sunshine // joel miller

FIFTEEN

"You made them soup?" The man asked as Fran walked out of the room, not even sparing him a glance. Joel was holding back on his annoyance at the fact she'd shown herself, him being persistent that he didn't want her seen.

"Yeah, I did. It's cold out." The woman responded, the man not even questioning why the woman was doing the dishes for them.

"I'm lookin' for my brother." Joel went back to the point at hand.

"Well, I ain't seen him." The man was quick to  respond, taking off his hat as another clatter came from the kitchen.

"I haven't told you what he looks like," Joel argued.

"He look anything like you?" The man asked as Fran appeared at his side, now finished with her task.

"A bit." Joel answered, glancing at Fran for a moment. The woman didn't look at him though; staring at the man as she played with the plastic ring on her pinky finger.

"Then I ain't seen him." The man gruffly responded, looking to Fran then. "Who's she?"

"He's got a little girl with him too," The nice soup lady said when Fran didn't answer, just staring him down.

"Can I come down?" Ellie now asked from upstairs at the mention of her.

"No," Joel called up, the girl ignoring him as she began to race down the stairs, "Ellie!"

"Ooh-wa," Was the mans response, earning a chuckle from his wife. Fran just looked between the two of them with a dead expression, not understanding what was so funny.

"What did I just say?" Joel asked Ellie as the young girl held her own gun in her hands.

"Joel, come on. They're, like, a thousand." Ellie argued. Fran moving to stand next to Ellie, pushing the gun down to the floor, "Fran!"

She didn't respond vocally, just giving her a stern look; Ellie ended up rolling her eyes as she kept the gun pointed at the floor.

"Who's this little psycho?" The man asked then with a small smile, and just the fact Ellie was being mentioned by him made Fran send him a cold glare.

"Never mind her," Joel changed topics fast, moving forward and pushing a map towards the man, "I need you to tell us where we are."

"If you got a map, why you lost?" He asked back, still looking at Fran who kept her glare on him.

"Must've missed all the street signs in the enormous fսcking forest." Ellie commented, tone filled with sarcasm. The tone, along with the curse word from such a small lady had the old couple sharing a look of surprise.

"Ho-ly," the man commented as the woman chuckled again.

"We're somewhere here." Joel said, pointing to the map after sending Ellie a less than impressed look, "Exactly where? And your answer better be the same as your wife's."

The man looked to his wife then, "Did you tell him the truth?"

"Yeah."

"Are you tellin' me the truth?" He then asked; raising a brow at her.

"Yeah."