The Cage - Chapter Five

After a little time had passed and nothing was said. John decided to try to pry some information out of his visitor. “Where am I?” He asked the woman in a low encouraging voice. He decided to use the voice he used whenever he was trying to coax something out of his own little girl.

“You’re here with me.” the woman replied.

“But where are we? What is this place?” He asked again in his nice encouraging voice.

“I’m getting hungry” She declared, completely ignoring the question that was put to her. “What is your favorite thing to eat?” Before John could answer, the woman got up and walked into the kitchen. On the stove she saw a pan with some chopped up ground beef. In bowls on a table she saw tomatoes, shredded cheese, lettuce, and avocados. Next to the pan on the stove there were tortilla shells. “What is this?” She called to John who was still in the other room.

John walked into the kitchen. He had a hard time believing what he was seeing. He was just thinking that Taco’s would taste good right about now. He was starting to think that maybe it wasn’t a coincidence. “It’s a Taco” He replied, “I was just thinking it would be nice to have one right now.”

“It looks good, would you make me one” after a few moments passed she added “Please?”

John made her a taco with all the toppings and handed it to her, he showed her how to eat it and she took a bite. “It’s really good.” She said joyfully. She ate the rest of it quickly. When she was done, she tried making another one herself by doing the same thing she saw John doing. When she was done she seemed very pleased with herself and handed the taco to John. “Here, I made one for you.”

John took the Taco and ate it. It tasted just like the Taco’s his mom made when he was a little boy. A flood of memories rushed through him. “Would you please tell me where I am?” John asked again.

“You’re here with me. Don’t you like me? You don’t like me!” The woman exclaimed. She broke down and started crying. It was completely irrational. He needed to figure out something to do to get back home but he wasn’t getting anywhere with the woman.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. I do like you.” John said trying to reassure her.

The woman’s feelings were hurt and she replied coldly, “I need to go now”. She got up and left. John had failed to learn anything meaningful and wondered what he should do now.