I walked inside to get Chinese food, I was thinking fried rice with pork. I know that isn't right. It was definitely fried rice with shrimp. Seafood cost extra sure, but it tasted like a smoother meat. There was less sodium in it. I was a big loser though. I loved Chinese food for the overuse of soy sauce. God, that stuff was like some kind of salt drug. I always used the low sodium one. I felt like it was all about sodium when you ate. Like that's all you get is goddamn sodium. I was going to definitely die of heart disease.

"Sir? Are you gonna order anything?"

"Yeah, can I get the chicken lo mein?"

"Dinner or lunch portion?"

"Can you make like a three fourths dinner portion?"

I just watched the hedgehog press the buttons. Beep beep beep.

"That'll be ten dollars."

"How much in mobiums?"

"Uh, hold on."

He pulled out a calculator. The exchange rate is sort of like three fourths too.

"It'll be seven-fifty mobiums."

I gave him eight mobiums as some kind of tip for the cook. I don't know why I had decided to eat in anywhere. When people looked at me, I wanted to panic. What was wrong with my teeth, what was wrong with my face, what was wrong with my looks, I didn't want to be known as that kind of celebrity.

The ticket printed and I sauntered off into the corner booth. I made sure to keep my back away from the front door. My ears would selectively listen for the ringing of the bell too. Anyone who entered would know that Tails Prower was eating here like some kind of commoner. I was a fox of the people...people as in animals. We never saw humans around here anyway. We only knew one human and that was Robotnik and well he tried to turn everyone into robots. I'm sure the story had been like expressed to anyone who was anyone in the last ten years.

"Number 13?"

I knew with the number that today was gonna be some kind of sick omen, or augury if you wanted a birdy word for it. I knew that someone was going to bother me and someone was going to ask for an autograph. I just wanted to eat in peace but I had to get up and grab the plate too. I had to be a good person about this. I was scared of making sure I walked correctly to the counter and picked up the plate. I tried also to not think about dropping anything from the tray it was all served on. Also, I forgot the hot and sour soup. I loved that stuff, but to order soup after the meal was dumb. No one did that. I didn't want to be like that. I didn't want to know I was unloved by anyone, I wanted to keep that thought.

I went back to the booth and sat back down. My back to the door. I was good to go. Three fourths portion. I added the soy sauce. I began eating the noodles. I did this without chopsticks because I never really learned how to do that. I could kind of keep my pointer finger straight which was good, but my left paw had a hard time with grasping anything. I was right handed. I was always right handed.

I took a bite and it tasted like it should. Good sesame oil, a great ratio of meat to noodles and there were not a lot of snow peas involved. I thought snow peas were some kind of horrible waste of time.

"Excuse me?"

Just hearing the question "excuse me" reminds me that no one ever wanted to interrupt me or anyone else from what they do. Still, I could have cringed the entire restaurant down to its foundation. Even the roaches would have scattered from the glare I gave no one. I turned with a smile that percolated between retail customer service and complete terror. It was another hedgehog, sheesh, they were everywhere at the time.

"Yeah?"

"Are you Tails Prower?"

"Yeah."

For a minute there was the silence. Like she wanted to say something, but didn't know how. I knew this all too well. Mobians couldn't believe it was me. I was just in their lives like any other person.

"Do you drive the red sedan?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

"I may have hit it backing out. I didn't want to just leave a note with my information. Do you want to go take a look?"

"How do you maybe hit something?"

She again just stopped talking. Looked down at her shoes for a second. She was wearing flats. Old lady shoes, but she didn't look a day over thirty.

"I hit your car. I-I'd like for you to go take a look at it if you could."

I sighed loudly and got out of my booth. I waited for her to lead the way outside. How did it happen I wondered. I had a front space right outside the door. She must have been on her phone or something. I thought you weren't suppose to talk on your phone in the car. I thought there was a law for that.

We pass through the door and we walked over to the backside of my sedan. There was maybe some reminiscence of a scratch I guess. She had tapped the back bumper from backing out. It felt like something worse had happened. I had half expected my car to be on fire. I always had wanted that to happen once. I wanted my car to burn like some kind of makeshift effigy. Look what I've done with my money, one of those fantasies.

"What...do you want to do?"

She asked like she was sincerely worried about this. Like there was some kind of mistake that had to rectified. All I kept thinking was that I need to fly more often when I go out. Why did I even have a car? I needed to learn the bus schedules. I needed to save money. But I wanted personalization. I wanted freedom. I wanted justice.

"Watch this."

I spat onto my gloves and squatted down. I rubbed my somewhat wet glove over the scratch. It faded away almost instantly. It wasn't my first time in a fender bender. I just feel like I could have gotten mad, sure. I hated cars. I just wanted something that could take me places. I didn't want everything else that came along with it. I stood back up and exhaled loudly again. For some reason I liked doing that.

Again, the hedgehog was speechless. This seemed to be her type of reaction. Like she had to conjure the need to talk.

She smiled finally and it was like it was gifted. Her consciousness had come back.

"I-I guess we're okay then!"

"I guess we are."

She went back to her car. Started it, backed it out correctly this time, and drove away. She turned right and joined the traffic. I watched the car until she hit the stoplight. I realized I was staring off for too long like some kind of freak. I checked my phone in pretense like I had a message. I had no messages. I went back inside. My food was ice cold. I ate it anyway.

"So why did you tell me this story Tails?"

"I think I was being nice."

"Do you feel like you're not nice?"

"I just think I'm supposed to just tell myself that. I keep thinking there was this moment in my childhood where I was defined as some kind of living being, but as I've grown up I've understood there isn't anything to it."

"That's an interesting way to put it."

"No it isn't."