Dorsai - Taxi

She said that it was, and after I'd gone outside and closed the door, I heard her set both of the locks.

Things didn't get any busier for me the rest of my shift, so I had plenty of time to try and figure out some way of helping the kid.

Simply putting her on a bus and sending her home simply wasn't going to happen – there was obviously too much going on there. I knew of a few places that would have been able to help her find a place to stay while she went back to finish high school, and even get some college. The problem was that they were all booked up, and had months-long waiting lists. Anyplace I could think of that could give her any help 'now' wouldn't touch her because of her age; the places where her age wasn't a factor already had more than they could handle.

After trying to find some angle I work it, some small crack I could get my fingertips into, anything that would let me break the situation down into smaller pieces for damn near the rest of my shift, I still couldn't figure anything. I finally admitted to myself that there wasn't any ready solution that didn't involve her going back. That settled, I went to work on trying to come up with a solution at the far end. By the time I was ready to go home, I had a couple of ideas. The one that seemed best was a pretty long shot; the other was less appealing, but looked to be possible. I decided that the one that looked like the better choice was the one to start with, and see if I couldn't try to work things to improve the chances of it happening.

After I let myself in and got the door closed behind me, I turned around to find a young girl standing there that looked appreciably different than the one I'd left a few hours before. Cleaned up and in different clothes, she was a lot cuter than I'd first thought: what had been dark blonde hair in a limp ponytail had turned almost white and hung well past her shoulders in an almost silvery waterfall. Blue eyes that sparkled had replaced the fairly dull orbs that had looked at me before; the baggy clothing had been supplanted by a reasonably nice dress that showed her curves – and she did have them! – to good effect. It also revealed a pair of strong but nicely curved legs.

Smiling, I asked "Excuse me, Miss, but have you seen another girl around here? Her name is Jill…"

She laughed, obviously pleased at my acknowledgment at the change in her appearance. Standing with her hands clasped in front of herself, she told me "Oh, piffle. You know it's me! After I got my stuff washed, and took a shower, I decided I wanted you to see what I really look like. I only had a little snack, and then took a short nap – you were right, I was tired. But while I was doing all that other stuff, I was thinking, too, like you said I needed to. And one of the things that I realized is how nice you've been, and how you're really trying to help me. So I decided that I'd go ahead and wait until you got back and make something to eat for us."

I raised an eyebrow, and she blushed slightly before telling me "I mean, not that I think there's an us, I mean, not that way." Then she realized that I might be offended at being dismissed as unsuitable, somehow, and hurriedly told me "Not that there's anything wrong with you, or anything, or that I don't think you're not a nice person, or…"

I spared her any further embarrassment by interrupting to tell her "It's okay, Jill – I know what you meant. You've been on the road for a while, and just wanted some company for a sit-down meal."

She blushed again, and hesitantly responded "Um, yeah, that's what I meant."

To distract her a bit, I asked "What are you fixing, or planning to fix?"

Visibly relieved to have something else to talk about, she answered "I saw that you had some nice pork chops, so I thought I'd fix those, some green beans, and some potato cubes." Then, worriedly, she asked "Unless you want something else?"

I smiled again, and told her "That sounds pretty good, actually. And thank you for offering to cook; it saves me from having to eat one of my own concoctions, or reheating some leftovers."

That last bit earned me a smile from her before she told me "If you want to go sit down, I'll bring you one of your beers – which I did not drink, by the way."

I laughed, and told her "I'd appreciate that. Thank you" before heading into the living room and parking myself at one end of my couch.

She appeared a moment later, and after handing me the bottle, took a seat at the other end of the couch from me. I could see that she was having an attack of nerves, but figured the best thing I could do was simply act as though everything was perfectly normal. After I'd had a few swallows of my beer, I asked her if Demosthenes had been any trouble while she tried to sleep. She blushed slightly, and said that once she got him to understand that laying on her chest wasn't comfortable for her, everything had been fine. He wasn't what you could call a small cat, and I could understand how having him trying to lay on her breasts would make it difficult to sleep; I simply told her that if she'd managed to get him to behave himself, she was doing better than I ever had. That made her smile, and I told her a story about one of the silly things I'd seen him do. That got a laugh from her, and she told me a story about her cat that made ME laugh. We spent almost all the rest of the time before supper swapping stupid-cat stories.

While she was cooking, I took the opportunity to wash up before going in to see if there was anything I could do to help her. She assured me she was doing fine, but that I could set the table if I wanted. I took my time about it, and the two of us chatted until it was time to eat.

Unsurprisingly, Demosthenes turned up as we sat down. He'd learned not to jump up on the table (after getting sprayed with a water bottle a few times), and simply had too much dignity to outright beg; but he wasn't above simply sitting there and watching us while projecting a telepathic guilt trip that we were eating, and he wasn't. Jill didn't give in to his ploy any more than I did, though I could see that she was tempted a time or two.

After we finished, Jill was willing to let me help clean up the kitchen, but was adamant about doing the dishes herself. I gave in to her wishes easily enough, and after grabbing another beer, went back into the living room.

When she came into the living room some time later, I could see that Jill had lost much of her good humor. She again sat at the opposite end of the couch from me, and said "I guess we have to talk, don't we?"

"Yeah, we do", I agreed. "I spent pretty much all of the last several hours trying to figure a way out of this for you, and I'm sorry to say that there aren't a whole lot of options."

She looked sad as she told me "That's kinda what I figured out, too."

"I can't figure anything that can be done around here to help you – at least, not in anything less than several weeks, not at your age. There might be things that could be done other places, but you'd actually have to go there to find out."

She nodded, and said "And if I went there and they couldn't help, I'd still have the same problem, just in a different place, and after the trouble of getting there."

I agreed, and added "Me, I don't figure it's worth the bother or risk."

She said she didn't either, and I told her "Best I could figure is that the only real solution is to be found back where you came from. The one I think would be your best all around choice seems like a pretty long shot to me: try to work it out with your folks so you can go back home, and then play nice until you ARE ready to go out on your own or with Todd. That way, you'd have a decent place to live, family and friends around, and the chance to finish school under something like normal circumstances. Even if that one pans out, your folks may or may not be willing to let you keep seeing Todd; if they don't, then you'd have to choose between basically sneaking around so you can see him anyway, or letting it go until you're on your own."