Tao Lin - Richard Yates

Kailey drove Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning to the ledge and said “What are you going to do?” Dakota Fanning said “Probably just sit on the ledge or sit in Price Chopper.” It was around midnight. Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning sat on the ledge then walked through a residential area, a parking lot of school buses, a field and arrived at Price Chopper. They sat in booths and watched the Price Chopper TV. “We ain’t playing around,” said a gang member on TV. “This isn’t baseball.” The gang member grinned.

Dakota Fanning put her head on the table and slept. Haley Joel Osment looked at her and sometimes touched her hair. He woke her around 3:00 a.m. “Let’s walk around,” he said. “Okay,” she said. They walked through the produce area. They walked through the cereal aisle. They sat on a bench in the eye solution area and Dakota Fanning slept with her head on Haley Joel Osment’s lap. Haley Joel Osment photographed the side of her face with her digital camera. He put the camera in her bag. He petted her hair and looked across the aisle at contact lens solutions. He saw the brand he used. He saw other brands. “I feel awake,” he thought. “I feel alone maybe. I’m glad I’m here. I feel far from New York City. Seems exciting, like I have freedom. I feel adventurous maybe.” Around 5:30 a.m. they were in a booth again. Dakota Fanning was asleep with her head on the table. Haley Joel Osment held her and looked at things. He went to the opposite seat and lay and slept. He woke and saw Dakota Fanning’s head under the table with a shy facial expression asking if he was okay. It was around 6:45 a.m. They left Price Chopper. They walked over the field onto the parking lot of school buses. Dakota Fanning called home and told her mother she already left for school. Her mother said she wanted new clothes but couldn’t afford them. Dakota Fanning told her mother to steal clothes by putting them in her mouth. Haley Joel Osment heard Dakota Fanning’s mother laugh then say she was leaving for work. “You told her to put clothes in her mouth,” he said. “That was good. She laughed. She likes you.”

At Dakota Fanning’s house they slept in Dakota Fanning’s bed until around 2:30 p.m. then went to her mother’s room and lay on a king-size bed and watched a movie about a man locked in a room for fifteen years who after being released becomes romantically involved with a woman he doesn’t know is his daughter. Dakota Fanning was asleep after about thirty minutes. Haley Joel Osment held her and thought “She lost interest in me, it’s over, I’ll go back to doing things alone in the library every day” but when she woke they kissed and she loosened his belt and did something to his penis with her mouth and about ten minutes later walking to the train he thought “She wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t want to see me again.”

On Gmail chat the next day Haley Joel Osment said he didn’t know where to live when his lease ended August 1. It was May 15. “Don’t go to Florida,” said Dakota Fanning. “I want to see you.” Haley Joel Osment asked if he could move to her town. “Yes,” said Dakota Fanning.

“When,” said Haley Joel Osment.

“Now. Right now.”

“But you aren’t finding me an apartment.”

“I’m looking online now. I can only find things in places like Middletown. I want you to come here. But I don’t know where. I wish you could just live in my house. My head hurts.”

“Mine hurts,” said Haley Joel Osment.

“We need to hit them together for a little bit,” said Dakota Fanning. “To fix it. I’m tired. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t feel tired.” Haley Joel Osment said he was afraid of his supervisor at the membership library because a few days ago she saw him using a computer when he was supposed to be shelving books and then lectured him in front of three other workers in a way that made it seem like he had been caught masturbating onto books or something. “We should just disappear,” said Dakota Fanning. “Once in middle school I got made fun of so badly I just left and walked all the way home. No one even noticed. It was great.”

“My face feels sad,” said Haley Joel Osment. “Come visit me.”

“I want to just skip school tomorrow and come but I only have $2. Maybe Kailey will lend me money. She has like $1,600.”

“Skip school and come. Please.”

“I’ll come Thursday. Is that okay?”

“I work Thursday,” said Haley Joel Osment.

“Shit,” said Dakota Fanning. “My dad is coming Wednesday. And I work Friday. Can’t you just call out Thursday?”

“I already called out Monday. Is today Monday. I called out Saturday.”

“I’ll skip school Wednesday,” said Dakota Fanning. “I’ll be there at 9:55. Then leave at like 3:50. Is that okay.”

“Yes. Are you coming.”

“Yes. If Kailey lends me money.”

“I’m happier,” said Haley Joel Osment. “Let’s buy a squid from Chinatown. And put a dress on it.”

“Are they still alive,” said Dakota Fanning.

“I don’t know. We can release it into the ocean.”

“I want to buy an erhu from Chinatown,” said Dakota Fanning.

“What’s erhu,” said Haley Joel Osment.

“Chinese fiddle,” said Dakota Fanning.

The next morning on the train to 76th Street Haley Joel Osment went outside the station at 34th Street and called the library leaving a message then went to Bobst Library and emailed Dakota Fanning that he quit his job. “I called and said I wasn’t coming in today and that yesterday was my last day and for them to mail me my check,” said the email. “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Happy. Good.” The next morning he met Dakota Fanning at Penn Station and they walked to Union Square and went in bookstores and ate at Whole Foods. “I’m home,” she said on Gmail chat that night. “My mom lectured me for like 5 minutes. My dad just stood there. I’m tired.”

“Lectured about what,” said Haley Joel Osment. “She knew you didn’t go to school?”

“The school calls. I told her I was depressed so I climbed a mountain. She believed me. She said I was a stupid asshole and could have died and not been found for years. She is leaving Friday. She won’t be home until Sunday.”

Saturday on the train to Wall Street Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning stood holding a pole and he stared at different parts of her face. On his bed they were kissing and they removed some clothing. Dakota Fanning said it was okay. Haley Joel Osment said something about a baby.

“It’s okay,” said Dakota Fanning. “Just pull out.”

They finished having sex. Dakota Fanning said she could only get pregnant at certain times. She said something about her period. Haley Joel Osment said he didn’t know that much about those things. He said he would google “vagina” to learn more. They were on a queen-size mattress on top of a twin-size mattress. Haley Joel Osment had paid someone moving out of the building $30 for both mattresses. His air mattress was deflated in a closet. “Do you like the tunnels?” he said about his new bed after they each showered.

“Yes, they look good,” said Dakota Fanning. “I was wondering about that when you told me you got two mattresses and one was bigger.”

“We should hide in them,” said Haley Joel Osment and tried to crawl into one and didn’t fit and grinned.

In Union Square they saw a large baby in a stroller. The baby was maybe 2. The baby was barking. Haley Joel Osment said “It’s barking” and they followed it a little.

They went to a restaurant called Congee Village. They saw honeydew melon juice on the menu and Dakota Fanning said she wanted it. There was a large group of people at another table. One person was playing an action game on a laptop computer with a serious facial expression. Dakota Fanning said the person was good. Haley Joel Osment asked in an amused voice why the person brought a laptop computer to dinner with friends. Dakota Fanning said the person’s friends were probably assholes. Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning ate for about fifteen minutes without talking. “Are we bored, we seem bored maybe,” thought Haley Joel Osment. “She isn’t getting what she wants. The melon juice. Why didn’t she order it? Should I order it?”