THE GRAND TOUR OF OKLAHOMA
Chapter Seventeen "Wow," Rose said as they came out of the cinema, "I got to see the ending of the Harry Potter books." "That's right," Ten said, "in your time, the last book hasn't come out yet." "Nope, I never thought it'd end that way though. Ron and Hermione, I thought she'd end up with Harry in the end." "Ought oh, she's displeased," Eleven said to Ten, "we need to find JK and complain." "Or go back in time before she wrote it, hold a gun to her head and demand she pair Hermione up with Harry or else." "Or we just leave her alone and let her write the books the way she wants to," Rose said. "Or…we just leave her alone and let her write the books they way she wants to," Eleven said. "Brilliant idea!" Ten said, slapping his forehead with the palm of his hand, "I'm glad I thought of it!" "Goodbye! I'm going home now!" Rose said, walking away. "No, Suri might be out there, we must escort you," Eleven said as he and Ten came up on either side of her. "I'm surprised he didn't stick around this time," Rose said, looking around at the nearly empty sidewalks. Ten checked his watch. "It's nearly two in the morning, I'm sure he got sleepy," Ten said to them. "Having said that, let's get out of here." They walked under the bridge and out of Bricktown. Eleven led them up the street to the Radisson Hotel. "This is where I'm staying," he said to them. "I better take my leave of you here and wish you luck. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Rose came up and hugged him. "Be careful," she said to him. "You too. Keep out of trouble," Eleven said. "Oi, I think that applies to you more than it does me," she said. Eleven chuckled and held her close, loving the feel of her body next to his again. With great reluctance, he let go and kissed Rose's cheek. He smiled tenderly at her before forcing himself to pull away. Ten and Rose stood on the sidewalk and waved to him while he walked towards the front door and waved back. They waited till he was inside and out of sight before walking on. Just past the hotel room, the Doctor stopped Rose and pointed out Eleven's TARDIS which was in a grassy spot beside the hotel. They walked over and looked at it. "It looks newer," Rose said, running her hand along the side. "Give it a new paint job, did ya?" "Perhaps, the old girl could do with one and I see he added a St. John Ambulance sticker to the front door. Haven't had one of those on the door for ages." They examined it for a moment before heading on. They walked back to their TARDIS and the Doctor unlocked the door. They reached inside for their backpacks and the Doctor closed the door. "So…multistory car park?" he said, gesturing to the parking garage across from the bus station. "Not if he's gonna be in there." "He, who?" He snickered when Rose gave him a withering look. He took her hand after they put their backpacks on their back and walked across the parking lot. It was still hot and they paused at the opening to the parking garage and hesitated a moment. The cinderblock structure was two stories with glass over all the windows. The inside was empty of cars but when Rose stuck her head around, she noticed two people were snuggled under blankets against the wall. She stepped inside and grimaced. The air was still warm and the temperature inside the garage was at least 20 degrees hotter than the outside. Rose shook her head. "No, it's way too hot in here," she said, stepping outside. "Let's see if we can find a nearby nook then," the Doctor said. They walked along the back of the garage and came to the next building. There was one light burning inside the brick building and the Doctor could see it was under construction. He paused and looked in the windows but it looked deserted. There was a double glass door a few feet away with a concrete path that led up to it. The concrete path was dark and sheltered by the door and the Doctor pointed it out. On either side of the path were shrubs and a few trees that also gave some shelter from prying eyes. But when they walked up to the door, they noticed someone was already curled up right by it. The person raised their head and stared at them but since the doorway was in shadow it was hard to see who it was. "Yeah?" the person said. The Doctor could tell from the voice she was female. He could make out she had on shorts and a white t-shirt because he could see a bit of the light reflecting on her white legs and the fabric of her shirt and she had long black hair but other than that it was hard to make out any facial features. "Sorry, we were looking for a place to lie down," the Doctor said to her. "You're not drunk, are you?" she said to him. "No, neither of us are," the Doctor said. "You won't hurt me?" "We won't bother you; we just want a place to spend the night." "You can sleep here then," she said, pointing to the spot in front of her. The Doctor thanked her and they set their backpacks down on the ground a few feet from the woman. "I'm John and this is Rose," the Doctor said while they sat down on the ground. "I'm Jenny, nice to meet you," she said, waving to them in the dark. "This isn't a bad spot, it's a bit hot but it'll cool down in about an hour or so." "Go ahead and lie down, Rose, I'll keep watch," the Doctor said to Rose. Rose lay down with her head on her backpack. She shifted a little trying to get comfortable while the Doctor brought his knees up to his chest and relaxed. "Are you hungry?" Jenny asked him. "I have some food in my backpack if you need something to eat." "No thanks, we're fine," the Doctor said. "Are you new? I've never seen you before." "Yes, we got into