In Search of Mother

by Lunaguy


Chapter III: Setbacks

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”

        Anon honked at the cars in front of them, impatience growing. The traffic was strangely active, especially at this time of day, which both worked as a blessing and a curse. On the plus side, Anon hoped that the traffic was slowing down the children in their path to Vegas. On the down side, it was also slowing him down. Though he was capable of keeping his impatience on a leash, the same could not be said for Mistake.

“When are we going to be there?”

Anon glanced down in his lap. “The phone says we’ll be there in five hours. Which is ridiculous, because we’ve already been driving for an hour and it said it would take four before we even left.”

“Is it broken?”

“No, it’s just 2013.” Anon sighed and honked the horn again. “Jesus, come on! My kids have probably eaten a homeless guy by now!” He sighed and sat back in his seat, arms crossed. He turned to Mistake and raised an eyebrow. “I have been meaning to ask, what exactly do you guys eat?”

“What do we... eat?” She looked puzzled. “Food?”

“Well, obviously you CAN eat food, but unless you’ve got some kind of hidden basement full of hot pockets that you went to for the first five years of your life, food isn’t what keeps you alive.” Anon shrugged. “When you guys first hatched, I tried to feed you. You wouldn’t eat anything. But you kept going, kept growing. Eventually I just gave up and let you guys do whatever, as long as you weren’t getting hurt. You all got old enough and learned to walk and talk all on your own. You’ve been more or less living on an extended leash since then.”

        Anon looked down at Mistake to check if she was even still listening. She looked up at him with wide, shining eyes.

He glanced away in discomfort. “What, so you don’t know what you eat? Do you just not eat at all?”

“Hm? Oh. Uh...” She looked down at the floor in thought. “Well, what happens when you don’t eat?”

“Well, normally when a human doesn’t eat, they get hungry. Like, this feeling in the pit of your stomach that doesn’t go away until you get some food. A really nasty feeling. And your body starts making weird noises.”

“Oh!” Mistake beamed. “That happens sometimes when we go too long without a hug. Well, I’ve never heard my tummy making noises, but the nasty feeling thing happens. And then when you do get a hug, or sometimes a pat on the head, or a kiss on the cheek...” Mistake rolled her eyes to the ceiling as if remembering eating the best chocolate cake ever made.

Anon took his eyes away from the road for a moment to lock eyes with his daughter. “You’re shitting me. You’re telling me that you feed off of hugs? Because if so, that explains some things.”

“I don’t know, I’m just answering your question.”

Anon just shook his head in disbelief. “So... how long can you go without a hug before you start feeling bad?”

“I dunno. Usually it’s about a day.” She frowned. “Star tried to test something. He made us all go a few days without hugging to get us real hungry, and then he told us to hug each other. It didn’t work.”

“Well, I suppose even unnatural bug children can’t discover the source of infinite renewable energy.” Anon scoffed and took his eyes back to the road.
        
        Mistake continued to stare at him, as she had earlier. Any memories she had of him were definitely not pleasant fatherly ones, but apparently when she was too young to remember anything, he had watched over her and her siblings with loving care. From what he told her, anyways. It almost didn’t register in her mind.

“You used to be a good daddy?”

Anon glanced in her direction, a bit taken back by the statement. “What, are you implying I’m not a good daddy now? That hurts my feelings.”

“No, but, earlier. You said you used to watch over us. And tried to feed us. And made sure we weren’t getting hurt. Why did you stop?”

“I haven’t...” Anon let his words trail off as he thought about it. “I haven’t stopped. Well, alright, maybe I did. But it’s because I don’t need to anymore. You’re all grown up now. You don’t need my help, or my attention.”

Mistake silenced herself as Anon went back to focusing on the road. The cars ahead budged forward another few inches, giving him a small window of opportunity to drive up. As they pulled forward, Anon noticed why the traffic was so heavy: an incident was visible in the middle of the highway ahead. A few police officers circled around the scene, directing cars around and further down the highway.

“Shit.” Anon pointed into the back seats. “Mistake, go sit back there. And put your seatbelt on. And... like, try to grow a few inches so you don’t look like you need a car seat.”

