Jason 4-revised

I changed a few things, and may make more in the future. But tell me what you think of this last edition.


He stared at her. So she stared at him. He didn’t say anything. So neither did she. He stepped inside and shut the door behind him, not taking his eyes off her, not even blinking. The radiator was hissing. The light above the kitchen space buzzed. After a minute, he looked away, scratching the back of his head.
The girl was sitting, clutching her carrion that once was a rabbit-shaped backpack, on the countertop between the stove and fridge. There was an open cupboard just over her as if she had been looking for something when she heard someone kicking at the door.
The big man was now coming towards her. She clutched her rabbit closer and held her breath. He seemed to notice, and with his hands almost raised in surrender, went to the fridge. She watched him pull out a jar, shut the fridge, walk around her to the drawer beside the stove, and select out a spoon. Retreating to the dusty, dark brown kitchen table, he sat down opposite her. She monitored him unscrewing the jar and digging his spoon deep into it. She could smell the peanut butter. Excavating out a mountain of the stuff on his spoon, he stretched his mouth wide and stuffed the whole thing in. She gulped.
Jason looked up at her on her perch; glanced at the time on the oven; looked down at his jar for another scoop; grunted a little as he tried to swallow the creamy, sticky dollop; peered outside at something fascinating through the window. Back at the girl, back at the jar...
She fought it the best she could, but involuntarily, her mouth screwed up to her nose and her eyebrows knit. She hugged her rabbit even tighter, but the growl escaped her stomach, roaring at Jason and his peanut butter. The big man looked up, eyeing her for a moment, and swallowed. Then he shifted in his seat uncomfortably. He stood up, scraping the sides for the last of the peanut butter in the jar. He offered the mound to her.
Jason could tell she wanted it; her eyes went large and she licked her lips. But she hesitated before decidedly shaking her head. He was thinking something along the lines of “Monkey see, monkey do,” so he licked off a bit of the peanut butter from the top. Maybe he thought to show her it was alright. He offered it again. The girl could only forebear a few seconds of him nodding, a half smile twitching at the corner of his mouth, before she tentatively took the spoon’s handle and crammed in as much peanut as she could close her mouth around. She returned the spoon and remaining peanut butter and couldn’t help loudly uttering a blissful, “Mmmmmmmnufgh,” as she chewed and swallowed with some difficulty.
He smiled a little as he finished it off.

It was a quarter past midnight and from what little experience Jason had with kids, he knew this was too late for a little girl who looked about six; she couldn’t keep her eyes open just sitting there on the counter.
“So,” Jason said. His big bass voice startled her from her dozing, but he only got a “Nuh,” in reply.
“So... where you sleeping tonight?”
She opened her mouth to answer, but wound up yawning instead.
"I... um... don't..." Her eyes glazed over and—pop!—she slumped over and started snoring on the counter.
This was the problem. Jason didn’t have a bed. He usually just stretched out on the couch, but somehow he found himself scooping up the limp kid and settling her down on the sofa instead. Just great, he thought. Where do I sleep?

It was still dark outside when the little girl’s eyes popped open. She flung the leather jacket off of her. It smelled like peanuts and cigarettes. After only two seconds of shivering and goose bumps rapidly dotting her twiggy arms, she snatched it back and wrapped it around her again, whatever the smell. This house was freezing.
She looked up. There was a fly stuck in the blinds of the window above her. It sounded kind of like a cell phone on vibrate. The girl blew out her cheeks. This was boring. She sat up on the sofa that was more or less blue. Tentatively, she stuck her foot out and reached the grey carpet. How weird! She’d slept with her socks and shoes on! And her day clothes! Funny!
The room she’d woken up in looked like halves of two separate rooms glued to each other. The half she was in was like a living room, while the other looked like a diminutive form of a kitchen that didn’t even have a dish washer! The idea!
Bored again. With the jacket still wrapped around her like a leather cloak, she crept off the couch and to the empty doorway across from her. It opened to a hallway. To the left was distant door ajar, and to the right was closer room and the door was wide open and she could see tile and a toilet—hooray!
It was tiny. The sink, toilet, and shower were crammed together; a person wouldn’t have to even walk to get from one to another. After relieving herself, Jenny tried to balance on the toilet (lid down) while washing her hands. Only, the soap in the bottle was so low, the pump couldn’t reach it, so she unscrewed the top. The pale blue soap was taking forever to ooze down the side so Jenny began hitting the end against her palm. See, the bottle was so gunky with old soap that it slipped from her tiny grip and plunked into the water in the sink, water pouring over it. Jenny tried to pick it back up, except old soap is even slicker when it mixes with water. Eventually, she just stuck her fingers inside the bottle and gleaned what soap she could off the sides. There weren’t any towels, so Jenny just wiped her fingers on her pinafore.
Next order of business: find the rest of the house. Off she scampered, no longer worried about noise. She had warmed up plenty with energizing curiosity, but still towed the jacket behind her like the wake of discovery, and her rabbit tucked resolutely under her arm. She was disappointed, though, when she came to the other end of the short hallway.
The room was a let-down. It had the same grey carpet, same white walls, all of which were bare, and the only furniture was a naked mattress on a metal frame. She climbed onto the bed and the springs groaned underneath her featherweight. She flopped down face up and tried to imagine it with sheets and a pillow. It wasn’t particularly soft and had colorful, questionable stains. She slid off and jumped in front of the shuttered window in the corner of the room. Jenny wormed her fingers in between the blinds and peered through. Below, she could see the parking lot, a few cars, and the alleyway she’d followed the man into. But this little house was high enough that she could see farther. The mountains were blue behind all the advertisement signs. To her right was the hill, where all the rich people lived in their small mansions. On the top, she could see one house looming over the rest, casting a shadow over the entire hill as the sun rose behind it.
“What are you doing in here?”
Jenny whipped around to find the Big Man in the doorway.
“What are you looking at?”
Jenny glanced back at the shadowy mansion. “Nothing,” she whispered.
The Big Man shifted uncomfortably and scratched the side of his face. The doorway looked too narrow for him.

Jason racked his brain. What did you do with kids? He knew people said they were another mouth to feed.
“You probably want breakfast?” The girl nodded.
In the kitchen, while the girl sat patiently at the table, her rabbit resting across her lap, Jason rummaged through cupboards and drawers. Eggs? He thought, Bacon? Toast?
He found leftover takeout, something green and smelling somewhat of eggs, a Salisbury steak TV dinner, and peanut butter. Further investigation of the cupboards produced three more unopened jars of peanut butter, and one-and-a-half boxes of granola bars. No milk, no toast. Oh well.
Luckily, the girl didn’t really notice the lack of eggs or bacon. All she seemed to see is that it was real. She eagerly stuffed her hand into a granola bar box and withdrew three. Jason chose the take out and seated himself across from her. (He did throw the green stuff away).
Somewhere between takeout and peanut butter, Jason stuck out his hand. “Jason. …I think,” He said. The girl only hesitated a moment as she swallowed granola before grabbing his thumb. “Jenny, I think,” she said with a giggle.