Economics of friends

So here's a funny thing, I've been keeping my distance from Moonshine, Not My Daughter (Audrey), & Pablo. You'd think Moonshine and Pablo would show some loyalty to their best buddy, but nope... they chummed right up to this perfect stranger. Didn't take Moonshine long to offer her his sleeping bag as you can plainly see here.

I've learned a strong lesson from all of this. There is an economy to friendship. Two currencies control friendship behaviors; 1) Time & 2)Active engagement. In my absence, Audrey is spending more time with Moonshine and Pablo. In turn, they are actively engaging with her. The return on their friendship is that they are growing closer as I am growing further apart. On the flip side of that coin, the longer I stay away from Audrey, the more she keeps her distance from me as you can plainly see here.

As a result, I'm losing friends and she's gaining them. I suppose the purpose of economics is to grow and I am growing in heart felt hurt. Not being able to engage Moonshine in debate is causing a constant pain in my chest that is nothing like the heart burn Pablo's tacos. To be honest, I miss my buddies.

Audrey don't need my friends. She's on her phone all the dang time texting her friends and telling them how much fun she's having. Not sure why she aint returned home with them, but I thought she'd blast out of here by now. Instead, she's just finding ways to adapt, which makes me wonder how much longer she's going to hang around. While we fish, she charges her phone over by an RV power post. When she gets cold, she goes inside the visitor center. Not sure how she's eating yet, cause she don't like fish nearly as much as we do and I never see her eating. Well anyway, Moonshine thinks she should put some of her pictures up here and since I don't want to piss Nerd Chick off, I'm going to let her. See, that's the economics of friends... except they keep getting what they want, and I never get what I want.

Anywho, here's some more of the book. Hope ya'll enjoy it.

Chapter 4 (continued)

“Oh no…,” she whispers, pinching her thumb to her forefinger, then moves them apart again. She feels her fingers stick together. “Tis sticky,” she whimpers and attempts to wipe the pinesap on her dress. “Tis very sticky,” Princess grumbles and her tummy grumbles after.

With a sigh, she looks around for a place to safely tuck her pearl as she prepares to sleep.

“Wait a bit!” Her eyes light up. “You can sleep with me,” she says to her pearl, as she slides the white sphere between her sticky fingers. Just to be sure her present doesn’t wander, she opens her hand and shakes it. Each time she inspects it she’s surprised that the pearl remains stuck fast to her pointer finger.

“See,” she smiles and then whispers, “I told you I would keep you safe.” The light blue sky slowly fades to darkness. The cool night blankets the earth but steers away from the warm, dry evergreen cover. Princess rests her arms on her knees and her chin on her hands, and breathes in the soothing pine. She blinks once, then twice, and falls fast asleep. 

Before sunrise, the familiar sound of sparrows singing and morning doves cooing awaken the orphan child. A knee-high morning mist causes her to shiver.

Princess reaches her hand out from underneath the pine skirt, with the pearl pinched between her fingers. “Tis safe!” she croaks a dismal replication of Setchra’s silky smooth voice.

“Are you sure?” Princess whispers, “Tis awful scary.” The surfacing memories of her parents cause her to hesitate. “We are all alone,” she whispers to her sole companion.

Her low voice grumbles beneath the pine skirt, “I know, but I’m very hungry.”

“Me too,” Princess confides to her pearl.

She moves the pearl all around, looking high and low with the pearly surrogate eye.

“No danger, come on out!” Princess creaks in a low voice.

“Alright then.”

Lying on her stomach, Princess shuffle-scoots along the foggy ground, and slides out from underneath the pokey tree. Dried needles embedded in her burlap skirt stab at her.

“Ouch!” she cries out. Her hands sweep at her dress and knock the dried yellow pine needles off. “That’s not nice,” she scolds the prickly offenders.

 Once Princess removes the painful pine needles, she skips on the grass back to the dirt path and notices her heel isn’t burning as badly. Though the throbbing is duller, the wound reminds her of her shattered, painful past.

She folds her arms and promises herself that she will be respectful of her deceased parents. She feels she musn’t be happy because her parents have passed so recently. She marches her legs high with her arms folded squarely, honoring her parents’ loss with a respectful, one little person parade. After several pounding steps, she leaves the willows behind and enters a grassy valley with dense clustering trees a great distance away. Her empty tummy grinds her abdomen muscles together, causing her knees to knock together.

“Ahhh!” Princess wails, her dry throat cracking as she rubs her stomach.

Looking all around, she finds no source of food. She sees no homes, no farms, and no people. She presses her hand to her stomach and whimpers, “I think Setchra’s a liar!”

(All rights reserved ©)