“Hurry up! My arms are getting tired.”

“Be patient. You should try it yourself sometime if you think it’s so easy.” She wasn’t in the mood to play nice. “Oh, sorry, you can’t read minds. I forgot.”

Zackbar the All Seeing twitched his eyes in her direction hurling hatefulness with his glance, keeping his body motionless. The chimp smirked spitefully, his reaction alleviating a little of her boredom, but her simian face changing almost imperceptibly.

“Please, can we get on with this?”

Sighing, she focused for a moment and stretched invisible tendrils from her mind to the man sitting across from the working-to-remain-motionless Zackbar the All Seeing. Slipping into the head of the grubby-jawed yokel, the chimp poked and prodded until she touched a spot that sent waves of images traveling back along the psychic wires to her. She didn’t know with certainty how it worked. Perhaps it was largely probability spiced with character and a sprinkle of imagination. She simply cast her lines deep into subconscious pools that seemed fed by hidden streams of time and fished out pieces of the future. Humans were only ever seriously interested in love or money. Most of the time she found they would be successful with neither, but no one would pay to hear that. So Zackbar acted as the buffer.

“Oh, that’s nice,” she mumbled sarcastically, rubbing her chin.

“Hurry up! What is it?” Zackbar, more commonly known by his friends and cronies as Zack, drew out the words, elongating them for emphasis and obviously missing the irony.

“Well, he’ll come into a decent inheritance it seems. But the murder charges will stick, so he’s not going to enjoy it very long.”

“He’s gonna kill someone?” Zack’s arms drooped and quivered as the sweat gathering on his brow began to drip.

“Yes, his aunt, apparently. She’s terminal, the poor thing. Would you like to know more?”

“Just stick to things I can use!”

“You asked.” The chimp smirked again. “Sorry if it stinks, sweetheart, but this guy’s got…”

“Can we get this over with, please?” Zack grunted through clenched teeth.

“…for brains.” She withdrew her sensors.

At that moment time stuttered, slipping a second backward before lurching forward once again, seeming to spiral outward from the tent. Moving herself and others outside the larger course of time was only slightly more difficult in terms of focus than reading the currents and she eased them back into the flow. The tide of life returned around them and the symphony of the carnival continued as if it had never been interrupted; music, the squeal of aged metal cogs slipping and the chatter, laughs and screams of patrons mingling, flooding the tent. Smells that faded during the moments of stillness wafted back into the tent and the chimp turned her head, a whiff of caramel apples rose above the sawdust and filth making her mouth water. But something else beneath that, something light and floral, stirred dormant caterpillars in her stomach, sending flutters of energy through her body, tickling hunger of a different sort.

Her mind snapped back from its desires as Zack swirled his arms in a circle, the purple sleeves of his robe twisting around his wrists, gold star sequins catching candlelight and glinting from the cuffs. The customer’s jowls shuddered as he flinched and his startled gasp seemed to be forced out of his mouth by the wriggling flesh. The chimp tossed a peanut into her mouth, chewing around her giggle and drawing her knees up to her chest.

“I see…” Zack leaned close to the bowl of water in front of him, narrowing his eyes as if with pure concentration and will he could extract the secrets of the universe from the iridescent film of scum, the airborne residue of frying grease and sweat that floated on the surface of the liquid.

I see…” He began again and fluttered his hands about his stained turban, knocking it slightly and causing the lavender feather that crowned it to swing back and forth hypnotically. The chimp buried her face in her knees, slapping her hands over her head.

Zack paused for less than a second before continuing. “I see money for you, my friend. Indeed, a great inheritance! In the future. But! A word of caution. Exercise patience and all will come to you.” Zack looked up from the bowl and twitched the corners of his mouth to imitate a smile, a return to the customer’s toothy, yellow grin. “Seriously, be patient.”

“Well, my aunt on my daddy’s side’s got money. Is it her? Heck, she’s got the cancer too.” The man’s eyes gleamed as they filled with mountains of gold coins in which he could clearly see himself swimming.

