“Kehl Lo denaii, not due-ed” he muttered at my response, but stood and motioned for me to follow him.
Following him to a backroom at the very far end of his home, he motioned to a little door that was pretty heavy. One glance inside and I pinched my nose, just in case. “You have an outhouse inside?” My face said it all if my tone didn’t.
It was too early to remember my manners. I was running on autopilot and that bitch could be kinda rude, much as I truly appreciated him allowing me to crash at his pad like this.
“No smell. Door thick ‘nough. Kehl use mix for tank, break up stinks. No smell.” Standing there, waiting, he meant for me to have a try. Miming walking me through the process of flushing, he insisted. “Know how use?”
“As long as there aren’t also three sea shells involved at some point, I can probably hazard a guess,” I ventured.
“Need Kehl show, Purr-roo?” he questioned, looking uncertain. “No shells.”
“No!” Clearing my throat, expression pinching at my outburst, I tried again. “No. I was joking. I’m good. Thanks. I think I’ve got it from here.”
Nodding, he leaned in anyway at the last moment as I stepped inside. “Use this, need wash rinse, this wipes,” he instructed, showing me a little water bucket with a smaller cup inside, and a bundle of fibrous looking, toilet paper thin material.
My face pinkened but I nodded.
“Wash hands in kid-chen after,” he added. “Soaps, water, cloth.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to remind him that I too valued good bathroom hygiene and not to fret on that front, Cap’n, but I couldn’t bring myself to snark at him like that.
He’s letting me crash at his place, he’s been taking care of me, he was protective of me. Honestly, he’s been awesome. Snarking at him would be mean and ungrateful.
“I think I’m good to go,” I told him. A moment passed that lingered as he stood in the doorway.
Blunt. Be blunt. He seems to thrive on that.
“I’m gonna bust a bladder here if I don’t urinate soon, and I’m pee shy. I can’t, uh, you know,gowith someone watching me,” I admitted a little bashfully. I was just really not used to having to have these kinds of conversations.
Cy may have barged in on one of my showers but he understood some things in the bathroom did not need an audience.
Kehl let out a grunt that was as good as an “Oh” and stepped back to allow me to shut the door on him.
He was still wearing that hooded piece that looked like fur that I’d noted earlier. Did he wear it constantly? Was that comfortable? Was it purely cosmetic? Protective?
Knowing what it’s like to be peppered with questions when it’s rather rude and intrusive, simply because they think they can because my lack of hair is obvious, I refused to be the person that does that to him.
Once finished in the bathroom, doing as he’d instructed on the indoor porta potty flushing front, I had to appreciate the ingenuity. No smell, no fuss.
Making my way over to the kitchen area to wash my hands, I spied Kehl’s broad back as he got to work heating a pan on the fat, pot bellied stove he used to keep his place all comfy cozy.
Glancing over my shoulder as I washed my hands, I asked, “Can I help?”
“No know how do. Kehl do,” he grunted out as he mixed batter to pour it into a pan, then started cracking weird looking eggs to dump them into a bowl and stir.
“I could learn… if you’d teach me.”
Kehl glanced up sharply at my softly worded response. He hesitated for a moment before letting out a short grunt and jerking his chin at me to come closer.
“Have you ever been through the portal?” I asked as he handed me the egg bowl with a tool not unlike a whisk inside, and set a pile of eggs next to me.
“This like humans make, jes?” he grumbled.
“Scrambled eggs,” I confirmed with a nod.
“Goot.” Kehl let out a soft grunt and got back to the enormous, flap jack looking mega pancakes he was cooking in the pan he’d placed over the top of the stove.
“What is this made of?” I wondered allowed, eyeing the bowl I was using.
