Escapade

TWENTY - MARELLA

   "What's a Pizza Hut?" I whispered to Dex.

   "I don't know. My best guess would be a hut where you get pizza. Pizza being—" Dex looked down at the card, and squinted at the words, then shook his head, and started to say something else.

   "Hello?" the person on the other end of the phone asked uncertainly. I spent a moment translating their English, as it had a strong accent.

   "Hi. I want food." I cringed at the strangeness of the words.

   "Would you like to order your pizza?"

   Pizza. Sophie had once compared something to pizza, and had explained to me what pizza was.

   "Oh, yeah. You mean pizza as in the pie-like stuff that has crust around the edge, and toppings in the middle?"

   "Yes," I felt bad for the man on the other end. He was probably weirded out of his mind.

   "I need vegetarian pizza. And two of them."

   "Here's a list of vegetarian toppings. Peppers, onions, black olives, green olives," he continued talking about all of the parts of the pizza. He asked about the type of crust. I just said, "yes," to anything he said.

   "Anything else?" I said no. "Your total will be £ 9.50. I will be there in approximately twenty minutes."

   "Thank you."

   The call ended, and I fell back unto the bed.

   "Good job," Dex praised.

   "I have no idea if I did that well, or not. I hope he brings what I'm imagining." I was picturing big, juicy pizzas, with puffy crust, and gourmet toppings.

    "At least you tried." He gave me a crooked smile.

   As the minutes ticked by, Dex decided to use the time to do something useful. He walked over to the television, and reached up behind it. His face changed. Finally the screen lit up. He smiled. He sat back on the bed.

   He picked up the remote from the bedside table. After fiddling with it for a minute, he clicked a button, and the screen lit up. In a few moments, there were people walking across the screen, and sounds coming from speakers around the room. I could barely focus on all the explosions and fire that was happening on the screen. People running towards us, and then the picture changed, and other people we sitting and talking. And then it went grey, and the screen was covered in squiggly lines. A notice in human writing came up on the middle of the screen. Dex clicked another button, and another scene came up. Except this was of someone vacuuming a floor.

   We continued surfing the channels, until there was a knock on the door. I ran forward, and opened the door. A man wearing an apron, and a hat, was holding two big boxes. He smiled, and handed them to me.

   "So, that costs £ 9.50." He didn't look the least bit awkward asking for money. I nodded, and handed him one of the pieces of paper. He looked up at me and said, "Sorry, I can't take a hundred. I don't have the change."

   "Okay, um, I have some other, uh, bills." I struggled for it to sound natural. Dex came out with the other pieces of paper, and showed them to the delivery guy. His eyes widened suddenly, but he regained his composure.

   He pointed out two different bills, and said, "those two would work, and then I could give you some change." I nodded, and he took the bills, then took some metal rounds from his pocket. He gave them back to me.

   I thanked him, and he left, and I closed the door, and went back inside. The pizzas sent a warm, delicious smell throughout the room. We sat down on the beds, and started eating. It was the best, greasiest, most flavourful human food I had ever tasted.

   After the pizzas were done, we were starting to put the boxes away. A knock, similar to that of the pizza delivery man. I walked up to the door, and opened it.

   I fell back in surprise.