The Vagabond Girl of Nothingtown

July 23rd, just another day in my extremely disinteresting life. I had just finished the day of food delivery on my bicycle and sat at home in my small, 1 room apartment on the first floor of a street we will simply call here Nowhere Street. I want to say the time was around 7 PM, but during days like these, time was hardly a thing I kept track of. In any case, I do remember it being a Friday. As with all Fridays, I needed to take out my trash.

”I should start cooking again, ” I thought as I carried the trash bag filled with mostly empty ramen containers out of my apartment. The thought was an empty one like many empty thoughts one has during low times in their life. ”I need to work out more, I need to rekindle with an old friend, I need to cook for myself again, ” such thoughts are constantly filling our brains to allow us to pretend as if we give attempts to discipline ourselves to become better people. Without a proper reason and motivation behind doing such things beyond the simple ”thats what everyone else says is good for you, ” or ”thats what everyone else is doing ” though, such thoughts are hardly ever acted upon for more than a week at a time.

Intrusive thoughts aside, I made my way to the dumpster that day, a large black rectangular dumpster bin commonly found in every one of the 50 states in America.

”What show should I watch today? ” I thought before opening the dumpster, ”Wait no… I should be coming up with a story idea. But maybe a show will give me the inspiration I need? No thats not how it works you need discipline… ”

As the inner parts of my mind bickered at each other when I approached the dumpster however, it was at that moment that something not so ordinary in the most ordinary of towns, on the most ordinary of days, at the most ordinary of dumpsters took place.

**clank**

A loud clashing noise suddenly came from inside the dumpster startling me.

”A raccoon? ” I thought. Surely there had to be some small animal inside the dumpster to produce such a noise. I couldn back down now though; my apartment was far too small to contain too many trash bags full of empty ramen cups. Gathering up my courage, I approached dumpster bin door.

”Maybe its a portal to another world, ” I chuckled calming myself a bit. I had been watching too many Isekai shows again. That would be nice wouldn it? Too bad real life did not hold such wonderful events. I gulped, preparing myself to potentially be attacked by whatever was inside. Before I could reach my hand to open up the lid however, as if a portal really was about to open into my world, the lid suddenly popped open on its own.

”Ahhhhh ”

I fell over onto the ground.

”What sort of creature… ”

My thoughts were once again interrupted as I looked back up at the dumpster.

”A… A girl? ”

Standing in front of me with her feet fully inside the contents of the dumpster, there in plain view, stood a girl with long dark hair looking at me with dark eyes and a blank expression. We just stayed there motionless for a brief moment.

”He…hello, ” I managed to blurt out. The girl looked to be a couple years younger than me though with the copious amounts of dirt on her face, I couldn really tell her exact age. Her body proportions seemed to suggest her being at least an adult however.

”Do you have food? ”

”Wha… what? ”

”Food, ” the girl repeated, ”Im hungry, ”

”Huh… ”

The girl jumped out of the dumpster in an acrobatic way landing on her bare feet in front of me. When she did, I saw that dirt not only covered her face, but her body as well. She wore an old pair of blue jeans that looked to have parts torn off. In some other situation, I would have thought she was making a fashion statement. On top, she wore a plain black t-shirt about 2 sizes too large for her. Even that color though could not hide the various trash stains that showed on her shirt.

”Do you have food? ” The girl repeated again walking closer to me, her large black eyes seemingly staring straight into my soul. It took my mind a minute to process everything before I could respond.

”Fo… food?!?! Forget that, what the hell were you doing just now in that dumpster? ”

”Looking for food, ” she said deadpan still staring at me.

”I… I see, ”

We continued to stare blankly at each other for a couple seconds.

”What… what the hell, is she a tramp? Maybe a scammer? Why would she be in a dumpster then though? ”

”If you don have food Im leaving, ” the girl finally said beginning to walk away.

”Good riddance, I don have time for this anyways, I still need to… ”

As she began to leave my sight however, a strange feeling suddenly hit me.

