not going to feel like doing anything for about a week or two, are you?"
I kept my eyes on my hands as I slowly responded.
"Probably not..."
"Well," Ace abruptly stopped, suddenly reached out, grabbed my chin, and pulled my eyes up to look at him.
My heart practically jumped out of my chest before he decided to go on talking.
"That's too bad."
He quickly let go of me and let out a short-lived laugh, probably at my surprised eyes.
"W-Why?" I stuttered out as he chuckled.
"Because," he said, as soon as his laughter ceased. "Remember how I told you about the Grigson County Fair?"
"Um..." I tried to think but honestly had no clue what he was talking about. "No..."
"Of course you don't, 'Nesia, but I'll remind you that it's just about the 'funnest' place in America, and it's open tomorrow night."
"That's... nice."
"It sure is. And you and me are gonna go to it."
I looked him over a second.
"Well.. oh... okay, I guess," I carefully responded.
He smiled slightly.
"Good," he simply said.
I tried to give a smile back, but it wouldn't come out, so I began to let my eyes wander over to the right wall of the room. I searched the framed photographs that Ace had just set out, stopping after a moment to stare at one picture in particular: the scene of me and my mother licking chocolate covered spoons.
"H..." I abruptly started, paused to catch my words, and then went on. "How did..." I had to stop again to take a breath. "How did they die?"
I felt a stinging sensation in one eye, so I flickered my eyes downward. However, after a long moment of silence followed my question, I had to gaze up at Ace.
He looked me over quietly.
"I..." I slowly began, again. "I wanna know."
He pursed his lips and lowered his gaze away from me.
"Please..." I added softly.
He gazed back up at me.
"They were shot," he suddenly stated. "The day that I... we found you."
The stinging in my eyes increased its pressure and I bit my lip for a short second.
"W-Why?" I asked, my voice beginning to shake.
Ace shook his head.
"I don't know. I only know the location and time it happened."
"W... Where?" I followed up.
"The same building we found you in, on the fifth floor," he stopped for a short second. "At around eleven thirty-five a.m.... They were together."
The last part of his description drove a hard, cold sensation in my chest, making my eyes almost instantaneously swell up with tears at the same time.
"W..." I started, took a gulping deep breath, and then went on with a slightly shaky voice. "Were they... y-you know, looking for... for me?"
Ace's gaze fell down to the bedspread between us.
"I really don't know, 'Nesia," he said, returning his eyes to mine after a moment. "But I guess that's possible."
I felt a droplet slide from one corner of my right eye and, after reaching up to remove it with my index finger, I looked down to the bedspread, myself.
Ace let the room remain in a state of silence a few more short seconds, and then spoke up once again.
"But, hey... Let's focus on the positives!"
I reached up to rub a bit more residue of salty water from my cheekbones before I gazed back up to him.
He gave me another cheesy grin.
"Like... what?" I questioned, the subtlest laugh underneath my voice.
"Like... well..." Ace paused to think for a moment. "Now you're practically halfway to becoming a major mainstream superhero."
I squinted my eyes and smiled at him.
"Like... take my favorite comic hero, Spiderman, for example," he went on to explain. "Peter Parker," he stopped to purse his lips for a second. "Never had his parents, at least, not after his toddler years. And, I think he turned out pretty awesome."
I smiled a little brighter.
"Yeah, but... he's also... a fictional kind of thing, too, so—"
Ace quickly cut my objections short.
"Yeah, but that makes it even better. He's a cartoon."
"Oh, yeah," I giggled a little. "Of course; another one for your... list of... of inspiration, right?"
Ace smiled.
"Yep; another one I like to sometimes pull from the hat."
I smiled back, again, and then looked a little more toward the empty wall behind Ace's head because... well, I'm not sure why, but I did.
"And another positive is the fact that you get the opportunity to go to the county fair with me tomorrow," Ace picked back up after about a minute or two. "So, do whatever you want around here the rest of tonight and tomorrow but, after that... you're mine. Okay?"
I returned my eyes onto him and studied his expression.
