Chapter 18: The Celebrity
1071 Words
Candy didn’t mind it that Jason drove her back to the station so fast. She liked watching the people in the city, even if a few of them did stare at her too long. She liked people for the most part. Some of them had no manners, but at least the people who took care of her did know how to treat other people well. She shuddered and hoped Jason didn’t notice. She worried that they might send her away if what she saw at night continued to bother her.
By now, she’d found a way to keep from taking those awful pills. Candy would hold them in her mouth until no one watched, then spit each one in the trash the first chance she had. She knew they always watched her, so she’d learned a way to do it they didn’t notice.
The pills might take her dreams away, but what they did to her besides the dream removal was worse than any nightmare. She remembered how sluggish it was after the medication kicked in and it bothered her. Candy didn’t like it when the trees and sky seemed to spin sideways. The pills made her sleepy and she didn’t like sitting around all day. Candy figured out the connection after they moved her to the house and found a way to stop taking them.
The institute hadn’t run blood scans for medications and drugs since they moved her to the house, so they had no way to know she avoided her pills. Had they checked her blood, the truth would’ve appeared.
“They’ll show you a line of people behind a mirror,” Jason told her on the way over to it. “And want you to pick out the one who did something.” This seemed to be a game he wanted her to play. It might be fun.
She liked to play games with Jason. When he showed her the pictures on his tablet and asked for her comments, it was a lot of fun. Candy liked to be around Jason. He made her feel better than anyone else did.
She hadn’t told them everything that happened to her in that room. She didn’t like the way it scared people. When people were angry or scared, Candy became scared too. And when she became scared, the wolf came out of her. She didn’t like the wolf; it trusted no one and wanted to hurt anyone who caged it. She had talks with her wolf at night no one knew about. Candy explained that it needed to stay quiet or the people would put both of them in a cage forever. She and the wolf didn’t want that to happen.
They pulled up to the large building where Jason took her the other day and got out of the car. Once again, all those people yelled and starred at her as they drove past. What was wrong with them? Why did they act is such a way? All she wanted to do was help Jason find things. Couldn’t they understand it? This time one of them ran up the van before one of the men in uniform pushed him back. It startled her and the wolf too.
“Damn media,” Jason grumbled. “Why do they have to get your picture?” He found a safe place to park.
“Why would they want a picture of me?” Candy asked him as they walked through the building. “Why not you?”
“Because, dear Candy,” he laughed, “You are a celebrity. I know you have a hard time understanding why, but people want to see and meet you. That’s not a good idea right now.”
Candy decided it was something else she needed to learn about someday. The newspapers, and what she found on line when the caregivers weren’t looking, were bad enough. Now that she could read, she had more questions than she felt safe to ask. Best to wait until later. No reason to make these nice people angry.
The passed down the hall and went past people who had some work to do. She noted a man in a uniform talking to a woman behind the desk. The woman behind the desk had on a ring and so did the man. From what she could tell, this meant that each of them had mated. What puzzled her was the way the two acted toward each other. The ring meant commitment, which implied a long period. Still, these two acted as if they’d met recently. Candy could tell the need in the man’s eyes, she learned about it from watching the men around the institute and cross checking it when she was allowed to watch TV or use the Internet. Weren’t people supposed to find a quiet place to breed? She was puzzled, but didn’t mention her observations to Jason. Such thing upset people and she didn’t want anyone mad at her.
They walked into a dark room where a man in a shirt and tie stood next to a woman in a uniform. At least she could control her fear of enclosed dark rooms. Candy smiled to let everyone know she was fine, although the wolf growled inside her.
“So this is Candy,” the woman said as she entered the room and shut the door behind her. Of course, who else would she be?
Jason touched the woman’s hand as she extended it to Candy. She put it back down. It didn’t bother her much to touch people the way it once did. She’d learned a touch didn’t always mean she was about to be hurt. Candy appreciated the way Jason had told the woman not to touch her without speaking. It was another thing she liked about Jason.
Sometimes she wanted Jason to touch her all over, but she never told that to him. She’d mentioned it Mrs., Majors who seemed to be disturbed to hear it. At least she’d taken many notes when Candy told her a month ago.
- Writer
