Chapter 7
An Orange
The next day they went to a park to have lunch. Tegan started to unpeel an orange how she does by making several circles in the peel with her fingernail. Charles thought that was funny.
“I’ve never seen anyone peel an orange like that before,” he said.
“Really? You’ve never stuck a peppermint stick into an orange and used it as a straw?”
“No! That sounds amazing!”
Tegan took a bite of her orange but it was so juicy it squirted into Charles’s eye.
“I’m so sorry!” Tegan said.
“It’s okay,” Charles said, tearing up. “It’s all fun and games till you get orange in your eye!”
Tegan laughed so hard she spits out the orange.
“Thanks for laughing at my pain,” Charles said jokingly.
After lunch, they walked around the park. Charles told Tegan how he had started out as a polymer science major but he “broke too much stuff” so he switched to mathematics.
“Yeah, a lot less stuff to potentially break in mathematics except for maybe some chalk.”
“Math is really hard.”
“Yeah, it’s hard, it’s very hard, probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I still like it. I think the key to finding something you love is when it gets hard, you still like it. What about art? Art is hard too.”
“Yeah, I suppose. But everyone says I have a talent. Some of it just comes naturally to me. So when it came time to pick a major for college it just seemed natural to pick art. I would like to work for Disney.”
“That’s cool. Maybe I can see some of your drawings someday?”
“Sure. I used to draw comics for my brother and sister about the antics of three horses based on our stuffed animals. My sister and I used to play in her bedroom for hours with stuffed animals imagining them all living together on an island.”
“I’d love to see those! What else do you like? Wolves, I take it. You’re wearing the same wolf T-shirt I first saw you in.”
Tegan looked down at her shirt. A large wolf’s head looked back. “Oh, yeah. I just started liking them. It’s funny. I used to like cats a lot — I still do — but they were my favorite animal as a kid so I often got birthday cards with cats on them and even still on my past birthday. But wolves are now my favorite animal. It’s funny how we change. It’s as if life is ‘cut-up’ into different chapters. We keep the same body but our insides — what we like, what we think, how we act — changes.”
“Sounds like Doctor Who.”
“Doctor…Who?”
“It’s a sci-fi show I like to watch. Every so often the doctor regenerates and becomes a different person.”
“Wait. That sounds familiar. I think my dad used to watch that.”
“Could be. It’s been around for a long time. Since the 60s. You know… Tegan is the name of one of the Doctor’s companions.”
“Oh.”
They walked in silence for a bit before Tegan thought of Gayle’s question.
“How did you lose weight?”
“Oh, well, I actually began walking. Yeah, walking the track in the park across from the high school. With math, there’s a lot of thinking involved. You can get lost in your head so I needed something to do while I thought and walking was perfect. I also began to do “bicycles” in the evenings while I problem solved. I just kept moving. I think stimulating the body helps stimulate the brain.”
“That makes sense.” Certainly more sense than drugs.
The path they walked on was leading them back to the parking lot.
“Where would you like to go next?” Charles asked.
Tegan smiled at him. If this was yesterday she would have said take me home please but now she was feeling a bit more comfortable and starting to have a good time.
“Take me to your place,” she said. “Show me some of this Doctor Who.”