town this morning." "I've been here about six months so I can help you find things if you need any help." The Doctor liked her. He could tell she wasn't drunk like Suri and she seemed to be a nice girl. Even though he and Rose had money, he was curious about this girl and what she knew. "Yes, could you help us?" the Doctor said. "We need to find places to eat and things like that." "Well, are you doing anything tomorrow?" Jenny said, sitting up. "Not till the evening, we have some money and we wanted to go to the ballpark but that would be in the evening, I suppose." "Well, if you have money, you can do a lot better than the places I could recommend," Jenny said. "Yes, but we don't want to waste all our money on restaurants," the Doctor said. "We do want to save up so if you can help us, that would be great." "Well, I usually get up around five on weekdays and six on the weekends. If you go to the bus station at 7, a church group comes in a truck and they pass out sausage biscuits and have coffee and donuts and water. Also, if you go up the street here," she said, pointing to the road nearest the car park, "there's this place called Sister BJ's, you can get sack lunches there on Friday and Saturday and every other week they have a clothes closet." "Ah, yes, we did find that place this morning," the Doctor said. "Didn't know it was called that though." "Yeah, they're nice there. Sometimes they have barbecues there and you can get hot dogs or hamburgers instead of the sack lunches along with a bag of chips and juice and stuff like that. Um…on Sunday, there's several churches you can go to that serve meals and one of them is the Indian Baptist Church and they're taking a bunch of people up to Ponca City tomorrow for some church thing and a dinner, they invited anyone to come and I'm going, want to go with me?" "Rose, how 'bout it?" the Doctor said. "Yeah, I'll go," Rose said, sensing the same thing as the Doctor, that the girl was a nice person and genuinely wanted to help them. "You have to be there by 8:30 in the morning. So if you want to come with me, we can get the food from the truck, run by Sister BJ's for the sack lunch and then head on to the church." "Brilliant. Where is Ponca City though?" the Doctor said. "Um…I think it's up north…by the Oklahoma border. It's the reservation for the Ponca Indian tribe. It's some interchurch get-together they have every few months. I'v e never been to Ponca City so I thought I'd go and check it out. I don't think they'll care if you come with me, just as long as you're sober." "Neither of us drink or do drugs." "Good, same here, nice to meet a couple of people who aren't druggies and boozehounds." "Same here," Rose said. "We saw several drunk people today who were extremely annoying." "Yeah, I try to avoid them but being homeless, that's not always possible. I try to keep to myself too because a lot of the men are horny and I'm by myself and they all want me to pair up with them. I'm not a slut and they don't like that I won't have sex with them but I don't care, I might be homeless but I still have standards and I won't spread my legs for just anyone." "Good for you," the Doctor said. "I also don't panhandle or hustle or beg for shit, that's beneath me. I just let God take care of me and go to these soup kitchens and places like that. It's different if someone wants to give me something on their own but I won't ask for it." The Doctor smiled and nodded, liking this girl even more. "Are you from Oklahoma?" Rose said, turning her head to look at her. "Nah, I'm from New York, I became homeless a few years ago and I've been traveling across the country after I couldn't find any jobs." "How do you travel?" the Doctor said. "Anyway I can, walk, hitchhike, sneak on buses or ride them legally when I can find the money to do it." "By yourself?" Rose said. "Yup." "Wow," Rose said while she and the Doctor shared a look. "You're brave." "Eh, I've been through so much in my life, there's very little that scares me anymore. I figure I'll die sometime, might as well live my life and take some risks before that happens." The Doctor nodded again. "Anyway, I gotta get some sleep," Jenny said, lying back down. "I'll wake you up. There's a huge clock across the street if you need to check the time. You guys are welcome to sleep here at night, just be aware that jerks will walk through from time to time and might wake you up at four in the morning asking for a cigarette or something like that. Just tell them to fuck off, I do." Rose giggled while the Doctor blinked in amazement. "You tell strangers to fuck off?" the Doctor said with admiration. "Hey, these idiots are waking me up to ask for stupid shit, then get offended when I get pissed off at them. Sorry, but I wasn't raised in a barn and I don't go waking people up on the street, especially since that's a good way to get maced or stabbed or shot. But some people don't think, I guess. No one's messed with me though, they just walk away mumbling I'm a bitch like it's my fault. Just letting you know that happens so you won't be surprised if you see a drunk bending over you asking you who you are and why you're here." "Well, I'll be sure to tell them to fuck off then," the Doctor said while Rose giggled. "That's the spirit," Jenny said. "Well, It's nice to meet you both and I'll see you around six o'clock." The Doctor and Rose wished her goodnight and Jenny closed her eyes. The Doctor winked at Rose and took her hand. Rose closed her eyes and the Doctor kept watch over them both while both Jenny and Rose drifted off to sleep.
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