Mistake did as she was told, climbing into the back seat and buckling up. She tried to sit up as tall as she could, craning her neck towards the roof of the car. Anon pulled up beside the police officers a few minutes later. He looked over the crash site, finding nothing better to do with his time. He called the attention of a nearby officer and pointed to the wreckage.

“Hey, chief. What happened here?”

The officer looked over the scene. “Well, apparently one of them armored trucks with the money in ‘em got jacked here. Few fellas drove up next to it, pushed it off the road, kicked the driver out and took off with it down thataways.” He pointed further down the freeway. “All that ruckus caused quite a few collisions, as you can see here.”

Anon nodded and rolled the window back up. He had suspected that his children were involved in some way, but he realized now that it probably wasn’t rational to go blaming every unusual occurrence on his unnatural spawn. Sometimes things just happened on their own, and crime was no different. In a few minutes, the traffic moved on past the accident, opening up the road once more. As soon as Anon was clear, he stepped on the gas pedal, happy to be free of the hold up once more.

Mistake looked out the back window at the scene disappearing behind her. “You’re really nervous around cops. Did you do something bad?”

“Please, Mistake. Do I look like the kind of person who would be caught doing something illegal?” Anon looked out over the horizon that stretched ahead, the sun about to begin its descent off of the edge of the world. “I can’t believe we got held up like that. The rascals are probably already in Vegas by now.”

~

“We should already be in Vegas by now.”

“Well maybe you should think about checking the gas gauge on the buses you hijack next time. Then we wouldn’t be in this mess.” Star kicked a few pebbles across the asphalt in frustration.

Misery flashed a glare in his direction, but otherwise ignored him. Getting stuck in a desert town literally in the middle of nowhere was definitely not her intention. Vegas was still 150 miles away, if Star was reading the map right, and unless they magically found something that could bridge that distance within the next ten minutes it seemed as though they were going to have to spend the night in Barstow.
At the moment, they were in the middle of a large parking lot. A “Food4Less” grocery store displayed it’s bright sign proudly, bathing the immediate area with a soft yellow glow as the sun began to resign over the horizon. It was now occurring to Misery that she didn’t even know WHERE in Barstow they were going to stay. There had to be somewhere in the city where her group of misfits could spend the night, but she had no idea where to look. She realized she would probably have to consult Star again, as much as she hated going to him for ideas. She sighed and walked over to him nudging him in the side to get his attention.

“Star. Any ideas where we should stay tonight?”

“What, you think I’m not working on it?” Star frowned and scratched his chin in thought. “Let me give it to you straight, then. Unless Mr. Zombie in there happens to have a wallet that weighs more than I do, I don’t think we have enough money to rent a few hotel rooms. The map we have doesn’t show much about this town, but Barstow isn’t that big. We could probably find an abandoned building or something to crash in, but it would have to be soon, before it gets too cold. Deserts get cold at night.” Star gestured to the bus behind him. “We could probably spend the night in there, if we had to, but I wouldn’t count on much warmth besides what we can provide by huddling together. Which isn’t much.”

Misery nodded silently and waved him away, having heard his advice. She didn’t like going to Star for solutions, but she wasn’t even going to pretend that she was as intelligent as him. Everyone had their strengths, but Misery’s strength didn’t lie in her knowledge of the world: that’s why she needed people like Star around.
        She glanced around the nearly empty parking lot. Many of the childlings had stepped out of the bus to stretch their legs. A few of the hungrier ones were harassing people coming in and out of the store, trying to exchange favors for hugs. She cringed as one of her siblings nearly toppled a man trying to put groceries in his car, clinging on to his leg like a cat on a tree branch. She needed to get them out of sight, and soon, before they started drawing unwanted attention.

Misery whistled, something she didn’t do often, to summon her second in command. Whistle was by her side in moments, breaking away from a conversation she was having with one of her brothers. “Whistle. Round everyone back into the bus, and keep them there. I’m going to take Star and a few others around town and look for somewhere we can call home for the night. Make sure no one gets in or off the bus, unless it’s an emergency. We’ll come back for everyone later. You’re in charge until I get back.”