“Friend, the information I’ve given is all I have. The spirits have spoken. Now, would you like to have your picture taken with Laura, my esteemed, if less than intelligent assistant? Just five dollars and a wonderful souvenir.” A peanut shell nicked the corner of Zack’s eye even before the final word was out of his mouth.

The customer glanced at the chimp warily and shook his head. “No, that’s okay.” He stood and pulled his pants up over his ample belly. Turning to face the open flaps of the tent’s doorway, the yokel looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with Laura who flashed a toothy grin and let out a screech that chased him out into the bright lights and noise.

“What did you do that for? You scared him off!”

“That and the stink from your armpits.” Slipping another peanut to her mouth, Laura munched vigorously anticipating the coming emotional lunge.

He shot her a nasty look. “I showered this morning! It’s just so stinking hot in this blasted tent!” Snatching the turban off his head, he flung it and Laura reflexively plucked it out of the air but she dropped it just as quickly, looking around for a place to wipe the sweat from her palms. Zack ran his hands through the greasy strings of his hair and then wiped them on his robe, leaving dark smears.

“Don’t lecture me about clean, you dirty ape!”

Lifting an arm, Laura scratched beneath it and then chewed her nail. “What’s the matter, darling? Don’t like a natural girl?”

Zack shook his head, groaned and rubbed a thick-knuckled hand over his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. When he had met her, she was gorgeous. A pure fantasy and seemingly everything he had ever desired. That wistfulness carried his mind back across waves of time.



[edit on 1-1-2009 by TravelerintheDark]

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Added (YYSLSC) to title

[edit on 7/1/09 by masqua]

It had rained that night and the headlights of his truck glowed on the slick black road somewhere off the highway, between thick layers of trees, desolate and lonely. Zack was bringing up the rear to catch anyone who fell behind like a mule driver pushing the team forward through night and fog. His head instinctively snapped right, eyes locking on movement and a shimmer of white. Moisture, darkness and a lack of sleep occasionally made his vision less than accurate and seeing a young woman in a skimpy nightgown waving her arms wildly from the edge of the road most certainly had to be an hallucination, but worth pulling over for.

He eased the truck to the shoulder of the road then reached over and pulled the handle on the door, simultaneously giving it a shove to swing it open. Lightly hopping up into the cab a second later was as beautiful a thing as he had ever seen. Even scratched, dirty and soaking wet she stunned him and he couldn’t help but stare blankly as she pushed the damp strands of her blonde hair behind her ears, looking over at him and smiling sweetly.

“Hi! Guess you’ve never seen a sight like me before?”

No, never.” He stammered and blushed as he turned the truck back onto the road knowing that whoever was in front of him would be keeping an eye on him and so pressing the gas a little harder than he needed to. A moment later his CB crackled and he waved his hand dismissively, rolling his eyes.

“Zack, you’re slipping behind. You fall asleep back there?”

Picking up the handset, he pushed the button and spoke as calmly as he could. “Naw, a raccoon ran out in front of me. It’s all good. I’m catching back up.” He was annoyed that his voice was slightly shaky and looked over at his pretty passenger to smile and reestablish his confidence. But the moment he looked at her again his stomach dropped and his heart crashed. He wondered briefly why he had lied, but explained to himself that for insurance purposes alone he wasn’t supposed to pick up hitchhikers. But there was an immediate sense of jealousy too unlike what he had ever felt before, a keen sense that he had to keep her from everyone else, that their eyes might somehow ruin her.

“Well, I’ve never been called a raccoon before, but I’m sure it’s fitting.” She laughed and put a small handbag on her lap as she dug through it and pulled out a compact. “Mind if I turn on the light?”

Zack shook his head to indicate he didn’t care and she reached up to press the switch and illuminate the cab. Flipping open the compact she looked into the mirror and gave a squeal before quickly going to work, using a tissue to wipe away smears of dirt and make-up before applying a fresh coat of artificial polish to her naturally pretty face.