”Wait, ” I shouted at her. Perhaps it was pity seeing a young woman having to dumpster dive for food. Perhaps a part of me longed for a new friend being in short supply of them for a while now. Or perhaps I was just horny and the prospect of a young woman entering my apartment excited me even if dirt covered her entire body. Ones actions are often dictated by multiple motives after all that one never truly understands. Perhaps I even thought, on that fateful summer evening, there was a story to be found.

”Wait, ” I repeated to ensure she heard me. The girl stopped and turned around still looking at me blankly.

”I… I have food I can give you. ”

”Really? ”

”Yes really, but you have to promise me one thing, okay? ”

”Okay, ” she said waiting for my next words.

”Promise me… ” I began.

”Yes? ”

”Promise me… ”

”Yes? ”

”Promise me youll take a shower when we go inside… ”

————————————————————————————————————

I opened my pantry door to grab two ramen cups.

”Need to restock, ” I thought seeing only a few containers remaining. ”Wait no. Im supposed to start cooking real food again. ”

The girl from the dumpster currently occupied my bathroom preparing to take a shower where I could hear the sound of running water.

”What to do what to do… ”

As I began boiling water in my kettle, like most ordinary people in this world, I did not really know what to do in a situation where a hobo has entered your home.

”The police? Too dramatic, too dramatic, and I don like those guys anyways. A shelter maybe then? ”

In any case, this problem was too large for an ordinary man like me to handle. No reason to think of a solution on an empty stomach though.

”Alright, the water should be done boiling soon. ”

The sounds of the boiling water from the kettle combined with the running water from my bathroom put my mind at ease for some reason. It reminded me of being at a beach.

”Maybe I should go to one later this week to draw inspiration, ” I thought knowing full well I wasn prepared to make the 4 hour bike ride to the nearest beach any time soon. Still, the thought of running my feet through the beach waves entered my mind.

”That would be so nice… so nice I can almost feel it. ”

Indeed, the water currently flowing between my toes really did remind me of being at a beach.

”Would the water be this warm though? Its as if… wait a minute. ”

My daydream broke when a sudden realization dawned on me.

”What the… ”

Unfortunately, unlike many popular stories nowadays, I did not magically teleport to a beach in that moment. The water that flowed through my toes was not from the waves of any ocean flowing onto the beach sand, but instead from the shower head of my bathroom flowing into my kitchen.

”What the hell is that girl doing? ”

I went up to my bathroom door giving it a knock.

”Everything alright? ” I shouted. No response.

”Make sure the drain is unplugged or else… ”

Before I could finish my sentence however, the door suddenly burst open. I had been leaning slightly against it and the sudden opening caused me to slip and fall onto the ground.

”Oww… ” I said rubbing my back, ”What are you… ”

”Help me. ”

There in front of me, with nothing covering a single part of her body stood the girl from the dumpster.

”AHHHHHH ” I shrieked covering my eyes. ”Put… Put something on before opening… ”

”I need help, ”

”Yes clearly and I am doing my best but… ”

”The showers not working. ”

”Huh?!?!? ”

I uncovered my eyes, but to my chagrin, the girl still stood there with a deadpan expression naked as a newborn.

”AHHHHH ” I screamed covering up my eyes again.

”The showers not… ”

”Okay okay yes I get it just… ”

I uncovered my eyes to stare at the ground trying my best to avert looking at the girls body. Scrambling the best I could, I managed to grab the towel on the toilet seat in the bathroom handing it to the girl.

”Here, ” I said covering my eyes with one arm, ”Now cover up and Ill see what the problem is. ”

To my relief, she took the towel from my hand as I looked over at the shower handle and drain plug.

”Figures, ” I thought, ”Ive been lucky so far but an apartment this cheap was bound to have something break eventually. ”

As I unplugged the drain and tested the handles however, it appeared they had been in the same condition they had always been in.

”These work… ” I began, ”You just have to… asdfwqere ”

I nearly fell over when I turned around to face the girl again. For some reason, cover up only half-registered in the girls mind as the towel I had given her was tied around her waist covering only her lower half but leaving her top half completely bare still.

