Left, Right, Up, Down, Middle, Back. I can’t keep track of how fast she runs up and down through the entire street. She's too fast… even for me, her hand gripped down hard, clamping on my fingers, rough as a stone rock beach.
She takes me to the school. Kids are still playing in the yard, enjoying life as it is. She watches with a satisfied smile, just a little shorter than me. I want to know if she's been well...
“Are you hungry at all?” A small grumble comes from her stomach as i asked that.
“Would you believe me if i had said no?” she comes up with a shy smile. “You don’t need to buy me stuff really, I-I have my own money.”
“First yes second my small treat now c'mon and let me show you the dining spots I’ve been meaning to go to.” instead of her dragging me around it was my turn now. I understood at that moment why she had always pulled and dragged me around. The rush of air felt nicer.
The menu covering our faces are taken away by the man in the suit, he’s got a small notepad with him and his pen finishing its final strokes. He leaves me with a pip lady, watching around the room. Outside of our dining booth lay candle and chandelier lit rooms. It's hard brown wooden structure decorates the room. It's a fine place to eat alright, though I catch her staring at me from right across the table. Her arm and hands were all placed under the table. Her head rocked left and right, “how long does it usually take for this? I'm already bored, why couldn’t we have just bought bread?”
“Well mostly because I’ve haven’t had restaurant food in a while so lets just enjoy this.” Her face still doesn’t seem to agree looking around further. The waiter came back with a glass and bottle, pouring for us, his finger in my drink. No no it's just a vision, I looked up at the waiter’s face. Its too perfect, a perfect smile, plastic fake smile. He stood there whole body just standing there like a mannequin, the drink he pours doesn’t fill it stays half drunk from the cup.
“Are you alright?” that wasn’t from me however, it was from Her. She’s looking up and down the waiter, tapping his hand. “It's kind of waxy.”
“You can see it also?” she gives a nod. The waiter moves like that of a machine, a robot even. The thing’s fingers moved in a stiff manner to pour for her. The cup starts filling but once again its half drunk from the cup. It turned its head one increment at a time to look at me, Staring at me. I could see it’s eyes turning a dark red in the live pupils moving normally, fluidly. while its perfect smile grew wider, far past that thing’s cheek. He does a 180 and leaves fluidly. His body is now moving fluidly, not in small machine-like increments.
“Hey come back.” The waiter comes back towards me, he’s looking confusedly at my hand. The entire cup is fully empty, I look at his face first, Not waxy. Perfectly normal, or rather imperfect, imperfectly normal. He’s not wax anymore, everything about him screams human.
I handed over 2 coins, 10 francs each. “ Sorry, I just wanted to check something.” the kid’s eyes light up as he holds out the bottle to pour more. The wine had a lasting taste. I counted more than two minutes for just a small sip, do aftertastes last that long? I must’ve drank too much.
“That wasn’t human.” she softly spoke towards me, “that wasn’t human at all.”
“That was just a delusion, that was just a delusion.” I repeated twice, once for me and once for her. “But you saw it then what?”
“We are drunk that must be why.” her eyes looking right into my soul.
“Drunk? Being drunk doesn’t give hallucinations.” Does it? No no it doesn’t but i haven’t had enough drinks to know..
Our dinner was solemn and quiet, both of us probably trying to piece together what had happened. I don’t exactly know what to say, she looks so different from when we were younger yet I look the exact same, maybe a little bit more hair on top. Especially that long hair, that's what had caught me off. Not that it displeases me but still, I'm still itching for another sip of that wine, but maybe its too far away from my grasp. Starting to regret moving the wine away, but she also has her wine far from her. I never drank wine from that moment on again, or at least from what I could remember.
Walking out of that restaurant was too quiet, no loud chattering from the other booths. No one was looking up at us, nothing except that waiter watching us. She helped me trot, I shouldn’t have let her, not if I would’ve known where she was going to take me. Luka’s clothes store. The cheapest store anyone could’ve gone to if you wanted some clothes.
“You want clothes?” she gave me an urgent nod as if her life depended on it. So we headed inside. Her one grasping hand departed as we opened the door. But what's left is only her arm; it slouched and fell to the ground as a black void stood in front of me. Perhaps this thing ate her. Only an underlying dread filled me as I picked her arm from off the ground.
“Are you alright?” I asked her, she had only tripped, but of course, that was just a delusion, a delusion. I help her up as she's looking down at her leg. Just a small bruise, but it's purple instead of red. I don’t get it I really don't, why is it happening so often now… When I looked down at my empty hands not holding a thing, she's already off moving around the store looking for something specific. With how fast she dismisses all the other clothes she's definitely looking for something specific.
Her speedy feets come to a quick halt, looking upon a sun hat. She takes the hat and puts it on, its yellow. A dirty yellow, she spins around letting me get a good look at her.
“So? How do I look glasses? Am I still the great navigator?”
“Master navigator you mean.”