Whistle saluted. “Yes ma’am.” She turned around and put her fingers to her lips, belting out a whistle loud enough to be heard throughout the entire parking lot. The children stopped and turned their attention. “All’ya boneheads, get back here! Everyone in the bus!”

Misery nodded curtly in approval. Before the bus crowded with the obnoxious horde, Misery peeked inside to check on the bus driver. Much as he had since the incident at Bakersfield, he sat still without a trace of emotion on his face, still sitting in the driver’s seat and staring out the front window. Misery’s frown deepened, but she let him be for the moment. There wasn’t much she could do anyhow.
She exited the bus. Star and a few of his brothers and sisters sat on the ground near one of the nearby wheels. Misery nodded to them and gestured with her hand, pointing the way deeper into town. They followed in step behind her, heading out of the parking lot and into the unexplored territory. The sky became as black as the asphalt they walked on, the sun now completely vanished from the sky. Not that it mattered much to the children. With nothing but a simple blink, their cyan eyes lit up in bright spectacle. The streets lit up before them as if the sun was still shining bright overhead, only instead of the normal array of colors, everything was an overwhelming shade of cyan. Nightvision came at a price.
In turn, Misery’s eyes shone green. She led the way through the winding streets of the medium-sized town, peeking around alleyways and climbing to high places for better views. Though they had wings, they were not very functional aside from short bursts in order to make large leaps, or possibly keep them hovered in the air for a few moments. Anything more than that was subject to failure, and was only a good idea if the child in question wished to get hurt. Due to this, Misery often relied on her followers to boost her to high places, sometimes requiring the wings to give her the tiny boost she needed to reach a ledge. As she climbed to the top of a local drug store, she scanned the area around them, ignoring the chatter of her siblings on the ground below. She realized she didn’t exactly know what she was looking for, and leaned over the edge and called Star’s attention.

“Star. What are we looking for?”

He sighed. “Something big. Preferably with no lights on. That’ll usually mean there’s no one in it.”

She nodded and went back on the roof, scanning once more with newfound knowledge. She darted her eyes across the landscape for several minutes, finding nothing of interest. Just as she was prepared to give up, however, her eyes fell over something exactly as Star had described. She marked it in her memory and dropped down off the side of the roof, falling into the arms of a few of the children waiting on her. She dusted herself off and nodded to Star.

“There’s something big to the East, near a park of some kind. Not a single light on. We should be heading there.”

“Sounds like a plan. Lead the way, we’ll scout it out.”

        The group headed away from the drugstore and further East, making sure to stay out of the sight of any passersby. There weren’t many people out in the town, especially as the sun had just gone down, but every once in awhile they ducked out of sight to avoid the gaze of a lone man or woman enjoying a late night stroll down the street. They were in their human disguises, of course, but Misery didn’t want to take chances with the people here. The way she figured, the less people that knew they were here, the better. She had been treated like a child long enough to know that children generally weren’t encouraged to go on road trips to Vegas by themselves, and the law would no doubt attempt to stop them if they were discovered, human children or inhuman abominations alike.
        They arrived at the sought-after building in short order. They stood outside its front entrance, gazing over it for any signs of movement. Finding none, Misery took the first steps towards the doors, glancing around at the lawn around them. The grass was old and dry, having died long ago. Patches of weeds stuck up from the dead earth. The place had definitely seen better days. As she approached, she noticed a sign on the wall and stopped to read it. She had trouble understanding what it said, so she read it out loud to herself.

“Fi st... Fi st C rist an Chur?”

Star came up behind her and glanced up at the sign, also curious. “See the spaces there, in between the letters? Some of the letters are missing, I think.” He gazed at the decayed sign for a few moments in silence. “I think it supposed to say ‘First Christian Church’. Keep your manners, Misery, we’re on holy ground. Wouldn’t want God to smite us as the abominations we are, now we?” He grinned to himself and walked inside, leaving Misery to stare at the sign for a few more seconds.

