Printed from https://writing.com/main/interactive-story/item_id/1490986-Cartoon-Gluttony-and-Weight-Gain/cid/1803525-Home-is-where-the-security-guards-are
“Daria! It’s great to see you again!” her Aunt Victoria beamed as Daria hoisted her duffle bag over one shoulder and picked up a small leather tote she had carried with her on the bus. Her Aunt Victoria confidently strode onto the bus platform so they could both get a better look at one another. Daria could see her Aunt had certainly toughened up. Gone was her expensive designer blouse and trendy skirt, now she wore a sharp professional suit. Granted the suit still looked very expensive but the confident air about her aunt showed it was intended to be a statement of her skills and expertise, not a statement of how much money she had to spend like her aunt once strived to flaunt.
“Here let me help you with that” Victoria offered a well-manicured hand with polished and painted nails to take Daria’s duffle for her.
“Thanks Auntie Victoria” Daria obliged in her usual lackluster tone ending on a disingenuous high note. She nearly tossed the bag at her aunt well aware of the weighty books and thick unflattering clothes it was packed with. But to her surprise even her aunt’s strength was clearly new and improved, without flinching Victoria caught the bag with one arm and lifted it easily over her shoulder as she popped the trunk open.
“Your father already gave me all the details but why don’t you fill me in on what happened to get you sent to Chirp’s Creek?” Victoria was friendlier than Daria remember too. As she opened the passenger door and slid into the seat Victoria was smiling at her, does she genuinely care about my feelings on this? Daria thought to herself.
Victoria started the car and backed out of the Bus station parking “There’s not much to tell really” Daria began “I’m a troubled teen who acted out and put some people in the hospital, I belong behind bars” Daria somberly sighed.
But Sarcasm wasn’t going to shield her from her aunt
“Really?” She tried to sound genuinely shocked “Jake said you made a strong statement against your principal’s unscrupulous behavior. I don’t think he fully understood the message you were trying to send but he still stood by whatever it was you did to get yourself in this predicament”
Daria’s focus on the procession of trailer parks passing by was broken as she gave her aunt a dumbfounded look. “Dad said that?”
“No not exactly, you know how Jake is” Victoria looked upward as she searched for the right words “His emotions and his reactions aren’t always on the same page. He was proud of you but he talked a lot about what a mess you’d created. Oh, this is where I work” Victoria gestured to a very large building on the right.
The Little Missy snack cake corporation sign was larger than a bus and hung on the side of a tall glass building that loomed over the highway. Behind it a brick building that served as the distribution hub with a line of trucks being loaded up that must have stretched almost a quarter of a mile long. Still further back was a large facility where presumably the many cakes were being made.
“This is the largest hub on the east coast” Victoria explained while Daria had to shift and look over her shoulder to keep taking in how large the facility was. “I work for the consumer adaptation division; we keep the products popular by working with our customers to offer snack cakes that blow our competitors out of the water. We also test new samples and address consumers who need… more persuasion to buy our products. Let’s just say I make sure nobody can get enough of our cakes.” Victoria looked over at Daria wryly smiling. Daria wasn’t sure what her aunt meant by this but coming out of her shell a bit she decided to ask a bit more about her aunt. “So why here? Why move out here to this… cesspool? Wouldn’t a large distribution and manufacturing facility be much more cost effective in a larger city?
Victoria was tight lipped for a moment and Daria felt a chill enter the car “No” she said curtly, then the smile and warm demeanor returned “Chirp’s creek is the best place for us, we sell a little bit of America in our cakes and what’s more American than small towns?” Daria could feel the prepackaged quality to this answer; it was different than the kind genuine aunt she had been speaking to a few moments ago, Daria had touched on a subject that was making her behave mysteriously.
Daria shifted back to small talk, the local schools, economy, what it was like living here. Daria found her aunt’s responses were more natural when addressing her opinions of the local, but when the responses were in addressing the actual structure and facts of living here she was more rehearsed in her answers. All Daria could gather was her impression of this town was pretty spot on. It was poor and most who lived here were low income. Despite the rhetoric Daria could tell the entire town had become dependent on Little Missy as a lynch pin for the economy and Daria had her suspicions this was by design for Little Missy’s benefit. Looking at her aunt and the car they rode in it was safe to say only those working in the glass tower built for Little Missy made any real money. Her suspicion was confirmed as they turned into a gated community named Missy’s garden.
Entering the gates was like going from night to day. Outside it had been nothing but trailer homes and strip malls. Inside it was large homes with wide lush green lawns. Daria saw double car ports, two and three story houses, and most homes had a pool or some other recreational expenditure using a portion of the sizable backyards. Daria was shocked by the change but at the same time inside her head she was breathing a huge sigh of relief that her exile would be spent here and not in the poverty stricken wasteland outside the gates.
“This is me- I mean, us” Victoria half sang as she pulled into the driveway of one of the large expensive homes. “Come on in I bet Ginger will want to catch up with you too”
Printed from https://writing.com/main/interactive-story/item_id/1490986-Cartoon-Gluttony-and-Weight-Gain/cid/1803525-Home-is-where-the-security-guards-are
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