”Cover up your top half too! ” I screeched covering my eyes again.

”But I have to bath still. ”

”Yes but… ”

Seeing that the conversation was going nowhere, I improvised instead and simply turned off the shower and plugged the drain. Quickly, I scrambled out the door closing it behind me.

”Okay okay, the bath is ready, just clean yourself and Ill undrain the bath after okay? ” I yelled into the bathroom.

”Okay, ” a soft voice said back. And to this day, that soft okay is still the least assuring ”okay ” I had ever heard.

————————————————————————————————————

I sat there at the lone wooden square table in my apartment that I had picked up from Walmart when I first moved to Nothingtown. I had bought 2 metal chairs as well to go along with the table, one of which I used daily to eat my ramen after work. On this rarest of rare occasions however, occupancy occurred on the other chair by a long dark haired woman.

”Would you like a fork? ” I asked watching the girl struggle to eat her noodles with the chopsticks I had provided.

”Yes please, ” she said with a sad expression as the noddle she attempted to pick up with a singular chopstick slid back into the cup before reaching her mouth. I chuckled going to my kitchen.

”Perhaps too optimistic, ” I thought grabbing a fork to replace the chopsticks for the girl. It would appear however, that offering a fork as a utensil was equally optimistic.

”Owwww, ” the girl said stabbing herself in a feeble effort to eat the slippery ramen noodles. I couldn help but laugh a little at this. It was like watching a toddler fruitlessly attempt to fit a square block into a circular hole.

”Like this, ” I said grabbing her fork to demonstrate. Slowly I twisted the fork between the noodles of the ramen cup to pick it up. The girl nodded then opened her mouth.

”Ahhhhhh. ”

”What the… ”

Seeing her anticipation however, I gently placed the fork with the noodles into her mouth. In all honestly, I thought myself too young to be a parent, but there I was, feeding a toddler all the same.

”Tasty? ” I asked as she chewed on the noodles.

”Tasty, ”

”Good, ” I said handing the fork back to her, ”Just imitate the motion I did and twist the fork between the noodles. ”

She nodded attempting my instructions. Slowly, she managed to tangle a single noodle onto her fork before popping it into her mouth.

”This must be what it feels like to see your kid receive a passing grade ” I thought as I began chomping on my own noodles. The next few minutes passed silently as I ate my noodles and observed the girl put in her full concentration in the battle of fork dexterity.

”Strangely amusing ”

A full 10 minutes passed as I drank the last of my soup before I broke the silence again.

”Ahhhhh, hits the spot doesn it? ”

The girl however, did not respond as she remained fully occupied in her attempts to wrangle the noodles.

”So… ” I began, ”Where are you from? ”

The girl looked up to me when I asked the question. Having now been cleansed of the dirt on her face, it appeared that she was actually quite pretty. Her pale skin contrasted brilliantly with her dark hair. Her dark black eyes looked once again as if they were staring straight into my soul.

”Narnia, ” she responded deadpan.

”Right… and Im from Middle Earth, ” I replied chuckling at the absurdity of her answer. The girl however, simply continued to stare at me blankly before attempting once again to consume her ramen.

”So… ”I said again trying to change the topic. It seemed clear that for whatever reason, the girl had no interest in sharing where she was actually from. Perhaps she was embarrassed of being homeless though her previous actions made me think social embarrassment was the last thing she cared about.

”Whats your name? ” I asked finding it a bit odd that a total stranger had entered my home and ate my ramen whose name I didn even know at that point. The girl looked up at me again with the same blank expression.

”Dandelion, ” she said softly.

”Dandelion, ” I repeated, ”Is that your real name? ”

She nodded,

”Like the flower. ”

Although technically the truth, I didn exactly associate dandelions with flowers at the time. Roses, lilacs, sunflowers, 20 different flower species entered my mind first when thinking of the word ”flower ” before thinking of dandelions if I were to ever associate dandelions with flowers at all. In truth, the only thing I thought of when I heard the word ”dandelion ” was the word ”weed. ” The type of plant that unlike flowers, were not only unpleasant to look at, but also a great nuisance to whatever grassy lawn it lived in the area of. Still, I didn want to interject my own viewpoint onto this girl who clearly had a different opinion of dandelions.