        The inside of the church was even darker than the night outside, with no moonlight to help. Misery had seen a few churches around Bakersfield, and had even been inside one once while following an elderly woman for a snack, but she had never liked the atmosphere they gave off. But this church, with its dilapidated, aged walls and destroyed furniture, almost felt more homely than any lively and living church ever did. Star poked around the place, checking for any stray animals or structural weaknesses. The other escorts found something less useful to do with their time and went back outside, drawing things in the patches of dirt with a stick.

Star prodded at a pew’s cushion before sitting in it, making sure there were no nasty surprises hidden inside. He looked around the congregation area slowly, taking it all in. “Well, I guess this will work. Not exactly the Taj Mahal, but beggars can’t be choosers. No holes in the roof, got at least four walls, and it’s probably big enough. Only thing we’ll have to worry about is fighting each other over who gets to sleep in the pews.” He laid back with a yawn. “Dibs, by the way.”

Misery walked through the lines of pews, making her way to the stage in the front. A podium stood like a monolith, font and center, a few rays of moonlight falling directly on it from a small window in the ceiling. She spotted a stool sitting in the little space in the back of the podium, where the preacher would stand,  tucked away from sight. She dragged it out and stood on it, barely tall enough to look over the top of the podium at the pews below. Star stared at her with an expectant gaze, one eyebrow raised.

“Get the others and go back. Tell Whistle to lead everyone here. We’re staying here tonight.”

~

“Are we staying here tonight?”

Anonymous ignored her and stared at the far wall of the mechanic’s office, brain entirely devoted to preventing an anxiety attack. They hadn’t been free of the traffic for all of twenty minutes before their car broke down. Between the time it took to get a tow truck out to the freeway and the time it took to actually get to the nearest town, Tehachapi, the sun had already fallen out of the sky. Mistake was definitely faring with the situation better than her father was, kicking her legs through the air in boredom and poking at various trinkets on the mechanic's desk.

Anon turned to her and smacked a pencil out of her hands and back onto the table. “Stop touching stuff.”

“Daaad, I want to go. This is boring.”

“We have to wait for the guy to come back. He’s looking at our car.”

“He’s so slow...”

“Well I don’t know if you noticed, but I can’t do jack shit about that.”

Mistake dashed her hand out when her father turned his head and took the pencil back, fiddling with it out of his sight this time. “So are we going to stay here tonight?”

Anon sighed and put his head in his hands, fighting off a stress-induced headache. “Unfortunately, yes. It’s not like we can go anywhere without a car.”

“Where are we, anyways?”

Anon pulled out his phone and took a look at the map. “Little town called Tehachapi. Right in between the Mojave Desert and the mountains we just went through. One of THOSE towns with nothing of interest and loads of creepy people that smile way too much. Went through here, once, on my way to Arizona.”

“Where are we gonna sleep?”

“Eh, we can probably find a hotel.” He shrugged and pocketed his phone. “Or, worst case scenario, an inn. Which is like a hotel, except everyone tries to be friends with you.”

        Anon was interrupted as the mechanic returned from the door behind them, walking past them and sitting behind his desk. He put on his best customer-friendly as if in hope to make them forget their car wasn’t working. Mistake smiled back, while Anon simply stared at him expectantly.

“Well, friends, seems like your car is pretty old! Almost too old. Driving it out in the summer heat all day, especially near the desert, is not good for its aged bones. We got to make lots of repairs to get it running again, not including the secondary ones that you probably didn’t even know you needed.” He wiped his brow and let out a breath. “Right, first off, your transmission is busted. Aside from that, we’re probably going to have to take a closer look at your radiator and your hubcaps could-”

Anon leaned on his elbows and stared into the man’s eyes with a glare. The mechanic stopped dead in the middle of his sentence, confused and slightly nervous.

Anon didn’t move an inch. “I will give you two hundred dollars plus whatever the price is to shut the fuck up and get the car fixed by the end of tonight. No bullshit, no extra repairs. You keep the money for yourself, and none of your co-workers need to know you got it. Deal?”

The mechanic stared at Anon for a few seconds, processing what was just said. Suddenly, a smile flashed across his face, and he reached across the desk to shake hands with Anon. “We have a deal, brother. Nice doing business with you.”

