Agent in the Dark

"Where a bear swiped at me."

Her eyes darted up to mine, as her cheeks pinked knowing that I had caught her looking.

I held out a piece of jerky, "It really is just bear meat. I don't do the whole consume one's neighbor thing."

She kept my gaze for a moment, and then she took the jerky from my fingers. The taste must've surprised her, because she started gobbling it down.

"Easy! Don't eat too fast you'll hurt yourself! There's plenty more take your time." I said gesturing to the tray.

She did slow down some, but it was an effort on her part. An hour passed by like that, a cup of water then a piece of jerky or some other native food I had brought along with me. Her stomach had shrunk and I could tell when she was full after only a few pieces of jerky. She was looking tired again too.

"How would you feel about a little dessert?" I asked pulling a Hershey chocolate bar out from a fold in the covers.

I chuckled, as I saw her eyes light up with yearning and I handed the chocolate bar to her. She said something, as she took the chocolate from me that I didn't here.

"What?"

"Thank you." She said, only slightly more audible in tone.

I watched her eat the chocolate bar and had to admit to myself how rare the few times in my life were, when someone had ever thanked me for anything. The other side of that was that I hadn't done much to deserve a thank you.

She was really enjoying the taste of the chocolate, but in some ways it was much more than that. "It's nice to taste the way things used to be isn't it?"

She nodded understanding my meaning. I had been referring to just a brief time before, when a candy bar had been a thing of commonality, with a million gas stations supplying them in never-ending supply, but now they were all but a memory in just a little over two years.

"Probably just tastes good too." I said watching the relish with which she consumed every morsel of chocolate. She stopped and shocked me by breaking off several chunks in her hand to hold out to me. I stared at her offered hand and what it contained in disbelief.

She was sharing her food half starved as she was, with me, the man holding her captive!

My voice husky sounding I said, "No you eat it. There's more where that came from."

She pulled her hand back and I studied her curiously, as she finished off her chocolate. Her gesture had been oddly touching and it led me to a question.