13: Finally Learning New Things

When Justin pulled his enormous truck into the parking lot, he and Sora walked toward the apartments.  Sora noticed that Jess's car was not in her parking spot.  She walked up to the door and tried the knob.  Locked.

Justin was watching, and when Sora turned back around, he said, "Well, I'm done with work for the day.  You can come in and wait for Jess to come back."

Sora's heart sped up.  The offer made her nervous, but it was extremely hot outside, and she could use a nice comfortable place to sit down and wait for Jess... and the court house did not qualify for such a comfortable spot.  Not with Mayor Cartwright lingering around, and his wife watching Sora's every move.  (Sora was not unobservant--they both regarded her as what they thought she was, an alien).

"Okay, if it is no trouble."  Sora responded.

Justin lead Sora down the sidewalk to where his apartment door was.  He unlocked it with a key and let Sora pass through first.

She took in the entry room.  It had an enormous over-stuffed black leather couch.   Jess's couch was so much smaller than this one.  Sora had arose that morning with a pain in her neck.  This couch, looked completely welcoming.  The rest of the room was scattered with books, and other things that Sora had never seen before.  Justin had an enormous black device on the wall, just like Jess's.  However, Sora had not been able to find out what it was.

Sora turned around to see Justin watching her as she looked around at everything.  "You really aren't from around here, are you?"

Sora shook her head.  "Everything here is so new, I don't even know what to think."

Justin walked past her.  "Do you want anything to drink?.... um, water or something?"

"Water would be very nice, thank you."  Sora responded.

"Have a seat on the couch, I'll be right out."  Justin then went into the room the humans call the kitchen. 

Sora heard clanking then the rush of water filling a glass.  Justin brought out a glass of water with little cubes floating on the top.  Sora brought the glass up closer to her face in order to see the contents a little bit closer.  She glanced up as Justin drank deeply from his glass.  As he drained the water, the little cubes clanged to the bottom of his glass.  She poked at the little thing floating at the top of the water.  It was cold.  Freezing cold.

Sora asked Justin, "What are these?"

"Ice cubes....... frozen water,"  Justin added since Sora obviously did not catch on.  "Come here, I'll show you.

Justin walked into his kitchen and showed Sora an enormous white box sitting up against a wall.  It had two handles on it that were to open two separate doors.  Sora recognized an identical piece of furniture in Jess' apartment.

"This is a fridge."  Justin opened the bottom door.  "It keeps food cold.  Milk, cheese, eggs..... anything you want to be cold."

"Oh, I wondered about the milk that Jess served me this morning.  It was very cold."  Sora bent down to look inside.  There were apples, grapes, carrots, and many other fruits and vegetables that the Kiswan enjoy.

Justin shut that door and opened the top door.  "This is the freezer."  He was looking very pleased to be giving Sora this tutorial.  "This is where we make ice."  Justin pulled out a little tray with little compartments.

"Look."  Justin said.  "I just filled this tray with water, after a few hours, it will turn solid.  It will be ice, like in your glass."  He pulled out another tray that had ice already in it.  "See?"

Sora touched the ice.  It was very cold.  Sora then turned her attention back to her glass.  She took a sip of the water, and drew a breath.  It was so cold in fact that it gave Sora chills down her arms.

"Wow!  This is so...... refreshing!"  She then began to drink more deeply from her glass.

Justin said, "Look what else we keep in the freezer.  He pulled out various containers of food.  One was ice cream.  "Let me show you a little treat that we have."

After dishing up the bowls of ice cream Justin lead Sora back out to the entry room where he sat down on one end of the couch with one foot tucked underneath him.  Sora sat on the opposite side, looking down at the bowl and spoon in her hands.  The bowl was very cold, it made Sora shiver.  As she took a spoonful and put it in her mouth, nothing surprised her more than the wonderful taste of vanilla ice cream with swirls of fudge running through it.

Justin laughed at Sora's expression, and she found herself falling into a very comfortable conversation with someone she had just met.  Nothing was ever this fun with Jess.  Sora felt like her relationship with Justin was a natural one.  They talked for a few hours about things that are human, before they returned to the Kiswone Nation.