Anon ignored the handshake and stood up, grabbing Mistake’s hand and leading her out. She waved goodbye behind her as Anon turned for his final words. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning for my car. It’ll be ready by then, and no later.”

The mechanic winked and waved goodbye with a sly smile. Anon rolled his eyes and pushed Mistake out the door in front of him, letting a draft into the auto shop as he left it behind. He stepped around a pile of tires and let go of his daughter’s hand, letting her walk beside him unrestrained. They walked down the barely lit streets, moving from one pool of light to the next underneath the street lights that dotted the sidewalk.

Mistake glanced between the repair shop and her father. “I take it back. Maybe you ARE good with people.”

Anon scoffed. “No. Not good with people. I’m good at dealing with bullshit. It’s a skill you acquire through years of being surrounded by it.

“Two hundred dollars, though? Isn’t that a lot?”

Anon shrugged. “If I didn’t give it to him up front, he would have weaseled it out of my anyways. That’s what mechanics do. They make you notice repairs you ‘didn’t even know you needed’ and then charge more money from it. All I did was promise him the same amount of cash, but for him to keep to himself instead of splitting it with his co-workers. It’s business.”

Mistake mulled over his words as Anon pulled out his phone and started tinkering with the map, looking for places where they could get some dinner and a place to sleep. The cold desert air blew through the empty streets, causing Mistake to shiver slightly and press up against her dad’s leg for warmth. As they walked, she experimented with her night vision, blinking her eyes open and shut as she turned it on and off. Anon was distracted by the flashing light in her eyes as she did so, causing him to groan and put his phone away in annoyance.

“Cut it out, Mistake. Someone’s going to see you doing that. Not to mention it’s freaking ME out.”

Mistake grinned mischievously and looked up at Anon’s face, flashing her eyes back and forth as fast as she could. Anon slapped the back of her head playfully and smiled, shielding his eyes.

“Gah- fuck, stop it! You’re going to give me an epilepsy attack!”

Mistake giggled and returned her eyes to normal. Anon shook his head and swore a few more times before recovering. He turned to face her and eventually broke out into his own chuckle, flicking her ponytail. “Really, you are too much like me for my own good. I’m pretty sure you gave me a headache.”

“Oh, don’t be a baby.” Mistake stuck her tongue out. “Where are we going?”

“There’s a diner around this corner. We’ll find someplace to sleep, soon, but I want some dinner first. And roadside diners have the better burgers than anywhere else, usually, just as a rule.”

        The walk to the diner only took a few more minutes. Anon pushed the glass door open and stepped inside, greeted by a very welcome blast of warm air. The floor sported a black and white tile pattern, matching with the black and white stools that lined the counter in the center of the restaurant. To the side, next to the windows, several big red booths sat in a line. The place was mostly empty aside from a few patrons at the counter, drinking coffee and chatting with one another. Adding to the whole old-timey feel of the place, a few classics that wouldn’t have been out of place in the 1940’s played from a genuine jukebox in the corner. A few of the customers turned to look at the newcomers, but didn’t find much interest and went back to whatever they were doing.

“Jesus Christ...” Anon shook his head. “It’s like my grandmother took her house and turned it into a restaurant.”

“Did you like your grandma's house?” Mistake glanced around and scrunched up her nose at the distinct smell of... age.

“No.”

Anon nodded to a nearby booth and pushed Mistake towards it, letting her slide in first before taking a seat across from her. Despite the diner being nearly empty, they still had to wait a few minutes before a waiter came to serve them. When she did arrive, Anon had to suppress a sigh. He could tell her type from across the restaurant, by her wide, all-too-sincere smile. He frowned and leaned on his elbow, hoping it was enough to express disinterest. As soon as she arrived, it was evident that it wasn’t.

“Heya, welcome to Kelcy’s! How can I serve you today? Can I start you off with some drinks?”

“Coffee.” He glanced at Mistake. “Water for her.”

Mistake frowned. “I don’t want water. Can I have a milkshake?”

“No. You can have water.”

“But I don’t want water. Water tastes boring.”

Anon raised an eyebrow. “Well then, you can have nothing.”

“But I’m thirsty!” Mistake whined.

“Then you can have water.”

“But you aren’t getting water water!”