”Its a nice name, ” I said lying, ”my names Kane, nice to meet you. ”

”Kane, ” She repeated, ”Hello Kane, ”

”Ah yes yes hello to you as well Dandelion. ”

”Kane, ”

”Yes? ”

”Help me ”

”With? ”

”Im hungry, ”

I looked to notice her cup was almost completely full still. Nonchalantly, she handed me her fork and proceeded to open her mouth wide.

”Ahhhhhh ”

————————————————————————————————————

About 20 minutes passed as slowly but surely I managed to feed the girl the rest of the ramen. At this point, it had already been quite late and I was wondering if this girl was ever going to leave my small apartment. After finishing her noodles however, the girl instead went straight for the bookshelf in my bedroom.

”Hey, wash your hands before touching that! ” I said grabbing Dandelion and directing her to the kitchen sink. There really was not much furniture at all in my apartment outside of the bed and the dining table. The only thing other than those two items was as mentioned previously, the bookshelf where I kept all my precious books.

In all honesty, that very bookshelf had been collecting dust for a while now. After all, in the age of smartphones and laptops where instant entertainment could be had in a moment, rarely did I ever find myself in the mood to pick up a book nowadays. Quite ironic given my profession, but the truth nonetheless. Still, when I was a much younger man, books had been a large part of my life and I kept many of the relics from that time period. The book that Dandelion grabbed after I forcibly made her wash her hands happened to be one of my favorites.

”Oh thats a good one, ” I said seeing the cover of the book; The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. She flipped to the first page of the book and then suddenly dropped the book, a scared expression appearing on her face.

”Hey Hey careful with that, ” I said picking the book back up from the ground.

”Scary, ” she said.

”How? ” I asked wondering both how anyone could find The Little Prince to be a scary book and even more so how Dandelion could possibly have been scared after only seeing one page.

”Theres… theres an elephant inside a snake. ”

I laughed. If you haven actually read the book yourself, I highly recommend doing so but for the sake of this story, I will briefly explain that one of the most iconic images in the entire book comes on the very first page where the main character of the story draws a picture of what appears to be the shadow of a hat. Of course, it is revealed that instead of a hat, the image is actually of, as the girl said, an elephant inside of a snake. Apparently this could only be seen by people who did not have their imaginations dulled by the gritty nature of adulthood.

”Youve read this before haven you? ” I asked. The girl however simply shook her head.

”I don know how. ”

”You don know how… ”

”I don know how to read. ”

Now keep in mind that after having quite a view of the girls body earlier, it seemed clear that she could not have been any younger than 20. Now I don know about you, but in my entire life of knowing people at least 20 years of age, I have never known one who at that age did not know literacy of at least one language. Like many things the girl had said that evening, I thought at first perhaps she was making a joke. As I looked at her however and she stared back at me, it seemed that her statement was genuine.

”Is… is that so? ” I asked trying to come up with words. In all honesty I wanted to yell at whoever this girls parents or legal guardians were though I had begun to entertain the thought that perhaps she was an alien.

”Can you read the story to me? ” She asked handing me the book and staring at me with the same blank expression she had worn all evening. It was as if every time she did, her large googly eyes casted a spell on me causing me to do whatever the girl requested. Hesitantly, I nodded as she sat down onto the ground still staring at me in anticipation.

”Once when I was 6 years old, ” I began sitting down next to her. Perhaps raising a toddler really wasn as hard as it seemed.

————————————————————————————————————

”Send me word that he has come back, ” I finished. 2 hours had passed since I began the rereading of one of my favorite childhood books, and the whole time Dandelion had been listening to me attentively and occasionally asking questions throughout the story. Of course, not being the author of the story itself but seeing that Dandelion wasn going to be satisfied with a simple ”I don know, ” I made up a number of different answers and interpretations to her questions. As I closed the cover of the book however, Dandelion did have a satisfied expression on her face signifying that she both understood and enjoyed the 2 hours of reading thoroughly. That was, until she opened her mouth to speak again.

