Chapter 207: You'll Look Sweet Upon the Seat

"I know food is of no importance to you, but I need to eat. We have to find an out of the way place to eat while we are here," I suggested.

"There are several restaurants listed in the travel guide," Lucy volunteered.

"If they are listed, then the company can find them easily. What we need is a restaurant no one would expect. Something small and local would be nice," I suggested.

"How do we find such a place?" Lucy asked.

"We ask someone, you tell me, who should we ask?" I demanded.

"Someone who is not in the tourist trade for sure," she said. "How about a street vendor?"

"That's a good idea. I wonder if they have food carts, or some other kind of street vendors." I suggested.

"I can look that up," Lucy suggested. Then almost instantly said, "Nothing listed."

"Let's just go out and find something for tonight.," I said.

"I'm ready to go whenever you are," she said. It was a lot more natural sounding than it had been only a few days before.

In the lobby I had Lucy ask the night manager, "Do you have a farmer's market here?"

He replied, but of course I had no idea what he said. Lucy turned to me, "Yes and they have food vendors by the score, but they are only open till 3pm."

"Ah so we can have breakfast and lunch there. Ask him if there are street vendors or something like that around." I suggested to Lucy.

She spoke to him then translated for me, "He said there are some walk up food vendors but they have store fronts. You stand in the street to order then walk away with your food."

"Sounds good to me. Come along Lucy," I demanded as I pusher her out the door.

We walked toward the downtown. Lucy had gotten very general directions from the desk clerk. We probably went a mile before we found one of the shoppes described by the night manager at the hotel. The shop was one small kitchen with a counter almost on the sidewalk. One step from the cobblestones and I was standing almost against the order window.

I ate savory stew from the paper bowl as we walked deeper into the downtown. It was a small town with small shops. I thought that, if you took the whole town full of specialty shops and put them together, you might have one decent Wal-mart store.

"Are you feeling well?" Lucy asked as I leaned against a street light post.

"Sure just a little draggy from the walking." I replied.

"I think you should see a doctor about that leg," she informed me.

"The leg will hold up until this vacation is over. At least if we stop all the sight seeing on foot. We need some other kind of transportation." I suggested. "Do you have any ideas?"

"I'm not sure that I'm qualified to make that kind of decision." she said.

"I'm not asking for a decision, but a suggestion. Let's try to figure out the requirements," I said.

"Well it has to be cheap, so that we don't need more money," she suggested.

"Yes and something that doesn't require a driver's license or any red tape. We are trying to stay off the grid. Too bad that a bicycle beats me to death," I commented.

"Ah, I saw something on ebay that might work perfectly," Lucy said.

"What is that?" I asked.

"A tandem bicycle," she said. "Your leg will allow you to only pedal some of the time, but I never get tired. As long as my power last, I can pedal." She said.

"I wonder what your range would be?" I asked it more than commented on it.

"I am designed to fully exert myself for 10 hours. A regular bicycle does not require full exertion." Lucy said.

"Then that is the solution. You are amazing," I said, and meant it.

"Thank you Maxine. That means a lot to me." Lucy said. That coming from her was some kind of a breakthrough. She was becoming a lot more human. I wondered if the geeks had changed her program.

It was too late to do anything about the bike that night, so we managed to walk back to the cheap hotel. I realized that night while I lay awake in pain that I was beginning to have an anthropomorphic view of Lucy. Knowing that I did, didn't really change things.

All the pills I was popping finally kicked in and I slept. Actually I over slept. Lucy woke me by speaking my name softly. "Maxine are you okay, or should I call someone?" she asked.

"I'm fine, it just took me a long time to fall asleep last night," I said.

"I know I listened to your breathing. It's what I do every night," she said almost shyly.

"I'm going to take a shower and try to pull my head out of my ass. I'll be right back," I said.

The almost hot water helped to revive me. My short hair was easy to wash. Since it was summer toweling it dry was enough. I dressed in clean panties and a clean though badly worn pair of jeans. The tee shirt I wore that morning had three buttons but no collar. It is called a Henley collar. It was a dark gray color, and looked good on a girl wearing a push up bra with forms to ease the flat chested look I usually had. I dressed up a bit because we were going shopping to buy something for real.

Lucy had studied the bus schedules and routes. We walked a block and caught the number 17 bus which took us to the flea market. It took only five minutes to determine that there were no tandem bicycles there.