“You’re right. I’m having coffee. Because I’m an adult, and I need it to function properly.”

Mistake crossed her arms defiantly and sat back in her booth. “I want coffee too.”

Anon sat back and crossed his own arms, raising his eyebrows in amusement. “One coffee, one water.”

“Alrighty!” The waiter nodded and smiled wider, dropping a kids menu on the table and deciding to end it before it got any uglier. “I’ll let you two order then.” She walked off towards the kitchen.

        Mistake huffed and turned away, deciding to look around the diner instead of at her dad, who decided to pull out his phone and tune everything else out. The place was nearly empty, as she had noticed when she walked in, but now she was really starting to get a look at the few people that were present. A group of men, supposedly friends, sat on the stools lined up against the counter, exchanging hushed small talk and sipping on their drinks. A couple, most likely locals, sat a few booths further away from them, discussing local events at such a volume they were definitely the most obnoxious things in the room. Mistake cringed from the noise and turned to face the door, which had just opened to a new guest.
        She watched as he looked around the room cautiously, taking count of everyone in the room as if in suspicion. He paused as his eyes fell on Mistake, and her father, and stared at them for a few moments. Mistake stared back. He was wearing a heavy brown trenchcoat and a wide-brimmed hat, with his head ducked down so that few of his facial features were visible. He reminded Mistake of some of the cartoon spies she had seen on TV, and it made her giggle as she imagined a safe falling from the ceiling on his head. Eventually the awkward staring contest ended and the man took a seat at the far end of the counter, alone, leaving everyone else in the diner to their own devices.
        Eventually, Mistake’s surroundings began to bore her, and she turned to her kids menu for entertainment. She pulled out a few of the crayons and started coloring in the shapes on the back, glancing at the food choices every so often. Anon lost interest in his phone and put it back in his pocket, turning to his daughter.

“So, how much do you really know about yourself?” Anon put a hand out before she could speak. “And I mean, like, as far as the weird supernatural shit goes. I don’t want to hear about your girl problems. I mean what can you do that a normal little human girl can’t? I feel like I should know this stuff if we’re going to be hunting your brothers and sisters down.”

Mistake didn’t look up from her drawing, green crayon in her hand sprawling out over her paper. “Well, you obviously know that we look weird. And there’s the spitting goo, and the night eyes.”

“Right.” The waiter returned with a pot of coffee and a mug, and a glass of water. She sat them down on the table, saying she would return to take their order shortly. Anon poured himself a mug of coffee and took a sip before continuing. “And, of course, you can cover up your alien bits to look human, just like your mom. If that is what you are, anyways.”

Mistake nodded and put down her green crayon, taking a sip of water. “Yep. Well, that’s part of it. We can disguise into whoever we want.”

Anon stopped with his mug halfway to his lips, raising an eyebrow of surprise. He set his coffee down. “Hold up. You can do what?”

“When we do the green fire thingy, we can turn into whoever we want. Sorta. We can’t turn into some things.”

“What have you turned into?”

“Well...” Mistake stroked her chin, trying to remember past disguises. “I like to copy a lot of the little girls around town. Some of them have nice dresses. And this one time I copied a little girl I saw on TV. And one time I tried to copy Bobby, but that was yucky.”

Anon stared at her in disbelief. “And... you can all do this? You can all magically transform yourselves into other people for seven years, and I never knew?” He leaned on his elbow and thought about it for a moment. “... well, actually that sort of makes sense. If you were all disguised as other children, I’d have no way of telling.”

Mistake nodded. “Misery said it was probably a good idea not to tell you about it. Because you aren’t one of us. She wanted it to be our secret.” Mistake brought her hands up to her mouth in realization. “Don’t tell Misery I told you.”

“Don’t worry.” Anon shook his head, still trying to make sense of things. “You said you can’t turn into anything, right? Just some things? How does that work?”

“Well... the more we change from how we really are, the more icky we feel.” Mistake stuck her tongue out in mock discomfort. “When I’m like this, with just my legs and eyes fixed, it doesn’t feel that bad. It still feels better when I’m normal, but I could stay like this for a long time. When I try and copy other girls, though, it’s...” She shivered. “It’s really bad. I can only do it for a little bit.” She frowned. “When I tried growing bigger, once, it didn’t even bother feeling weird, it just hurt.”