"I-I guess," I quietly answered.
"Alright; I'll take that, then," he cheerfully commented on my response and began to stand. He took a few steps toward the cracked doorway, and then continued. "Just don't forget about it, okay?"
I faintly smiled at him and, after a quick moment of eye contact, he turned around and stepped out of the room. I then gazed downward and looked over the piles of gift cards on both my right and left.
I slowly picked up the right stack, placed it atop the left, and then picked up the two together with both my hands. I afterward turned and leaned over the edge of the bed I sat on to place the tall pile onto the floor below but paused a second to look over the card on top, which was the cloudy, snowy scene.
After another second or two, I had to blink back another surge of tears, then leaned back in the bed, pushed my legs out a little, allowed myself to lay down on my side, and began to just stare at the framed pictures set on the dresser across the room.
For a long while.
___
" 'Nesia!" a faint, but strong, voice called out.
I groaned a little bit, turned my body over and onto my side, keeping my eyes completely closed the entire time, and shoved my face deep into the pillow underneath my head.
"Hey, 'Nesia!" the masculine tone called out, once again, this time a little closer than before.
I remained completely unresponsive and didn't move.
Suddenly, though, the door to my room shot open, making me jump just a bit and, after that, I began to open my eyes a little and lift my head upward.
"God, have you been in bed all day?" I could hear Ace question from the now opened doorway.
"Um..." I began, groggily turning my head to the side to get a slightly slanted view of his figure. "N-No."
I shifted my range of sight down a bit and studied the floor of the small bedroom I was in which, even though it had only been available for my use for one, two... or maybe around ten days (again, I don't remember ever being a mathematician or possessing the desire to be one in my lifetime), had a mound of clothing thrown in the center of it.
"Yeah, you have," Ace countered my response and started to step into the room.
Keeping my eyes focused on the floor, I began to softly speak once more.
"Wha... What time is it?"
"Six," Ace immediately shot back, now making his way up to the edge of the bed, right in front of my face.
I leaned my head back a little and gazed up at him.
"In the morning?" I questioned.
No wonder I felt awful.
"No," Ace answered. "At night."
Never mind.
"Oh," I said, my eyes probably widening quite a bit. "It... It's that late already?"
"Yeah, and as far as I know, you haven't ate anything since whenever yesterday, so I believe it's my duty to stuff you up with deep-fried fair foods and cotton candy and however many caramel apples your little heart desires," Ace stated, beginning to reach down to grab at my ankles for whatever reason. "So, come on; you promised me you'd go to the fair."
He started to pull my ankles forward and over the edge of the bed.
"Yeah, but... I-I don't wanna go, now..." I mumbled back.
"Well," Ace paused his tugging on my legs for a moment. "You know, that's just too bad."
Promptly after he had finished speaking, he gave another jerk on the top of my feet and pulled my entire lower body onto the floor. I quickly grabbed at the sheets underneath myself at the same time, but he instantly followed up by grabbing my right wrist and yanking it forward, forcing me to stand.
"No, no.... I don't wanna go," I quietly whined.
"I know," Ace responded, now turning around, my wrist still in his hand.
He then began to pull at my wrist in an attempt to drag me to the door, but I resisted and pulled back.
However, that plan didn't completely work, since I was wearing lime green socks on a slick, tiled floor, and I began to slide forward with his force. I leaned back a little more, though, and, after a few more short moments of dragging, my legs slipped out in front of me and I fell onto my gluteus maximus.
Ace swiftly stopped, let go of my hand, and turned around to face me.
"Well, you gotta put your shoes on, 'Nesia," he commented as he looked up from where I sat and scanned the room behind me.
After about three seconds, he stepped past my side, walked over to... well, I don't really know where, since I didn't look, and then returned with a pair of light pink sneakers which, I assumed, were mine.
"Here, I'll save you the struggle," he added, kneeling down in front of my feet and snatching up my right one. He then took one of the shoes, forced it over my toes and heel, and began to tie a tight bow over its top.
