4: Grey

That night poured hard, real hard. They woke up to their floor turning soggy, when he put his feet down onto the ground they stuck to the mug like flies to a dog's ears in summer. It stopped raining in very early morning, the light wasn't quite out yet so Millie woke up early along side him and made cold beans out of the cans they had, laid dried fruit inside two bowls, put the beans in, and ate it cold, it was too wet to conceive a fire. They missed their podcasts and old movies and slightly more modern movies they'd pirate, they only watched and listened to entertainment together, that's how they enjoyed it.

"Good luck on your own. Hope you make it out alive." Grey said in a laughing tone when he put one foot onto the car and held one hand onto the top of the car like a solder going off to war. "Don't get eaten by the locals." Millie said holding her arms around her chest smiling. "Be nice woman." Grey heaved himself into the old bug car and shut the door shutting the window so Millie had to yell for him to hear him right. "Be safe! Tell me how it go's! But don't call me if you find WiFi because remember, I don't have it here." Grey nodded and bearded a very light smile and turned on the car, Millie ran away a few feet and walked near the porch. He drove down the lane and the little bridge, and just like that his little wife was out of sight.

He recognized many of the people he saw through town, but remembered none of there names. In the time of Grey living with his now not living father was long but he never really left the house, his dad did not have a car so if they needed to buy anything they did not hunt or gather they'd have to walk into town to get it on foot, which wasn't a long walk but through the buggy woods was not a fun one. Driving out of the woods finally made Grey think of how he's feel about all of this years later. He'd been told many times by much older people how years blend together and time moves father the less fast you are in your age. When he was 15, when he was with his father, that felt like a long time ago, he was 22 now, would that seem like a long time apart 20 30 40 50 years from now? Maybe, maybe not. He felt a lot more older, aged, hopefully like wine and not like honey milk. Early into town he saw Moore walking drowsily down the road, his father's only friend, a real no good drunk who Grey felt very uncomfortable with when Moore showed up every so often at his dad's house. Then it was time to start the great game show of begging for work! Something Grey had done many meny times. All the shops, nah, where there larger chains in this town not town? No, Hell no. Not even close, in fact Grey never noticed this before but the town didn't even have a name, maybe that's why his dad liked it so much, they can't track you if they can't even name where you are. America used to be so so wild, but now everything is named, dated and stamped. Grey wasn't even sure how people ended up here, was the country just getting so big people have to move to the edges to spread their toes out at night? No some of these people have been here for generations. Where they inbreed saber towing frog men? No in fact most of them where crazy wild dangerous, but kind people from what he'd seen so far. They'd look at you like they where ready to kill you at any moment if you where on their property, until they known you even a little then suddenly you where family. But there they outcasts? Yes. Was Grey and Millie outcasts? He wasn't sure but he hoped they where the cool interesting wild and free kind of outcasts, and not the sad, ugly and unhappy kind, the sort that sicken the whole tribe with their nasty looks and weird ways until their kicked out shoved into nature so the rest of the tribe doesn't catch whatever they had.

Now he did find a good few small jobs, he's ask the man who run and also owned only store had held liqueur if there'd be a job for him, and the owner would so no but if he'd like Grey could mow the owner's lawn for a pretty price, or learn his gutter or help him move a few things, there was a lot of little things like that, and clearly he wasn't going to be finding any work anytime soon, but these odd small jobs would have to work for now. Begging, now begging was something he was apparently real good at doing. It was in a way a talent he had, a skill even. The only real skill he ever got out of it was after all these years he's gotten real good at begging without looking desperate. He used to never be desperate before he met Millie.

He met Millie not long after he left his father, he'd seen he before around the trailorlot and school, Grey never liked school he failed every class real badly despite Grey knowing he had some kind of spark in his brain somewhere. But Millie was a Nazi about school she tried real real hard, Grey basically forced Millie to date him one day when he needed a girl to prove to a friend he had at the time, that women could enjoy his company, They hanged out at that friend's house one day and that night Millie left while Grey and his friend where both very drunk and wouldn't bother her anymore. The next day Grey decided he'd say sorry for wasting her Sunday, and actually went to school that Monday to say it to her, but Grey found out that Millie was actually glad she spend the day with him because it got her away from her crazy mom. And soon after Grey spent more and more time around Millie, he found that her mom really was crazy, Grey and Millie never understood why but Millie's mom needed her daughter to be around her everyday every minute every second. Millie's mom was alone by all means, and Millie herself forgave her for a lot of oddities in her life others wouldn't. And one day even though telling himself years ago he never would, he held Millie one night while he cried about what Grey forgot years ago, Grey promised her he'd marry her as soon as she reached 18. And he did, and they moved into Grey's mother's house, then on their own in many different ways. Several times Millie's mom would try and find them and even stalk them near wherever they lived at any given time, Millie kept making the mistake of re-entering a relationship with her mom because she loved her. Now every so often Millie called her mom, and for the past year it's been somewhat okay, but Grey would be lying if he said he wasn't worried he's wake up one morning with a knife in his neck and a kidnapped wife. Grey known one thing for sure, if they ever did end up having children he wouldn't let them near that woman. He did not trust her, that old hag scared him and worst of all he had a fear one day Millie would sink back into a unclean relationship with her mother.

It was now later in the day, he hadn't driven all over the town, down every lane near every house, because everything really was scattered. Regret was washing over him as he realized with sly horror he had very littler gas left and he'd need to spend a good chunk of what money they had left on gas, meaning those odd jobs he'd be starting tomorrow he'd need to walk there on foot if he was too be practical. "Maybe..." He mumbled to himself, looking out behind him as he turned the car to go home, purple and red light shinning all through the car. "Maybe I made a mistake not saving up before coming here."