Page 10 of The Guy Sure Looks Like Plant Food To Me
If her father sees Chewbacca he’ll take her away.
Men like him are the very reason I moved Chewie from the shop storefront to the backroom, hidden from plain sight. Onceshe got too big I couldn’t answer questions anymore, and the attention she brought could only chance negative things for us.
America’s eyes well with tears, but she nods, understanding that the situation isn’t fair for either of us. She backs away, but just as she turns to the door to leave Chewie shrieks a banshee sound, a shockwave of pain rippling through my blood vessels and knocking us both to our knees.
The agony is perpetual, it feels infinite, like its seeping into my bones, making its home there just from the suggestion of her leaving.
“I-I don’t think I’m going anywhere, Runa.” Her laugh is dry, there’s no humor there, only fear.
So much fear.
“How much time did you say we have?” My brain is already working double trying to figure a way out of this.
She looks down at her phone, her hands shaky from the nerves, “Thirty minutes, maybe forty-five at best.”
It’s not enough time, but I’ll make do. “Help me load Chewie into my truck.”
6
AMERICA
“How did we lose two days?” I’m trying not to freak out, but I can see Runa has no idea either.
Moving a seven-foot plant that weighs as much as three golden retrievers is no easy feat, both of us are wheezing on the truck bed, Runa in one sharp motion swings a dusty blanket over the plant to conceal it.
I’m so confused about it all, suddenly so much more disoriented than before, the powder’s effects seeming far headier than either of us realized.
“It makes no sense,” Her voice drops to a grave tone.
There’s a knock so loud at the door of the shop it can be heard all the way from the back parking lot, where we sit.
“No!” Runa’s voice is filled with worry, the look in her face is pure desperation.
“It’s too soon!”
The knocking morphs into aggressive banging, incessant and impossible to ignore.
There’s no reality in which my father actually sees Chewbacca and just … leaves her be. He’ll figure out a way to exploit the situation and turn it into something he can profit from, something he can use to grow more powerful.
“What do we do?” I ask her, “You’re a witch, can’t you do something … magical?”
“It doesn’t work like that.” She shakes her head. “Chewie, be a good girl, andbe quiet,” she urges the plant, a firmness in her tone that makes me clench my thighs together again and remind myself the instructions are not for me. “If you make noise, you won’t get to see me again, or America, understand?”
Chewie replicates the throaty Wookie sound, her volume soft though, like she can somehow comprehend that she’s being hidden.
“Listen,” I want to warn her but there’s only so much I can do, “My father is a lot so I just want to say—” I don’t get a chance to preemptively say my apologies on his behalf.
We are barely three feet inside the shop again, the backdoor closed and locked when my father’s assistant bursts into Runa’s shop. Bursts is a word giving the action far too much power than it deserves. Williams’ uses a rock to break the glass panel, sliding his dainty little wrists in through the opening to unlock the door from the inside.
“The Portal is closed today.” Runa’s tone is stern, borderline unrecognizable in contrast to how tender she is when dealing with Chewbacca or … me.
“Oh.” Williams plays dumb, walking in anyway and gesturing to my father inside the metaphysical store. “Then why was the door unlocked?”
“Young lady.” My father’s voice makes me wince as I brace for the worst. “I could charge you with kidnapping the daughter of a politician!”
Runa stands there, mouth left open from shock at the accusation, but it takes me even longer to register what he’s trying to say. “Daddy I wasn’t?—”
He raises his hand to silence me, the motion so familiar that my lips seal on command.
