Yoharie (part eighteen)

Yoharie

Stalking

(part eighteen)

She sipped, and waited for Trevor to stop chewing. “What are you proposing?”

“You want half a cheeseburger…?”

“Oh, no. Maybe a bite.”

Adapting, she bit, and traded the cheeseburger for a napkin.

“My proposal… Take the rest.” He scooted the fries. “I have a ‘first encounter’ feature for newbies. So you’ll let me interview you?”

So.

“When I said finished, I meant done.”

“Get you. You didn’t like it. That’s okay.”

“I think I do like it. I was kind of cooking through the first chapters, and then… I got to this one…something, um, long word…? And the hero…” She bit a fry, conjecturing.

“Hero or heroine, right? But, The Recalcitrant One?”

“Okay, my thing is weird. Or I guess sad.”

“Story of my life.”

“The narrator says…I’m just going to say, he… He says, I knew I would die…”

“I don’t know why, when he looked at me, I foresaw my own death in this word.”

Maybe, of his favorite, Trevor could quote each line. “Let’s just say I can’t stand anything gloomy-doomy. I can’t read a book where people start dying.”

She saw the corner of his mouth twitch.

“It’s in the first person. Think about it.”

She did.

Need a moment to think about it. “O-oh. But even so.”

Because he was laughing, because she had his Totem at hand, Giarma gave Trevor a swat on the knee. “It’s a fantasy. Do they have rules in fantasies whether people have to be alive to tell their story?”

“Hmm… Hmm! Nuh. I can’t think of one like that off hand. But I’ll post on it, see what the aud says.”

“The who?”

“Audience. You know, followers. Whatever.” His cat jumped onto the arm of Trevor’s chair.

“Ooh, sweetie. What’s his name?”

“Elberin.”

“I thought Elberin was a bad guy.”

“Yeah, but it’s a cool name for a cat.”

“Should I take it back, then?”

“It’s yours. What I said.”

And at this silence, Giarma would have got to her feet…apologized for not being into what Trevor was into, not trusting that his gift had been a gift.

Said again, “Sorry. I have to leave.”

The recognition was unfamiliar…how little of what she felt she would have spoken. The little he’d have said in return.

18

Yoharie

Yoharie (part nineteen)

(2019, Stephanie Foster)