I sat silently as I watched him finish, throw my foot back to the ground, and repeat his motions with the other.
"There. All good to go," he proclaimed as he stood back up.
I looked him over a second and attempted to speak, yet again.
"Ace, I don't—"
"Yeah, I know," he cut my sentence short, and then reached downward to grab both of my forearms. Afterward, he held one in each hand as he pulled my stiff body up to stand once again.
"I'll have to do this again, won't I?" he continued, now wrapping his own arms around my waist and hoisting me up and over his shoulder.
Once I was hanging over his upper arm, I fell silent and allowed him to carry me out of the room and down the hallway outside of it. I then rested my hands under my chin, over his back, and watched the floor move underneath Ace's feet as he walked to and up the stairs that led to the... great outdoors.
After we were out, a warm breeze hit me, and Ace abruptly decided to throw me back down to the ground.
I stumbled a little when he dropped me onto my feet, but I managed to gain my balance fast enough to avoid a fall or... an avalanche, or something of that sort. Once that gain was attained, though, I turned to watch Ace start to walk toward a completely empty road at the edge of the slightly familiar woods.
"Did... Did someone steal your car?" I questioned, actually concerned when I realized I couldn't see the blue sports car anywhere in sight.
"Maybe," Ace replied, his tone of voice showing his non-concern-ness very clearly.
I narrowed my eyebrows at his backside, and then began to follow quietly after him.
"Or maybe not," he continued, now crossing the half-dirt, half-paved street.
I, of course, looked both ways before I decided to cross behind him. After that, however, I walked directly in his footsteps and into the forest of trees on the other side from where we came.
Eventually, though, Ace halted and turned around to face me.
"Do you see it?" he questioned of me, placing his hands firmly on his hips, as he usually does.
I squinted at him, then at a few angles of the trees surrounding us, and then back at his expression.
"Really?" I responded.
He flashed a smile, turned back around, stepped a bit forward, twisted to the right, and went on speaking.
"How about now?"
I stepped up to his side and followed his gaze to the right.
There, behind a row of tall, closely grown trees, sat a very familiar blue car. A large, tarp-like and camouflage-patterned sheet was also hung across the near side of the trees to disguise any small cracks there were between them. Behind the car laid a faint dirt path of tire tracks that weaved through the rest of the trees in the woods and led to somewhere that I couldn't actually see from the place I stood at, but I could definitely see that it went completely in the opposite direction of the road on our right.
"That's... um," I began, searching my mind for the right adjective to use. "Nifty."
I then turned back toward Ace and nodded my head a little.
"And necessary," Ace added, looking over at me. "You know, so that no one finds out that I'm here."
I raised my eyebrows a bit and nodded once more.
"But, anyway, let's get going to that shindig," he quickly continued and began to step around the backside of the car to get to the driver's door.
I followed up by making my own way to the front passenger door, opening it without any lock related problems, and sitting myself down in the seat to the right of Ace's, who wasn't far behind in seating himself. Once we were both situated in the car with the doors securely closed, Ace started the car engine and dropped the shift stick into reverse.
Also, don't worry, I had my seatbelt clicked into place shortly before he stomped on the gas pedal.
I held onto the middle of the belt strapped across my chest, though, when Ace accelerated the car backward. I gazed forward to see the trees in front of the car quickly distance themselves from us, and then turned my head toward Ace to see him twisting his entire upper body into the direction of the car's back window. He also had one hand on the steering wheel and one tightly grasping the back of my seat's headrest.
After about a second or two, I realized that he wasn't reversing to turn the car around and that he was actually just driving backward, so I decided to question his methods.
"Why don't you just turn around and go forwards?"
"Oh, 'Nesia," he shot back, a tad bit condescendingly. "Do you always try to take the easy way out?"
He didn't look over at me once and kept his two eyes completely glued to the back windshield.
I looked him over, kind of confused at his answer, as I struggled to form a response to his... accusation.
"W... Well, yeah, actually, when it's like... this."
Ace took a little while to reply to me, probably because he was so intently focused on navigating the path behind us.
