2

A little copper bell rang when Kindra and Andy walked into Casa De Waffles. The smell of grease overpowered the smell of food. Shaniqua, the woman they regularly saw there, barely even had to glance up before typing in their usual order.

“Actually, Shaniqua, today’s sort of a special occasion,” Kindra said. “We’ll need to sit down before we order. We’re meeting someone.”

Shaniqua shrugged and moved along the line – “next customer!”

Kindra and Andy found their usual booth and sat across from each other.

“Soooo,” Kindra said, head in her hands, smile on her face, “what do you think you two are going to do today?”

Andy looked at her like he was going to answer with something exciting and then corrected himself. He just had to maintain that grumpy act. “I don’t know,” he shrugged.

He’s really too young to be doing that, Kindra thought. How did he learn to be such a pain in the ass?

“Come on dude, I know you’ve gotta have some idea. Maybe go get a new truck? Maybe go roller skating? You like that.”

“I don’t want to skate today,” he said. “I want to go to dad’s. I want to ride in a plane.”

“I’m sure that can happen,” Kindra said. Then the door jingled again and ________ walked in.

“Hey bud, you ready to go?” he asked.

“Um, not unless you plan on feeding him,” Kindra said. “He hasn’t eaten anything yet.”

“And who’s fault is that?”

“Don’t be an ass. You have to feed him too, that’s what partial custody means.”

Andy had a brilliant smile on his face. “Dad! Can we ride in the planes today?”

“Yeah, sure,” ________ said. “Say bye to your mom. Let’s go.”

Andy looked at Kindra but didn’t say anything. He grabbed his dad’s hand and started for the door. Kindra, frustrated, looked at _________. “How could he have learned that kind of attitude at 3?” She asked.

“Probably from you,” he said, and walked out.

Kindra sat for a couple of minutes and thought about Andy. She ordered some coffee and wrapped her hands around it. The way she slumped over the table, it was almost like she was using the coffee as support. Shaniqua glanced over at her every fifteen minutes, wondering why she ordered coffee if she wasn’t going to drink it – but she didn’t have time or patience to ask what was up so she left her alone. At ten o’clock Kindra finally got up, took a sip of her coffee, and left. The bell rang on her way out.

Kindra took her time getting back to her apartment. She walked on a loop across all the streets in the town. On her way past the clinic, the old blind man’s eyes followed her as if he could see. She was sick of him. She passed him every day and every day he eyed her. Some days she was sure he could see and was just putting up an act to try and look her up and down as she passed.

A tourist couple walked by and the woman clutched her husband’s arm, glancing over at the blind man, with pity on her face. The husband sighed. If he could roll his eyes without her seeing he probably would have. He reached into his pocket grudgingly and pulled out some change to put in the blind man’s copper bowl.

At the sound of the coins hitting the copper the blind man jolted his head to look in the couple’s direction, a goofy smile on his face, and said “what will come will come. Even if I shroud it all in silence."

“Oh,” cooed the woman, the pity in her face growing deeper. “The poor man’s lost his mind!”

Now it was Kindra’s turn to roll her eyes. She always heard these lines from him – he was like a broken record – but he hadn’t lost his mind. She could tell from the way he manipulated the town into giving him things that he was completely aware of all that he did.

Kindra went home, her “relaxing” walk ruined, back to the old number 202. She heard tidbits from the blind man throughout the rest of the day. The coin would hit the copper tin, always shocking her out of her thoughts, and then "Riddles – all you can say are riddles... The truth with all its power lies inside me...”

Kindra had practically memorized all of his lines by now.