Side Story #1 - Colt - Page 3

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“What exactly is this blessing supposed to accomplish?” said Colt.

“Ah...” Alice seemed to lose a bit of her fervor at that and recoiled a couple steps away from him. “I apologize f-for, um...”

Now Colt was just confused. Why was she apologizing again? He’d merely asked--

Oh. Right.

His question had probably sounded rhetorical or snide, as most of the things that came out of his mouth tended to. Bohwanox had warned him about that not too long ago, when they were discussing how he could avoid making the people of this town hate his fucking guts.

‘I thought you didn’t care what anyone thought about you,’ Bohwanox had said to him.

‘Of course I care,’ Colt had told him. ‘If I end up being ostracized, then so will the kids.’

That had turned into a very long conversation.

“I’m not trying to be a dick,” said Colt. “I’m asking because I actually want to know. This blessing of yours is supposed to be helpful in some way, isn’t it? Like a four leaf clover or something?”

“Oh. Um.” She seemed suddenly amused. “Well. First of all, it’s not my blessing. It’s a blessing from the Goddess of Light, Cocora.”

“Right...”

“And secondly,” Alice went on, “while you could think of it like a lucky charm of sorts, I feel you might be missing the deeper meaning behind it.”

“Which is?” said Colt. Stephanie’s little hands were reaching towards him and grabbing at his jacket, so he decided to pick her up while he was listening.

“The purpose of a blessing is to share one’s good fortune with others,” said Alice, smiling warmly now. “I am blessed, therefore I must bless others.”

She considered herself blessed? Colt supposed everything was a matter of perspective, but knowing what he did about her, he was a bit surprised that she would go so far as to say that about herself.

“Um, sir?” came Fred Millerman’s voice again, and Colt turned to see a picture of a stroller with two seats on the monitor. “Sorry to interrupt, but how does this look?”

There were multiple pictures to go through, actually, and Colt took a minute to sift through them. It certainly looked like a step up from the last one. He gave the man a nod and pulled out his wallet.

He was reluctant to part with any of his cash, especially because he didn’t have any actual income to replace it with, but this was a worthwhile investment, he figured. He knew he’d have to find a way to get his hands on more of the local currency eventually, though. The current stash of marcks that Gina had helped him attain wasn’t going to last forever, and he had no intention of asking for her assistance again.

“Thank you for your patronage,” said Fred Millerman after Colt had finished paying. “It should arrive in about a week. Or, if you prefer, I can put a rush order on it for another thirty marcks and have it here by this afternoon.”

Hadn’t wanted to mention that added fee up front, eh? “A week’s fine.” He’d lasted this long without a stroller, after all.

The other man nodded. “If you provide your phone number, I will text you as soon as it arrives.”

“Thanks, but I’ll just come back in a week.”

Fred paused a moment at that. “Very well, sir.”

What, did everyone around here give out their number like it was nothing? Colt didn’t even have a phone, aside from the emergency burner he was reserving for calls from Hector. Perhaps he could have mentioned not owning a phone to ease Fred’s apparent discomfort, but that would technically be a lie, and he only wanted to lie when he saw no other reasonable alternative. Saying nothing seemed plenty reasonable here.

With his business concluded, he turned to leave and found Alice waiting to finish their conversation with apparent eagerness.

“So do you mind if I lay hands on them?” she asked again, hand sanitizer at the ready.

For some reason, he really, REALLY wanted to tell her to fuck off, but he thought better of it. “Yeah, alright, go ahead.” He set Stephanie back down in the shopping cart next to Thomas.

Alice took a moment to rub the sanitizer on her hands and then touched the children on the tops of their heads. She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them, and smiled at Colt. “Thank you for allowing me to do that. I hope you have a wonderful day.” She picked up her carrying bag and began walking to the checkout counter.

Wait, what? That was it?

He blinked a couple times as he processed what just happened. All that fuss made over so trivial a thing? Should he be pissed off? Or just--?

Oh, whatever.

He checked the kids one more time, just to make sure she hadn’t planted a tracking device on them or some other ridiculous shit. He was ready to leave the store finally, but he took his sweet time, as the kids seemed to be enjoying their little ride in the shopping cart. He was also somewhat interested in the conversation going on behind him at the checkout counter.

“Hey, Fred.”

“Hi, sweetheart. How is your day going?”

“Oh, just fine, thanks. How’s yours?”

“Cant complain.” There came a pause. “...I see you’re buying more cleaning supplies. Vandalism again?”

She gave a small sigh. “Yeah...”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. How bad?”

“It... could’ve been worse.”

“I’ll send Todd over to help later. Assuming that boy ever shows up for work again.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that. I can take care of it on my own.”

“Wasn’t sayin’ you couldn’t. Just that you don’t have to.”

Colt supposed he’d heard enough and decided to return to his car. No sense in loitering around like an asshole, and it sounded like they might go on talking for a while.

