Chapter 420: Chapter 419.

Chapter 419. Heading to a Bustling City: The Serene-Eyed Girl with Soul-Damage. (2/4)

That was rather unexpected. If her mother was persistent, she could have forced her father to sell his farm after they divorced and seized half of his wealth. Farmland was quite pricey, it would have definitely been worth a good amount.

In terms of an estimate, if your average farm was about four hundred acres and the price was about $3000 per acre. The sale of the land alone could be valued at around $1,200,000 and up. That estimate is also excluding any equipment they have on the farm. I assume they own the land since she said her father inherited the farm from his parents.

To not be tempted by a sum like that… it’s quite surprising. Either she was ignorant and automatically thought farmers were poor, or she really wasn’t in it for the money, not a gold digger, and she really loved Dawn’s father but absolutely couldn’t handle life on the farm. If it was the latter, perhaps guilt was what drove her to divorce. She didn’t want to stay on the farm but she also didn’t want to be dead weight and tie Dawn’s father down. If Dawn was bad in practice when it came to farming, maybe she got that from her mother.

“What of your mother now? Where is she? Have you seen her since they divorced?”

“I… haven’t seen her.”

“Have you never seen your mother before?”

“No... she left a few months after I was born, so I don’t have any memories of being together with her. I’ve never seen her in person before.”

“What about pictures of her? Surely you’ve at least seen a picture of her, right?”

“I have at least seen a picture of her. But I don’t know what she’d look like now. I doubt I’d even recognize her if I saw her now. It’s been eighteen years after all. She could look like a completely different person by now. I could walk past her and not even know it. The same goes for her. She could walk past me and she wouldn’t even recognize me. We’d be… complete strangers.”

“You don’t have any idea where she is or what she’s doing?”

“Well… I don’t know what she’s doing… but I think… my mom’s probably... living in this city. This is the city they met and where she moved back to.”

“Oh? And you’ve never thought to come to this city to look for her?”

“It’s not that I haven’t tried. I have… but… I’m scared. Every time I try coming to the city, I stop before I get in range. My foot never stays down on the gas pedal and raises on its own the closer I get. I’d always stop and pull over at some point. The only thing I could do was stare far into the distance down the road that led to the city. My dad knows I want to go to the city and he’s always supportive and encourages me to go if I want to, but he doesn’t want to visit the city.”

“Why not?”

“It probably brings back memories of my mom I guess.”

“What about you? What are you so afraid of?”

“What am I... afraid of?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m... afraid of running into my mom. To face her… I guess. What am I supposed to do if I bump into her? What sort of expression should I have? Can I even make that sort of expression in front of her? What should I say to her? What would we talk about? Does she hate me? Does she regret having me? Was I a mistake? All sorts of things go through my head and I can’t take a single step closer to the city. My body just freezes up and I start imagining all sorts of different things in my head.”

Hmm… a psychological trauma? Was that the root cause of her daydreaming? Or if I entertained the idea that damage to the soul exists, could it be these sorts of fears that caused it?

“When did you first start daydreaming about things?”

“When?”

“Yeah.”

“I… don’t remember.”

“When did you start having ideas about going to the city?”

“After I started reading manga and seeing images of the city.”

“Then is it safe to assume you started daydreaming after that?”

“Hmm… I guess so.”

“So, when did you start reading manga?”

“Uh… when I was twelve.”

“Alright, and when did you start thinking about seeing your mother.”

“I guess it was after I read a manga about a family living happily on a farm together. I actually hadn’t even thought about stuff like my mom at all before that. It was only when I read that manga that I asked my dad about mom for the first time.”

“Then did your daydreams start after you read that specific manga?”

“Mmm… I think it might have.”

“I see.”

“Why did yuh wanna know that though?”

“No reason in particular. I was just a little curious. That’s all.”

“...”

Dawn fell into silence as we walked along the sidewalk. Her eyes darted about from left to right taking in all the views. She even took out her phone and started taking pictures of the tall buildings. Even the fast-food restaurants and small stores selling clothes were no exception to her morbid curiosity.

“Are you hungry?”

“Huh? Hungry?”

As soon as I mentioned food her stomach rumbled.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“I-It’s fine. I’m not that hungry.”

