Nano 2012 Day Nine

He took a big bite out of the apple that was left and strolled back over to his printer and watched it spit the pages into the tray as it printed them. This was still going to take a while. He thought about doing some more juggling but decided instead to lie back down on his chair and keep eating his apple. The apple tasted quite tart, but delicious. There was a good amount of moisture in it. The mime had access to a shopping service that specially picked out fresh fruit and vegetables for his enjoyment, going to the best suppliers and then checking the quality of the produce that was on offer. SO far he had not once been disappointed. He took another big bite and enjoyed slowly chewing it and feeling the juice of the apple flow over his tongue and down his throat. He was really going to enjoy the next two weeks, was really going to allow himself to bask in what he had done. A flash of the shadow illuminated by the fire hit his memory but he shunned it to the side yet again. The mere fact it was so much clearer this time told him that it was plain paranoia.

For lack of something else to do, he began to systematically crack his knuckles. He started on his left hand with the little finger. Gripping it tightly with his right fist, he gave it a sharp pull and a slight twist. CRACK! It gave a satisfying report and seemed to limber up slightly. Of course, the mime knew this was a myth, having merely dispensed on the liquid between his joints for a time and that it was actually more likely to cause him problems later on. However he found it an enjoyable distraction. He moved on the ring finger. CRACK! He smiled. Now the second finger. He tightened his fist around the finger and made to make the movement when a knock at the door made him jump. The piece of apple he was chewing bounced back in his mouth and lodged in his windpipe. He felt his air flow being taken away from him, reached his hands up to his throat and tried desperately to massage the offending piece of fruit up and out into his mouth. No luck. He rushed around his apartment looking for a way to get the piece out. All his chairs were quite modern in design and so did not have the solid back required to perform the heimlich on himself. Curses. He heard the bang at the door begin again, this time more insistent. Should he risk opening the door? Who even knew he lived here? If this was retribution he could be in a lot of trouble.

He could feel an immense pressure in his head building and the world around his began darkening. Surely it could be no more trouble than what he was in now. He rushed to the door and unlatched it. He opened it to see a huge, hairy man with a broken nose who immediately punched him in the stomach. The piece of apple dislodged and the mime by automatic reaction spat it out into the man's eye then allowed him a large gasp of breath to regain his composture.

"I'm....huuuuuuuuuu.... sorry..." The mime said, rushing to the kitchen and gettting some paper towel to bring back to the stranger, who was examining his fingers after wiping away the piece of apple. The man took it from him and wiped his face and hand. "Don't mention it." He growled.

The mime went back to the kitchen and got himself a glass of water, which he drank in slow measured gulps. Each swallow caused him pain. "Phew. I'm really sorry about that. I was eating an apple and I started choking."

He walked back over to the man. "Anyway, I don't believe we've met. My name is Fred. How did you know to do that when you saw me choking?"

"I didn't know you were choking." The man growled in return and his fist, a blur, pile-drove into the mime's eye-socket.

--

Menelaus was back home and in his comfortable track-pants and lounging on the couch. He normally liked lounging in his boxer shorts but this time felt that he needed the extra security of fabric. Plus the night was a little chilly but not enough to warrant a blanket. He looked over at the clock. Five to midnight. He was surprised it was so early with everything that had happened that night. He thought about Peter sitting in the hospital. He hadn't looked all that coherant even though he said he was OK. He wondered if he had suffered a major blow to the head. He remembered the cut in Peter's side and winced. He was glad that Tina had been there to go have a coffee with, she was a good friend. What had happened during the hug had been a little embarrassing to say the least, but she seemed to have taken it in her stride. He guessed that girls probably had to deal with that sort of stuff all the time.

He relaxed further into the couch and thought about the fact that it was his birthday. Somehow it didn't seem to mean as much now as it did at the start. A few of his more 'astrologically inclined' friends told him that the 28th birthday was meant to be one of 'rebirth', where you started getting your life together and realising what it was you were meant to do, or your purpose. He felt no such purpose now. He just felt worry. Worry, and tiredness. He closed his eyes and felt him self drift away... and then was snapped back to reality by his mobile phone beeping loudly. He jumped up and grabbed it. There was a text message from Tina saying "Can't sleep :( how are you?". He wrote back, "Same. how are you feeling?" He rubbed his eyes hard to try and wake himself up a little and looked at the clock again. 11:59. He saw the change turn to midnight and a tenth of a second later there was simultaneously a knock on the door and another message to his phone, presumably from Tina. He jumped up and looked at the door suspiciously. Who could be knocking now? Though considering the events of tonight it could be anyone, if they knew Peter. He sighed to himself and walked over to the door and opened it. On the other side was a small girl, no older than about nine years old. She was wearing a blue sun-dress (he assumed it was a sun-dress, though his brain kept nagging him that a sun dress bu definition should be yellow. He told his brain to shut up) and curly brown hair with a little red bow tying it together.

"Umm... hello? What are you doing out so late? Is your mum with you?"

The girl looked at him and shook her head.

"Your mum isn't with you?"

She shook her head again and kept her gaze focused on him. Well, this was odd.

"Where is she, can she come up here now?" A thought occurred to him, "Oh, what about your dad? Is he around?"

She shook her head again and kept staring. Well this was awkward.

"OK then, what can I do for you?"

She still said nothing.

"It's a bit late for you to be out isn't it? Isn't someone out there worried about you?"

She shook her head again and looked over her shoulder. Fear started to crack her still facade. Menelaus made a decision.

"Alright, come in. I'll work something out. This is very strange."

The little girl's expression didn't change but she ran inside and into the lounge room and immediately started examining Menelaus's DVD collection. Manelaus came up behind her. "Is there anything you want to watch there?" The girl pulled out a DVD that Menelaus was relieved to see was an animated movie. He put it into the DVD player and showed the girl where to sit on the lounge. She perched on the edge with her hands in her lap and watched attentively as Menelaus navigated the menus and started the movie playing.

He decided to ring the police and see what they said about this. He picked up the phone and dialed '000', then realised that this wasn't actually an emergency and hung up again. He needed to ring his local precinct, apparently. How did he do that? What even was his local precinct? He quickly looked over at the little girl who was still watching the cartoon. She seemed OK. He went into his room and grabbed his laptop and brought it back out into the kitchen and opened it up. Once it finished loading he looked up the police and found what looked like the closest suburb and dialed the number on his phone. He explained the situation to the person on the other end. They told him to wait there with her and they would dispatch an officer. He hung up. He thought about joining the little girl on the couch as she watched the cartoon while they waited for the police but decided that would be weird. He suddenly remembered about the text message that he got from Tina and went over to find his mobile phone. He picked it up and read, "I'm lonely." This was a surprise.

"Are you OK?" He wrote back.

"Can you come over?" She wrote.