”I don get it, ” she said.

”Well yes, its a pretty complex story about the nature of adults, losing innocence, and artistic pursuit. I wouldn expect you to get it all right… ”

She shook her head before I could finish.

”Not that, the rose. ”

”Yes what about her? She has 4 thorns. ”

”Why didn the Prince take her with him? ”

”Im sorry? ”

”Why didn the Prince take her with him when he visited the other planet? Even at the end, he could have taken to rose with him to visit the pilot if he hated his original planet. ”

”Ahhh well… ”

If at this point you have not paused this story to read The Little Prince, again, I highly recommend doing so as it is in my opinion, one of the greatest stories ever written. Dandelion of course is referring to the flower at the beginning of the story that lived on the small planet the little prince had been from, who he abandoned very early in the story in favor of traversing the universe. I had at this point read The Little Prince at least 20 times and not once had such a question popped into my head.

”Roses are quite fragile as the story stated. ” I began trying to scramble for another answer. It was a fine question logically speaking, though it did go against every thematic element of the story. Still, themes and motifs were phrases I only ever encountered at my university level English classes that I was sure a girl that did not even know how to read would never hope to understand.

”He could have just kept the rose in a box. Then she could be with him on his adventures. ”

”The rose would likely die from lack of sunlight if it was held in a box for too long, ” I responded.

”Well then roses are dumb, ” she said, ”he should have cared for a dandelion instead. They can go anywhere in the world! ”

A puzzled expression showed on my face not only from the seemingly shameless self-promotion of her own name, but also that Dandelions statement was not accurate at all as it was not the dandelions themselves that spread across the world, but their seeds. Like all other flowers, a dandelion would likely die from lack of hydration and sunlight if it ever left the spot it had been born on. Still, seeing that it was quite late and I did not want to add flower anatomy to the list of things I needed to explain, I simply nodded my head.

”Thats… true. ”

She nodded as well with a satisfied expression on her face at my agreement. Really, for a homeless girl she honestly was shameless. In any case, it was already 11pm and it became clear to me with Dandelion going to grab another book, that my residence would be her likely destination for the night.

”Its too late for another story, ” I said grabbing some blankets I had kept in my closet for the winter months and handing them to the girl.

”If you would like, you can sleep on my apartment floor for the night, Im going to take a shower, ”

It was much too late to take her to a shelter at that time of night. Like most experienced procrastinators, I decided to delay the problem of what to do with Dandelion until tomorrow. I hurriedly escaped into the bathroom before Dandelion had another chance to affect my soul with her gaze forcing me to read her another book.

”What a day, ” I thought beginning to shower. Faintly, I could still smell some of the rubbish from the dumpster Dandelion had been in.

”Jeez, what was life even like for you growing up? ”

As I thought more about Dandelion, I felt a bit of sadness swell up instead of me. She must have had a rough life to be in her current situation being illiterate and having to dig around dumpsters for food. It definitely tugged on my heartstrings thinking about it. Still, I had too much on my own plate to worry about a stranger. Only a week remained for me to think of a book idea or my dreams of continuing to be a published author would go down the drain.

”Maybe I should sellout and write smut, that usually sells well, ” I thought ”Im not that desperate yet am I? ”

15 minutes passed as I fruitlessly ran in my mind various possible story ideas, none of which I felt any inspiration to actually turn into a full story. Sighing, I dried myself with my towel putting on my boxers in preparation to sleep.

”Wait…I can go out with just these on with Dandelion in the room, ” I thought putting on the shirt and shorts I had just worn for the day. As I left the bathroom however, it appeared my worries had been for nothing as Dandelion had not even been conscious. Instead, she lay there sleeping… on my one and only bed.

”Whatever… ” I thought being much too tired to be confrontation. Yawning, I grabbed the blankets that Dandelion had dropped and put them over myself as I laid down on my own carpeted floor.

”Ill deal with it tomorrow. ”