"Well, I guess the easy way still works, but," he stopped, kind of abruptly, as he swerved the car sharply to the left. "There's a lot more adventure in taking risks."
Suddenly, he whipped the entire car even more to the left, and then hit the brakes.
He twisted back toward the front windshield, and I followed his gaze to see that we were now on another poorly paved gravel road, just outside of the woods.
"Just remember that," he added as he hit the gas pedal and sped forward on the new path.
I looked over at him and gave a tiny smile.
"I'll try," I said.
He laughed a little, continuously keeping his eyes on the road ahead. After a second, though, he spoke up and gave a quick glance over at me.
"It's only about ten minutes away, you know, this whole affair of the fair."
I gave him a nod of understanding, and then let my eyes wander over the windshield and window by my side. At the same time, Ace reached down and started playing a little bit with the radio tuner. He scanned through a variety of stations, including a Latin one, a heavy metal channel, and a number of country music playlists, until the voice of a man on some type of talk show could be heard.
Immediately, he pulled his hand back from the radio and began to listen intently.
I looked down at the radio panel, and then over at Ace.
"Why are we listening to—"
" 'Nesia, sh!" he quickly scolded, before I could even finish what I wanted to say; not that it was hard to figure out what I was trying to get out, or anything.
After his strict statement, he reached back down to the radio tuner and turned the volume knob slightly to the right, which just happened to be the direction that made the man's voice in the speakers even louder.
I kind of squinted at Ace, and then slowly guided my eyes back to the windshield as I listened to what on the radio was actually being spoken.
"So, I think this year is the fair's largest turn out, or so I've been told, so have fun out there, folks, and be prepared to wait in a line or two for your corn dogs! I also believe that it wouldn't be too bad of an idea to get out there a bit early tonight, since the weather doesn't look too promising; I believe our forecast here says the rain and possible thunderstorms are going to start around... eight or nine o'clock. So, if you really wanna stay until closing, bring an umbrella! Or a poncho; that's more of the kind of guy I am."
As I listened to the man's voice, I studied the very slow darkening of the clouds that kept passing in front of the sun, which I hadn't really thought about as being malicious bodies of water vapor until he had mentioned it.
"Anyway, we're ready to hear some calls about what food or rides you'd recommend to folks for trying out tonight! So, give us a call at six-one-o', twenty-two hundred! That's six-one-o', twenty-two hundred!"
After he had finished speaking, a static-like sound played and a different man's voice could be heard saying 'thrills with Phil, on tight one-o'-seven-nine', and then a soft jingle began to play as a woman's voice started to speak.
"Do you have aching back pain? Do you miss out on activities that you used to love because—"
Quickly, though, Ace reached out to flip the volume knob in the opposite direction that he had last time, making the girl's voice so quiet that it was really kind of inaudible to me.
"You hear that?" he questioned.
"What?" I shot back, my eyes practically shooting over to him simultaneously.
"It's the largest turn out this year!" he answered.
"Oh, yeah; that's... nice," I replied, now turning my head forward once more.
"You're damn right it is," Ace commented as he turned the car onto a new street.
As we moved into a different direction, though, I soon saw that there was an extremely long line of motionless vehicles not too far ahead.
"Ah, shit," Ace faintly muttered.
He then suddenly whipped the car completely around, forcing my body to be thrown up against the passenger door in the process.
"Mm..." I grumbled before peeling my face off of the side window.
"Sorry, but," Ace soon began as he turned back onto the road we had previously been on. "I'm not one for waiting; I'll find a shortcut."
"Oh, really?" I whispered, actually trying to not be heard, but it obviously didn't go exactly as planned.
"Yeah, really," Ace continued. "I know it may come as a shocker, but I don't care much for just standing or sitting still."
Quickly, he made a sharp left turn into just a field of grass, pushing me up against the door once more.
I kept quiet this time, though.
Ace next drove over a number of bumps and dips, probably a little bit faster than he should have, until he reached a cleared area near the edge of a forest that was also, apparently, far enough away from any road around.
