When It's Time to Move On

Door 4 - Chapter 46 - Feelings Hour

"Don't think there's anything to help out with." The boy looked out the window, the flare gone from his voice.

"You'll be surprised by how much I could help. I've had my share of problems too."

"When did this turn into feelings hour? I thought we were on a road trip here."

"When'd you figure that?"

"Fine, then just drop me off at the nearest diner or whatever and I'll be off your hands." The boy peered outside for any sign of a stop, all of a sudden wanting to part with Harris.

"Take it easy, I'm not just going to abandon you in the middle of... I don't even know where we are." He searched for a signpost to guide him.

"And I thought grownups were supposed to know the directions before they were allowed to get driving licenses."

"I'm new here, smart mouth."

Harris attempted to fetch some more information from the boy, but the kid was smarter than he appeared, not giving away too much. He would talk about the most mundane or needless topics like guessing Harris's age or counting the number of tumbleweeds that passed by. But whenever Harris would try to bring up the boy's background, he would retreat to his shell and brood for the next half hour before starting the same all over again.

As night fell, Harris began to really think about their course. He had no clue where they were headed. Eventually, a blaze of lights caught his eye -- it was a diner. To his right, the boy had dozed off.

He didn't know why he couldn't simply leave him, but he worried the boy would land in an even bigger mess. And Harris knew he would never be able to live with the knowledge that he'd dropped a child to fend for himself at some shoddy old diner.

"Hey! Cool place, I'm starving," the boy jolted awake during Harris's musings.

Now left with no choice – the boy had already headed in – Harris entered as well. The diner was filled with a number of patrons; the odd sound of jukebox running, waitresses hopping from one table to another for an order, and a couple of men quarreling with one another. Harris was guided by the boy over to an empty table.

"At least you're having a good time." He commented on the delighted smile on the kid's face.

"Yeah, seeing people after all those hours in that car, you bet! I was getting sick of being alone."

"I was there too but whatever..." Harris left himself trailing.

A waitress approached them. Before Harris could even ask about the menu, the kid had started.

"I'll have the biggest cheeseburger you have, and the biggest soda as well. And some French fries, if you have some fried chicken that too...and you want something?" He added to Harris.

"An ATM if you have one." He asked sarcastically.

Once the waitress had taken their orders, they waited while checking the place out. Harris overheard the TV running a news story about a serial killer on the loose. His concentration was impaired, though, by the boy's excited whoops over the punching match between the two men by the door.

"You're missing this. The fat one keeps trying to punch the other guy but he's too slow, but the other guy's too small to land a hit on the fat guy." The boy said. Harris chuckled at the commentary.

"So you know about fighting too?"

"Oh yeah, I was undefeated. Those boys I was with could never keep me down." He said proudly.

"Won't they be worried about you?"

The boy turned shiftily at that and focused on the fight again.

"I don't think so, they could never handle me anyway."