*bzz BZzzzzz bzzzz*
She groaned. It was time to get up. She didn’t care. She
wanted to stay. No, she had to get up. But she was so sleepy.
Name a morning when
you weren’t sleepy. Wake up, you have a train to catch.
But there are other
trains.
Get up!
Groggily, she grabbed her stuff, made her way to the
reception, showered, and was ready to check out.
Dammit. Where’s that
coin?
She searched and had to take things out all over again. She
was sooooo bad at packing. Always she put things away for safe keeping, and
always she forgot where that was. A few days ago she had lost her comb. It took
two days for her to find it amongst her belongings. And she had only a little. Belongings,
that is. And yet she could still lose her stuff within her stuff.
Ah! There’s that coin.
She made her way down the cold street, glad of the many layers
of clothes she had put on. She was still cold, though. Shivering, she looked
for the tram stop.
There were a lot of post-night-out people wandering the
streets. She was a bit scared. She touched the can of pepper spray at her belt
loop.
**********************************************************************
“Wake up. Did you go out without me or something last night?”
He squinted his eyes open. It was his cousin. He was
showered and dressed. What time was it?
“Come on, let’s go. What were you doing last night? I got
tired of waiting for you so I went to sleep.”
He felt sleepy and hungover. What was I dong last night? He wondered.
Her.
Suddenly a vision of her crinkled nose and twinkling eyes
came to his mind. He reached for his phone. Had she received it? But there was
no reply.
He hoisted himself up and set out for a beautiful day in the
city. He must find those fish. She will want to hear of that. He closed his
eyes and remembered her acting out the fish coming to nibble his dead skin. She
did it so…so…seriously. A grown
woman, re-enacting nibbling fish. He shook his head. She probably forgot all
about him by now. Time to get ready.
**********************************************************
Her nose felt dry again. She was afraid it would shrivel up
and drop off her face. It was a pretty small nose. What if the cells died and t
had to be removed? The horrific thought crossed her mind. She crinkled it
again. She remembered how when she was young her left index finger had become
rotten and the doctor had proposed it to be cut off. Luckily it was still “alive”
so they ended up not cutting it off after all. Otherwise, she would have a
handicapped finger. She rubbed her long, twig-like fingers together. They were
really dry, too. It was almost like the caked dry surface of the Sahara
desserts.
“Hey! Where ‘ya headed?”
She crinkled her nose up at the three strangers who had
greeted her. There was an obvious startled look on her face.
“There’s a lot of bums out here this hour. Let us help you
out.”
She was suspicious. They were not very sober themselves.
“And how about you, what are you doing out here so early?”
One of them catches on and swipes his hand across his head
“Oh, we were out drinking last night” with a sheepish grin.
She noticed she was at the tram stop anyways, and there was
nowhere for her to go but to wait there. They were travelers too. They had been
to where she was from. They argued about the places they had been to. But they
all agreed it was an awesome place.
And perhaps if he
comes, he will enjoy himself there just as much.
She shakes her head. He’s probably forgotten all about her
once he’s woken up.
*****************************************************
He saw the statue at the entrance. He looked at the tanks and
the little fish swimming inside it. So the idea is that he is supposed to put
his feet in, and the fish will come and eat the dead skin away.
“they will usually love men’s feet, because of all dead skin
on it. Then you will know the meaning of horror.” Her voice from last night
wafts into his thoughts.
“No. I don’t think so. My feet are nice; they are not full
of dead skin.” Was his reply.
“Haha! Yes, I’m sure of that” her eyes glinting back at him.
He places his face in his palm. Did he really try to impress
her with feet? Of all the things to speak of, and right after showing….Oh God! He
had showed that picture of his blistered, torn up feet. He placed the other
hand on his face.
“Well, are you going in or not?” his cousin was behind him.
“Yes, yes. Take a picture of me from out here. Let’s see how
it goes.”
***************************************
She huffed and puffed as she made her way through the
forest. This is not what she had bargained for. Yes, she knew it would be on a
cliff. Yes, she knew it would be in the middle of a forest. Yes, she knew many
people had gotten lost in that forest. And yet that was still her destination.
Idiot.
The guy at the view point said it would only take five
minutes. Not that she bothered to check her clock, but it must be hours by now.
The weight of her bags were starting to dig in. She shifted the weight from her
waist to her shoulders. The bottled dangling at her side crinkled merrily in
response. Stupid bottle. She looked around. There were trees, more trees, and
now a bug was in her path.
*Scrunch*
Now it was a dead bug. She had just committed murder. It was
a bug, and she had killed it. Die, bug.
She muttered under her breath.
She trudged on, getting more and more grumpy with each step.
Buildings! She rushed forward; maybe that was what she as looking for, or at
least there would be people. People who might help.
Nope.
Save for a tractor and some more bugs, it was completely empty.
This was not a
good day.
********************************************************
It was nice weather for walking; and the sights were
amazing. And the fish, they had been amazing. A little ticklish at first, but
nothing too bad. Maybe it’s because she
is so small that she feels the fish is so horrific. He halts those thoughts.
He will have to wait until he gets back to Number 10 to see if she replied. Might she have replied? He allows
himself a small teaspoon of hope that she has.
***********************************************************
She starts taking out her things and pours them out onto the
bed. It was her ritual. The chaos usually gave her calm. Not this time. She was
pissed. The bags were heavy, the place was further away, and there weren’t half
the amount of signs that there were supposed to be. She clenched her jaw. There
was a slight tinge in her molar. Great. She plunked herself down and decided to
take a nap.
********************************************
He tossed and turned; the sheets bunched at his feet. He
kicked them free. He wanted to find her. But how could he? What if it was too
late? What if he never saw her again? He closed his eyes. Her voice floated in;
and it comforted him, somehow. Her amusement at the smallest of things, and her
amazement at the most bizarre of matters. Her cheeks moved so much as she spoke.
Not the way cheeks usually moved, hers moved much more. How she crinkled her
nose when she laughed. Her smile. It tugged at him. He had to find her. He had
to try.
He fingered the note she had given him. Is this her full
name? He decided to give it a try. He typed it in, and…there was her face! It
was half her face, but maybe if he clicked on it..
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