from everywhere and nowhere asks.
Looking around, I try to find the source of
the voice, but I never can.
"No. Can you give me a clue?"
The voice doesn't answer. I feel myself
slipping downwards, like being sucked down a sink hole, begin.
Frantically I grab at anything I can, but, of course, I have no
hands and there isn't anything to grab.
"Where can I find her?" I scream. "Tell me
at least that."
The slipping stops.
"The market. Look there, Carl Robinson."
Everything goes black. I get the very real
sensation that this might be my last chance.
MORNING - AGAIN
My eyes open sharply. I roll out of bed,
flip on my clothes so fast that I nearly break the zipper on my
pants and rush out the door.
"The market," I murmur.
I went there once looking for the woman that
I'm supposed to find, but didn't notice one. Now that the voice has
given me my - most likely final clue - I need to get to her
quickly. I don't know what it is that is supposed to happen, but I
MUST meet her today. There will be no more chances and I don't want
to think about what might happen if I don't achieve the mission
that I have been set.
Running down the road, I turn several
corners. The whole town is so familiar now that I am almost a
local.
The market is in the middle. I hustle
through the crowds of milling tourists, desperately eyeing every
single woman, young or old, for any kind of indication that she
might be the one that I am looking for.
Two hours later I have nothing. Not a single
woman stuck out as being the one that I'm looking for.
"Fruit, sir?"
I look down from where I am standing in a
quieter part of the market where fewer people are milling about.
There is a small girl with an apple in her hand. It's extended to
me. For a second I wonder if she is the one, but I realize that is
silly. The voice said a 'woman' not a 'child'.
"No thank you."
Turning, I don't see the little girl's grin.
She hammers the apple into my groin. I note that it is quite hard
for an apple and is actually a painted stone replica.
"Ouch..."
I hit the ground side on. She frisks me so
professionally that I don't even notice her stealing my
valuables.
"Thanks, mister. Have a nice day," she
cheerfully calls as she runs away.
Groaning, I drag myself to my feet. It's not
the lost possessions (personal items are pretty meaningless when
you die everyday) that gets me there, but the fact that this hasn't
happened before. Maybe fate has thrown me a bone. I certainly need
it.
My feet perform an ill-timed pattern of
steps on the gritty, broken pavement as I try to chase down the
little thief. She isn't very fast because of her size and I know
every inch of the market quite well by now. The child jumps under
the back flap of a stall. I slow and walk around front. The girl is
talking to a woman. I pause.
"It's her."
Somehow I know. She stands as tall as me,
has gorgeous brown hair, the sooty browned skin of the locals and a
slim but curvy body that would give any man pause. The girl is
holding my possessions out to the woman, who doesn't look pleased
by her facial expression.
"Excuse me," I say.
The little girl looks terrified. I barely
see her. She can have everything I own. The shop owner, she is what
I'm here for. I know that in my heart right now.
"Yes?"
My fruit selling thief makes a break for it,
but is caught by the collar.
"That child stole my stuff just now," I
explain. "It's really nice to meet you."
The two comments don't really fit well, but
they make perfect sense if one thinks about it. The child did steal
my possessions, but that doesn't matter. Meeting the one that is
going to save me from whatever it is that I'm caught up in is more
important.
"I thought so," the woman says. She turns to
scold the child, but I put my hand up.
"It doesn't matter. She can have it. I came
here to meet you."
"Me?"
"Yes. I think you are stunning."
Never before have I ever been so direct with
someone of the opposite sex, but this time it seems