“How long were you stranded out there for?”

“Uh… since early this morning.”

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“And it’s already approaching the evening. If you’re concerned about taking up my time, you don’t need to worry about it. Just get something to eat if you’re hungry. If you’re so curious about some of the fast-food restaurants then try them. They take less than five minutes on average to prepare your food.”

“F-Five minutes? So quick? I mean… I knew it was quick, but that fast? Seriously?”

“That’s actually a conservative number, usually it’s much shorter than that.”

“Whenever I get somethin to eat from a restaurant in a town it takes like thirty minutes. How can food be made so fast?”

“It’s all precooked and prepared in advance frozen processed garbage they just reheat. It cuts down on preparation time immensely. Normal restaurants in the city still take thirty minutes or more to cook the food so it’s not that different.”

“Junk food is… pretty amazin.”

“It might sound amazing to you, but it’s just junk food and it isn’t good for you.”

“What’s amazin is amazin,” Dawn refuted.

“If you say that to a local they’ll just laugh at you.”

“Hey, what’s that one sell?” Dawn pointed across the street curiously.

“Popeyes? They sell fried chicken. It’s actually pretty good. Want to try it?”

Dawn gave two big nods before she grabbed my hand and pulled me across the street like an excited child running to a line for a ride at Disneyland. Her expression was still the serene one I’d grown accustomed to, but it was easy to feel the excitement in the air around her.

Thoughts of the mother she hadn’t seen in eighteen years had flown out the window. Lost to fried chicken. I wonder if Dawn’s mother would cry if she learned of this.

We lined up together behind three customers ahead of us. About five minutes later we made it to the register.

“Welcome to Popeyes, how can I help you today?” The worker manning the register immediately greeted and directed her question to Dawn who’d enthusiastically stepped up to the register first.

“Huh? Uh… that is…” Dawn froze up and stiffly turned to me like a lost puppy that had forgotten how to bark.

It seems she’d been so excited to order she’d forgotten to read the menu overhead while we were lined up.

“Uh, sir, will you be ordering first?”

“We’re together. We’ll have a four-piece spicy chicken combo please.”

“What would you like for your side?”

“Side?” Dawn muttered quietly to herself like she couldn’t comprehend. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her cheek as she shot a nervous discrete glance my way. From the look of it, her fate depended on the words that came out of my mouth. Don’t put so much pressure on me over a stupid side item!

“F-Fries.” Her seriousness made me stutter a bit. If the cashier said side dish or side item, I’m sure Dawn would have understood. She just wasn’t used to the shortened terminology in a fast-food restaurant.

“Did you want a mix of white and dark meat or just dark?”

“Dark!” Dawn finally spoke up when it was a term she understood. As she was a little too excited her voice was a bit loud. 

“R-Right, dark meat it is,” the cashier was a bit taken aback by Dawn’s overenthusiastic response that came out of left field.

Dawn covered her mouth with her right hand when it registered how loud she blurted that out.

“Uh, and your… drink?”

Dawn peeked at me for guidance again.

I shrugged since I didn’t know whether she had a drink she preferred. I wasn’t the one eating here.

“Uh… what would you normally get to drink?” Dawn asked me with her mouth still covered by her right hand.

“Coke I guess.”

“Then, I’ll take a coke.” By now she’d somehow calmed down.

“Alright. Is that everything you were getting today?”

Dawn nodded twice.

“Are you eating in or is this to go?”

“In a bag to go please,” I responded.

“Alright, and just to confirm your order, it will be a four-piece spicy chicken combo, only dark meat, fries for the side, and a medium coke. Is that correct?”

Dawn nodded.

“Your total will be $15.11. How were you paying today? Cash or by card?” She naturally looked over to me first expecting I was the one paying here since I said we were together.

I pointed to Dawn and her business smile twitched a bit.

Bitch, don’t give me that judgemental look to guilt-trip me into paying. I’m not even the one eating here. I’ve got to leave room for whatever Rosa’s cooking up for me.

“C-Cash.” Dawn stuck her hand into her pocket, pulled out a $20 bill, and held it out to the cashier.

The cashier accepted the bill and returned her change.

“Your change is $4.89.”

Dawn accepted the change and stuffed it inside her pocket.

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