        Anon nodded slowly, starting to understand. So she could transform, if she needed to, but any massive transformations made her extremely uncomfortable. Changing things like size or growing new body parts was probably out of the question entirely, at least until she got better at it. If that was even how that worked. Anon had to admit to himself that he didn’t have the slightest clue what kind of powers he was dealing with here.

“You need to show me that sometime. That sounds trippy as hell. So is that it? No more freaky powers I need to know about? Your blood isn’t acid? You don’t have a nuclear self-destruct device strapped to your arm?”

Mistake shrugged. “If there’s more, I don’t know how to use them yet. I don’t know how this stuff works either, dad.”

Their conversation was cut off as the waiter returned with her notepad, smiling wide as ever. “And what will you guys be having tonight?”

“The Kelcy’s Klassic. Side of garlic fries.” The ‘K’ in ‘Klassic’ came out of Anon’s mouth like a nail that had been digging into his gums. He handed the waitress his menu and went back to his coffee.

“And I’ll have the Kacy’s Kids Kombo, please!” Mistake smiled wide and went back to coloring in her menu, this time with a black crayon.

“Alright, I’ll have you two set up in no time!” The waitress winked at Mistake and went back to the kitchen, leaving them alone once more.

Anon looked up from his coffee with surprise. “You ordered something? I thought you ate hugs or some shit.”

“Well yeah, but I have to LOOK like I eat food, right?” Mistake shrugged.

“Oh. Well, good thinking, I guess.” Anon glanced down at her menu. “You’re coloring everything in green and black. Why don’t you use other colors?”

Mistake looked at her coloring as if coming to a realization. “Oh. I dunno, I just like these colors.”

“Just making sure you don’t think that fire hydrants are black.”

“I know.”

“And the sky isn’t green.”

“Yeah, I know, dad!” Mistake scrunched her face and put her crayon down. “I just like coloring things green and black.”

        Before Anon could retaliate, the phone in his pocket buzzed. He pulled it out to look at the caller ID. Even though the screen was obstructed from her view, Mistake could tell who was calling by the terrified shade of white on her father’s face.

“Shit. It’s Katie. What am I going to tell her about the car?”

“Tell her the truth. It broke down.”

“Well I can hardly tell her it broke down about a hundred and fifty miles Southeast of where we’re SUPPOSED to be!”

“Well then, tell her we broke down in Fresno, doofus!”

“Ugh, I should take this outside, there’s probably going to be yelling...” Anon pushed himself out of his booth and headed for the door. “If my food shows up, don’t touch it.”

“Why would you even worry about that?” Mistake watched him go, the door swinging shut in his wake. She sighed and looked back down at her menu, coloring in an acorn with her green crayon.

        Anon returned several minutes later, more calm than Mistake was expecting. He quietly filed back into the restaurant and took his seat across from his daughter, pocketing his phone as he did so.

“Well, that went better than I expected. She’s still a bit pissed though.”

“Well, I would be too.” Mistake giggled and took a sip of her water.

“She’s being pretty reasonable, despite everything. Knows it can’t possibly be my fault that the car broke down, especially considering what a piece of junk it is. Says she’ll even pay me for the repairs when we get back.”

“But?” Mistake put down her crayon and looked up at Anon, waiting for the bad news.

“But, she wants us to be back with her car before the end of tomorrow. Which doesn’t leave us a lot of time to get a hold of the rascals.”

Mistake nodded in understanding. The waiter arrived with their food quickly, seemingly appearing in front of them out of the blue as she put the food on their table. Anon’s mouth began to water as he eyed his burger, while Mistake poked at her food with a look of disgust. Anonymous dug right in, taking a few hefty bites out of his sandwich, spilling some of the toppings onto his plate. Mistake watched with half curiosity and half revulsion, keeping one eye open to watch and her tongue sticking out to the side to express her displeasure. She looked back down at her own food and picked up a french fry, twirling it around in her fingers experimentally. Cautiously, she brought it up to her mouth to take a bite. She immediately scrunched up her face and forced it down her throat with a grimace, going for a drink of water to wash away the taste. She groaned and pushed her food away.

