"Bec Whatever." I rattle the cage to wake her.

It's morning and I've returned from my bath at the waterfall. I got an early start today because no boaters showed up on the sand spit last evening. Good because I have to wait for them to depart before I can visit the waterfall. Bad because with trying to feed Bec, I worry how long her food stores will hold. She has seen what I eat and seem uninterested in it. In fact, I think the sight of it sickens her.

The people who visit here on boats are a strange lot. After dragging their vessels up on the sand, they take off in groups and visit the waterfall. Some of the boat people even know about this cave and make the very long hike up to search around inside it. This has meant that I need to keep what few supplies I have hidden. The last group of visitors did see my food, surprisingly none were interested in eating it. Since I made Bec's cage, we haven't had any other guest to the cave. I have several ideas should this happen. When I have told my light friends about the plan to avoid discovery, they only blinked once.

I never said it was a good plan.

Today, my three lucid light friends have taken to buzzing around Bec. From the way they are flying into her hair and around her body, I do not believe she can see them. The people at the White Building were also blind to my friends. One of the guards, I named Knuckles, Sky liked to fly in one of his ears and out the other. It was Sky's way of showing me his head was empty. After Knuckles pinned me down a few too many times and forced pebbles down my throat, I suspected as much.

"What's up Scary?" Bec asks.

This is good. We are getting familiar with our given names. I place down Bec's breakfast so she can reach it. Today, I'm serving her food from her pack, so I hope she likes it. Around the metal plate I place small white flowers found in the moss around the waterfall. Bec brushes the flowers off the plate before sniffing at the food.

"Would it really kill you to heat anything up Scary?"

From her face, I see she does not appreciate the meal. It is okay. After opening the container and dumping the food on the dish, but before bringing it to her, I took a bite of whatever it is. (Just noting, the container had a colorful picture on it of food. I was surprised to find its contents greatly differed from the picture.) What I found inside the can does in fact taste somewhat like excrement. I do not choose to tell you how I know exactly what excrement tastes like. Again, I am crazy. I spent an uncounted amount of time locked in an underground box. I have done far worse than eat my own poop.

Bec leaves her plate of food untouched. She returns to bundling herself in her covers. I however, would like to practice the language with her.

"Bec Whatever," I say.

She sighs. "Yes Scary?"

"What?" I point to a round container the food came from.

"This again?" She groans and with great care, pulls herself to sitting. "That's a can. This," she shakes her covers. "Is a sleeping bag. This is a plate. This is a cage, that is in a cave." She points to everything in turn. "This is a rock, and that's your head. You're Scary so leave me—" she points at her chest "—alone, or your head will meet this rock." She tosses the rock into the air and catches it.

Okay, got it. I point to each thing she listed. "Can, sleeping bag, plate, cage, cave, rock, head, Scary." I end it with naming me. In her list, I'm less sure the word "me" is her person, or the name of her chest. She has a very nice bosom but if memory serves correctly it can be inappropriate to point this out to women too soon in a relationship.

Bec blinks once. "Oh, that was good."

I agree, we would be much further along with my learning her language if she had been this chatty sooner.

"How is it again you got into central Utah without knowing any English?

She has asked this of me before. Like before, I ignore her. Instead, I chew on my arm.

Her eyes widen. Seeing what I do, I pull my forearm from my mouth. To manage my time in confinement, I developed coping behaviors. These same behaviors are less suitable for blending into society. I will even go as far as saying I think they make Bec nervous. I wipe my arm on my pant leg and continue with my plan.

As we are finally communicating, I retrieve her pack and have her list out the name for each item. This is a poor way of assimilating a language, I'm doing what I can. A few of the items I find in her packs she refuses to name. When I hold these items up, she crosses her arms and glares at me. I take these for being female related articles. Such thing were unknown to me before, I decide to keep the mystery. Thus, when I hold an item up to be named and get the look, I quickly replace the object into its bag.

However, one item from her pack in particular Bec is very concerned with. It is a strange flat shinny stone like thing that was kept tightly sealed away. Because she is very insistent on holding it, I hand it to her. Well, after making sure it wasn't a weapon. Rocks are bad enough in her hands. Bec makes the thing light up with large squares of color. She taps on the black mirror surface with her finger then, with a dramatic sigh, tucks it into the pocket of her pants.

"Bec?" I motion to the thing. "Name?"

She shacks her head. "You really are scary and clueless."

Understanding the jest of her phrase, I return her evil glare with one of my own. She retreats from me within her cage. Like stated, I'm insane, not stupid.

Bec is developing long black shadows under her eyes. That and her skin's very white. She appears exhausted after only an hour of our name-this-thing-game. I'm worried she's having trouble sleeping well within the cage. It was constructed with limited resources, like I have said, and she cannot either standup, or fully lie down within it. I wish there was another option. I've suggested that I could tie her up for a time and let her out for a walk. She grew paler and my light friends blinked once. (Between you and me, I don't think they care at all for my keeping her caged.)

When we have a lull in our name game, Bec curls onto her side. Returning a few minutes later with a snack for her, she is softly snoring. Reaching inside the cage, I pull her sleeping bag up around her shoulders.