Eustace shook her head. “I’m older than you, kiddo. That doesn’t mean that I’m decrepit, not yet.”
William felt his ears warm at the admonishment. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to…I was only trying to…” he stammered.
“That’s alright William,” she said with a smile. Not knowing what else do to he let his arms hang at his sides and walked next to the Elder.
Eustace had a wry smile on her face as she glanced sideways at the demoralized pup walking next to her. “Do you know what this place is?” She said throwing her head up gesturing to the crevasse around them.
“A temple of some kind, I was guessing.”
Eustace shook her head. “Oh, kiddo this place is so much more than any mere temple, so much more and yet much less.”
William let the open ended, loaded statement hang in the air. The silence stretched out between the two of them. William looked at Eustace.
“How?”
Eustace glanced over at him. She didn’t have a smile, but her eyes were alight with hidden knowledge and a look that he had most often associated with mischief. “How, what?”
William let his head hang down as he trudged after the difficult Elder. “How is this place more and less than a temple?”
Eustace seemed surprised by the question. “Why, young William, whatever do you mean by that?” Eustace started laughing in her usual high cheerful laugh.
As they approached the archway and exit of the crevasse William motioned for the Elder to pass through the archway first and he followed in her footsteps.
The journey back to the populated part of the city was uneventful. William was content to just walk next to this Elder that was so much like what he imagined a grandmother should be. He was rather glad that he had found her, or that she had found him. The buildings crowded in on them from both sides and the streets zigzagged back and forth in random ways. He wasn’t sure how he was going to find his way back. But since Eustace was there, he no longer had to worry about that. Her joyful laugh, her soft step, even her matter-of-fact way of walking that was marked by the casual but determined swish of her dress, all of these things spoke of what a mother of class and empathy should be.
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William wondered if Eustace was a mother or a grandmother even. He didn’t speak any of these thoughts aloud. He was able to detect the slightest smell of flowers from her. The scent was too subtle to be perfume, and it lacked that certain manufactured tang that would have named it to be from a scented soap of some kind. The only thing he could possibly think that it could be was roses. When was the last time he had heard of a woman, any woman for that matter, using actual flowers as perfume? Eustace, like all the Elders he was finding out, had a lot more going on beneath the surface than he realized. He wasn’t altogether sure that he necessarily wanted to find out.
After a time, they came to the square of the tower. Eustace didn’t slow down and turned down a main promenade that led away from the tower and the square. William caught himself glancing back at the monstrous thing and his mind replayed everything that had happened there, both to him and, he reflected, to everyone who had walked there before him. He wasn’t sure he could ever accept what happened there and he was sure that he would never be comfortable around the thing. He turned his back on the building and followed Eustace away from the square.
The Elder approached a long three-story building. William could smell meat cooking and maybe some vegetables being steamed. Images of great cooking vats filled with boiling water and potatoes filled his mind. The thought of meat being seared over an open flame pit barbeque and the thought of eating as a human again was almost more than he could withstand, and he had to exert extreme control over himself not to push past Eustace and run to where the succulent smell of food was coming from.
Eustace turned around and looked at William. “Have you been here yet, kiddo?”
William shook his head. His impatience was building as the smell of food filled his nostrils and his stomach scrunched in on itself in a massive growl of hunger.
Eustace stopped right in the doorway, blocking his entrance. “Ok, well you need to go to the bathroom and clean yourself up, and I mean soap.” She looked at the young pup’s hands.
William held his hands up and he could see that there was dirt on them. He felt like a child being told what to do in the presence of the older woman.
“The bathroom is over that way, kiddo.” She propped the basket up on her waist with one arm and with the other hand she pointed to a nearby building. “Once you’ve done that you’ll enter in through the front of the building which is around that corner,” again she pointed to the indicated landmark, “once there, you will walk through the line and accept the amount of food that the volunteers for this week give you.” Eustace grabbed the basket in both of her hands and took a step toward William. “Don’t let me hear of you making any trouble for the folks inside. Now, run along, get cleaned up before you starve yourself, your stomach is demanding your attention and by the sound of it I’d listen.”
William walked over to the restroom to wash his hands. He couldn’t help but think that she had done that on purpose. He felt like he was being talked to like he was a child again but coming from that kind happy face, the thought of being mad never entered into his realm of possibilities. He cleaned the dirt from his hands and dried them on the neatly hung white towel that was there. For some reason the thought of a clean cloth towel hanging in a public restroom didn’t even phase him, just one more aspect of life here in the underground city that he was getting used to. He exited the bathroom and walked around the cafeteria building and entered through the open side of the building that was facing the street.