“I’m hungry, dad.”

Anon wiped his mouth with a napkin and pointed at her plate. “That’s why you have food.”

“But it all tastes gross.”

“Well, I’m sorry, what do you want me to do about it?”

Without saying any words, Mistake opened up her arms as if gesturing for a hug.

“Ugh, no, not right now.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s weird.”

Mistake tilted her head to the side and stared at her father incredulously. “I am your DAUGHTER.”

“Yeah, but... I don’t know, I don’t like hugging people. Not in public.”

“Dad. Come on. I’m hungry.”

Anon put down his burger with a sigh. “Alright. Fine. A quick one. Come over here.”

Mistake grinned triumphantly and dove under the table, crawling through the posts supporting it. She clambered up between Anon’s legs and dragged herself up into his lap, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her head to his chest. She sighed contently and pressed her cheek up against him, pulling him as close as possible as if squeezing the love out of him. Anon slowly raised an arm around and rested it on her back lightly. He patted her a few times and then let go.

“Alright, you can get off now.”

“No.” Mistake grinned and nuzzled her head into his chest.

“Come on, I gave you a hug. Now let go. People are staring.”

“You might be done hugging me, but I’m not done hugging you.”

Anon sighed and gave up, letting her sit there. She was there for nearly a minute with her eyes shut, just hugging him, completely silent. After a while, she finally spoke up. “I love you, dad.”

“I...” Anon looked down at his daughter, pressed up against his chest. “... uh, yeah.”

Mistake giggled. “This is usually when a normal person says ‘I love you too’, you know.” Mistake pulled away and sat back in his lap, reluctant to return to her side of the table. “But you don’t have to. I know you love me anyways, even if it’s hard for you to say it. You pretend like you don’t care, but you’re still our daddy.”

        Anon sat, at a complete loss for words. He let Mistake stay seated in his lap for several more minutes as they huddled together in silence. Eventually the diner became even more quiet as the few patrons that were present ended up filtering out of the restaurant, leaving the two alone. Anonymous pulled out his phone and took a look at the time.

“Hey, Mistake. It’s getting late. We should go find a place to sleep.”

Hearing no answer, he glanced down in his lap. Mistake’s eyes were shut, her head resting against his arm. Her chest rose slowly up and down with her soft breaths, signaling that she was fast asleep. He sighed and pocketed his phone, gently lifting her up underneath her legs and standing up. Finding it tricky to do with one arm, he took out his wallet and placed some money on the counter, heading for the door.
        As he stepped into the cold night air, he looked up at the moon. It shone down on him from its perch in the sky, covering the streets in its soft blue glow. Somewhere out there, his children were probably looking up at the same moon, cold and alone with no one but themselves. They needed his help. Deep inside, Anon felt something he had not felt for years, a feeling that had only touched him once, when the eggs had first hatched. Mistake shivered, and Anon pulled her closer. There was an inn nearby. Anon wiped away a single tear and started heading for it.

~

        Misery stared up through the window in the ceiling, straight through the glass and up at the moon above. The church was silent, aside from the occasional snore or shift in movement from any one of the hundred children in the pews below. She sat at the edge of the podium at the front of the stage, directly under the beams of moonlight. She turned her attention away from the moon to look over her brothers and sisters that lay sleeping below. She recognized a couple whose faces were in sight: Star and Faith sat in the front pew, nestled close to one another. Whistle had fallen asleep directly in front of the stage, trying to stay up as late as Misery. She had promised to help Misery watch over them that night. Misery hadn’t really expected her to live up to that promise, anyhow.
        Seeing everything in order, she looked back up to the moon. She knew that, at home, her father was probably staring up at the same moon, wondering where they were. He would probably be worried, at first, but eventually it would dawn on him that they were finally out of his life, and that he was free. Misery was sure of it.
        And the church finally slept, it’s last wake patron finally dozing off atop her podium. Snores and shuffles were the only sounds that filled the rest of the night, and the only thoughts were in the form of dreams.