We started walking around the city. Hardly anyone was moving around outside, although it wasn’t storming anymore; it was just cloudy. Peyti showed me all of her favorite places to go one after another. It was interesting that every place we visited was somewhere she liked to go alone. They weren’t places I would like to go either; some were back alleys and abandoned houses. Then I got to thinking. I wondered what the country on this Island is like. It made me feel a desire for peace from all of the business in these cities. Then I realized that was exactly what Peyti was doing; she was finding peace. “Do you ever go into the countryside?” I asked brightly.
“No,” she said, “I can’t. My parents said they would disown me.” I was about to ask another question but then she came back in, “Besides, I’ve heard that there is nothing but crazy people out there.”
“That’s funny,” I laughed, “I wonder why that is the case.” Shouldn’t all of the people out there be from the cities?”
“Yeah, but I heard that they are people who can’t ever settle down.” She continued, “They never find their place.”
“Sounds like me,” I said still laughing, “Maybe I’m one of those crazy people.”
“You haven’t been to all of the cities yet,” She returned, “And I haven’t been to any of them except this one. I think we have a ways to go.”
“Yeah I guess we’ll have to see.” I said as we started to slow down. “What are we coming up on now?”
“My house!” Peyti exclaimed, “Come see my parents.” At that moment I had a weird feeling. It was something like a sense of trouble or almost like evil in the air. It was kind of weird to think of it since Peyti was so nice. I decided to shake it off and see how this all played out. When we entered the house it was like an average home, especially compared to the house I stayed at in Luxuria-Fornicatio. “Hey Dad, Mom, I’m home and I brought a visitor!”
“Who is this.” Said a stern deep voice as a large man came around the corner. “You are out making friends again?” He said as he was looking at me in a deep way. It felt like I was in trouble or something. “I told you to not make any friends from outside!” Then Peyti started to say something.
“But Da-”
“Come on Evan,” Interrupted a much softer voice as a middle aged lady walked around the corner as well. “They don’t know any better right now and poor Peyti, doesn’t have any friends that she can hang out with.”
“Well that is just something she will have to deal with. These people are manipulative, and we are the only one’s she can trust!”
“hmm, I guess you are right, but let’s just let him leave. We don’t have to do anything to him.”
“Isn’t your daughter old enough to make decisions by herself,” I said hoping that would lighten up the conversation. It turned out to be quite the opposite.
“See!” the dad yelled again, “there’s that manipulative side that I am talking about. As long as our daughter is under our house, she is not going to be with you folk. Now get!” I looked at Peyti wishing I could do something for her, but at this point I was slowly being nudged out the door and her dad was so strong I wasn’t able to put up any fight. Before I knew it I was shoved out the door and it quickly shut behind me. It happened so fast that I wasn’t even able to see how Peyti was reacting and whether she was upset or content. Since there was no way to find out besides disrespecting her parents’ wishes, I decided to go back and find Bro at the hotel. It was 10:00 now at this point so I decided waking him up thirty minutes early wouldn’t be a big deal. When I entered in the room, Bro was already up drinking coffee.
“Where have you been Bro?” he asked. I paused for a moment realizing that a lot had happened in the last few hours.
“How long have you been up?” I said in order to get an idea of how long he had been up and what he would have missed.
“I’ve been up since 9:00, why?”
“Well, I was hoping it wouldn’t have been too long or I would have felt bad about not coming and getting you.” I answered. Then I began to share with him what all happened. After telling Bro what all had happened, he looked at me kind as if he was frustrated. “Is something wrong man?”
“Yeah man,” he replied, “I don’t understand why you did not wake me up. It sounds like a really eventful morning and you got to be a part of it and I didn’t.”
“I’m sorry, Bro,” I said, “I thought you would prefer sleeping in; especially since I left around six this morning.”
“Well you thought wrong, now I won’t even get to meet Peyti or see what this city is really like.”
“I wish I could change my decision, but there isn’t much I can say now except that I am sorry and I will definitely wake you up to go with me in the future. As for the stuff in the city, you really didn’t miss much. I can take you around before we leave to go to the next city.”
“Ok, I’m sorry for getting angry there as well, Bro.” Said Bro as we shook hand and decided to move forward. I continued to show Bro around the spots that Peyti showed me. By this time some people were out and about, but strangely Bro and I received the same mean looks that Peyti’s parents were. After receiving about five more looks like that, we both decided it is time to leave the city. We made our way to the edge of the city and got on the first bus to Socordia.