That proved to be an incorrect assumption, however. After loading up his few items and getting the twins fixed safely into their car seats, Alice exited the store as well.

There came a moment of awkwardness as she just stood there, watching him and perhaps debating whether or not she should try to talk to him again.

For some reason, he waited for her. So far, it didn’t seem like she had much clout with the other locals, so it wasn’t like he needed to get on her good side or anything, but even so, something still compelled him to wait there for her, hand on the driver’s side door.

“...Was there something else?” he finally said before the silence and waiting could become too unbearable.

She blinked, perhaps realizing how weird she was being. “Oh, I’m sorry for bothering you. It’s just... I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you visiting family?”

What fucking business was that of hers? He’d already been interrogated by the sheriff today. Now he had to get it from her, too?

He resisted the urge to say any of that. He couldn’t act like he had in the past. He had to try and be... friendly. These small town folk were going to be nosy. He’d known that when he came here today.

“...I’m thinking about living here, actually,” said Colt.

Her eyes widened at that. “Really?!”

Colt was surprised by the excitement in her voice and on her face. If he were a younger man, he might’ve interpreted it as an expression of romantic interest.

If he were a younger man. And if he hadn’t come to distrust women on principle.

He didn’t trust men, either, of course, but there was something particularly deceptive about women, he’d come to think. And he’d become especially wary of beautiful women. There was undoubtedly something sinister in the way they could slip past an otherwise cautious man’s defenses.

He wasn’t going to make that mistake ever again.

Rather than be passive aggressive about it, however, he decided to confront the issue bluntly. “What’re you so excited about?” he asked her, sounding perhaps a bit more surly than he’d intended.

“Oh--uh, it’s just that we don’t usually get people who stick around,” she said. “A new sheep in my flock is quite a blessing, I would say!”

It took everything he had not to roll his eyes.

After a beat, she hastily added, “Ah--not that I think you can’t take care of yourself, of course. Ooh, I hope you did not find that insulting. I honestly did not mean it that way, oh...”

“Don’t worry about it.” A part of him still wanted to tell her to fuck off, but he resisted. He did, however, decide to say, “Stop apologizing so much. It’s annoying.”

She opened her mouth but seemed to catch herself.

Then, nothing.

Shit.

The silence was quickly becoming uncomfortable. He wanted to get back in his car and drive away without another word, but she looked like she wanted to keep talking. What was she waiting for, then? For him? What the fuck was he supposed to say?

Thankfully, though, she did manage to find her voice again. “Where are you from?”

Another question he didn’t much care to answer. He did have a cover story prepared, though. “Dante,” he said. He could have elaborated, of course, but he didn’t think there was much sense in doing so unprompted. The fewer lies he was forced to tell, the better.

“Oh, really? Is it nice there?”

“It’s like anywhere else,” said Colt. “Except maybe colder. People included.” Having visited there a few times in his youth and having driven through the entire length of the country on his way here to Snider, he was fairly confident in that answer.

“Do you miss it at all?” she asked.

“Not especially,” he said. Wow, this lady was persistent. To what end, though? To build some sort of rapport with him? Possibly. Religious folk could certainly be that way. But given everything else he knew about her, he was more inclined to think that she was simply desperate for human interaction.

After another noticeable pause, she said, “I’m actually from Richland, myself. Ritoma Falls. Ever been there?”

“Can’t say I have.”

“Oh, it’s a lovely city. So full of life and... ah... Well, the scenery alone would...” For whatever reason, she just trailed off and allowed silence to return.

What the hell was wrong now? Colt had no idea.

It didn’t look like she was going to find her words again, though, so he decided that he’d better help her out, or they would be here all day. “Maybe I’ll visit it one day. Anyway, I’d better go. It was nice meeting you.”

“Ah, oh, likewise!”

He finally got into his car.

“I hope to see you at mass this weekend!” she said right before he started the engine.

There was no way in hell that was happening, but he forced a smile through the windshield and gave her a wave goodbye as he backed out of his parking spot.

When he was back on the main road, he allowed himself a sigh of exasperation. He heard someone giggling in the backseat and saw Thomas in the rear view mirror with a big grin on his tiny face. Colt smiled back, not wanting to spoil his son’s good mood, but he couldn’t conceal his confusion, either. “What’re you so happy about, huh?”

“Daddy scared,” said Thomas.

At that, Colt had to pull the car over to the side of the road and turn around to face his son. “Excuse me?” he said through a laugh.

“Daddy scared!” said Thomas, louder this time and still giggling.

Stephanie wasn’t laughing but nodding instead, in an almost professorial manner. “Daddy scared,” she concurred.

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These Side Story pages are released each week on Sunday at 6 pm EST.
However, they are released four weeks earlier over on Patreon, along with many extra pages of the main story.
Thanks for reading, everyone.