"This'll do," he stated, now placing the car into park and abruptly cutting off the engine.
I gazed up and around at the nothingness around us.
"And..." I began to speak but didn't finish quickly enough.
"Let's go!" Ace yelled out, by now halfway through the motions of exiting the vehicle.
"Okay," I mumbled.
I then hastily unbuckled my seatbelt, opened the door by my side, and stepped out, myself.
"I think it should be..." Ace started. I looked up at him from over the car and witnessed him point into four different directions a few different times, and then watched him stop distinctly on just one straight ahead of the way I was facing. "That way."
I shut the car door in front of myself, and then stepped around the front of the vehicle as he commenced his journey onto the, hopefully, correct route.
I silently followed him as we walked quickly along the long edge of the wooded area beside us. Well, I guess it wasn't too awful long, because we came across the street that was loaded with the long lines of cars more quickly than I had expected, but... I was still out of breath by the time we had gotten to that point.
"This way," Ace halfway shouted out, without turning around to face me, as he began to pace to the right, alongside the stream of vehicles.
I sighed, quietly enough that he probably couldn't hear it, and then continued to follow after him.
We tromped a trek that just had to be at least twenty or thirty miles... or, at least, something like that, before we reached the open gate that the line was leading to. The gate itself looked pretty old and a bit rusty; the sign above it looked almost as unpleasant, with spotting silver paint on metal letters that read 'FAIR GROUNDS'. A few feet in front of the gated area stood a slightly overweight man with a gray beard, who was currently directing the incoming traffic of SUVs.
So far, I wasn't too impressed.
Quickly, I caught partially up to Ace's side as he stepped by the cars entering the partially grassy, partially gravel fairground parking lot.
"Howdy, folks," the bearded man greeted, nodding at both Ace and myself as we each passed by.
"Afternoon," Ace responded nicely back.
I gave the man a slight smile when I passed him, but nothing more.
After that, I followed Ace as he made a turn in front of a moving truck, which, actually, probably wasn't a great idea, but I took the risk anyway, mostly because I didn't want to lag too far behind him. Then, we both trotted across a gravel pathway and made our way both up to and behind a crowd of fellow fairgoers.
"So, which ride do you wanna try out first?" Ace asked, turning around to look at me for the first time in a while.
"Um..." I paused to think a bit as we slowly shuffled behind the large group of people in front of us. "None... of... them?"
I ended my answer more questioningly than I meant to.
Ace opened his mouth, made a gasping kind of sound, and then smiled.
"Awe, 'Nesia, you're too funny," he said.
Soon after taking his turn to speak, he twisted back around and realized the crowd was beginning to disband before us. He then veered slightly to the right and walked up to the end of a medium length line of people.
"Personally, I enjoy trying my hand at the shooting range a few times each year," Ace began again, his body facing the left as his head faced me. "But, of course, that's just because I always win."
"Oh, yeah," I started to slowly reply. "It's... It's almost like shooting things is your job, or something."
Ace gave way to a bit of a laugh.
"Almost, yeah," he added with a smile.
The line in front of us suddenly moved forward a few steps, so Ace turned back around, stepped with everyone else, and then twisted slightly back to talk to me once again as I moved forward as well.
"You know, I'll give you five bucks if you do the bungee shooter."
"The... The what?" I questioned, my eyes widening at just the ring of the name of this... 'ride'.
Ace flashed a smile.
"You'll love it," he blatantly stated, and then turned back around to step in sync with the crowd once more.
"Or, even better," he continued, forcing his body toward me yet again. "I'll let you have whatever prize I win at the shooting range. Deal?"
I studied his expression a moment before responding.
"Yeah, but... will the prize be worth more than five dollars?"
Ace smirked and gave a slight eye roll.
"Well, duh, yeah."
I cocked my head to the side a bit and gave a small grin.
"Well... maybe, then," I said.
Ace flashed a familiar bright smile, and then turned back around as the few people standing in front of us cleared away.
"Hi," a young woman, who looked around the same age as myself, with