“How’s that?” She turned and smiled again, projecting herself in an uncanny way.

“Well, yeah, just as good to be honest.” He chuckled and felt his face and neck flush and hot with blood again.

“Well, aren’t you sweet. And cute too.” She reached up and flicked off the light.

“What’s your name?” He asked, feeling bolder.

“You can call me whatever you like. So, where are we going?”

They talked carelessly through the rest of the trip but he never bothered to ask her how she had come to be out on that lonely road, in the dark and the rain. It never crossed his mind anywhere other than the lower reaches of his consciousness. But she would explain that in her own time and in the weeks before then they became inseparable, making love, having laughs and enjoying life on a level too simple to comprehend in any other state of mind.

When she sat him down one night he had panicked at first thinking she was pregnant. When she told him that she was from another planet he laughed out of relief more than anything.

“Oh, well…” He considered what she said for a moment, thinking that if she wasn’t entirely sane she was beautiful, and she made him happy. So why did he have to care that she believed herself to be some sort of alien? “That’s okay. Heck, I’ve dated illegals before. No big deal.” He chuckled but the look on her face strangled his mirth.

“I’m being serious and I’m not crazy. That’s what you were just thinking; that I may be crazy but I’m still pretty, so you can still love me.”

His mouth opened but all that came out at first was a croak. “Wow, okay so you’re psychic or something? Or maybe you just made a lucky guess, I don’t know. Hey, that’s cool! We haven’t had a psychic act for a couple years, you know. Be a nice way to get me away from the game tables. Hate that stuff. Yelling at people. Goading them all day. Fortune tellers always have a steady stream…”

“Is that it? You only love me because I’m pretty?”

“Well, no! I mean, yes, I love that you’re pretty, but that’s not…”

“We can find that out real quick.” She knew he wasn’t lying and so she also knew she had him. She had already grown weary of putting in the effort to gain his love. It was time to change the game, to play by her rules.

Her mind quickly found and slipped into a secret, branching stream that stemmed away from the greater course of time as she probed into Zack’s mind searching for just the right form. She looked for something locked so deeply and firmly that his reaction would be almost subconscious, the very first object to which he devoted unselfish love. She found it in a carnival attraction from his childhood. A chimp named Bingo.

It was like a movie playing out in her mind where at least half the frames were missing and so the flow was ragged. A cage layered with dirty straw, a young boy bringing cups of fruit cocktail and then sitting outside the enclosure for hours talking about his boyish problems while a dark, gentle hand stretched out from between the bars to twirl his hair. And the song-game that he taught her that she would screech and clap along with as he called out “B-I-N-G-” Clap!

The day that Bingo didn’t come to the bars, lying motionless in a corner, the boy called to her and then sat down outside the cage, talking for a while as if nothing had changed until he felt as if something tore loose from his heart and he wept.

Laura’s eyes welled with tears as she lived through the heartache with him and for a moment she doubted what she was going to do. But it was a matter of survival for her, at the very least and she couldn’t face the alternative. Besides, she reasoned, he wouldn’t ever miss the memories. He wouldn’t even know they had existed at all. So she carefully began plucking them away, all but one. She left a simple memory of that love as a mystery which would strengthen his resolve to not only love her unconditionally but to need to know why.

Slipping into her new form wasn’t much different than changing clothes for her and when it was finished she dried her eyes and sighed to gather her emotions, taking the memories she had gathered from him and placing them in a distant corner of her mind where they would stay. She then stood and focused, moving back into the greater course of time.

“What do you think now, lover?” A significantly shorter, bow-legged version of Laura stood on the couch and placed her hands on her wiggling hips.

Zack recoiled in stunned fear, lurched backwards, throwing up his arms and nearly falling over an armchair. But then his heart took over and he was overwhelmed with warmth for the animal in front of him and that layered itself on top of his love for Laura, creating a cocoon that encompassed not only feelings of love but a deep devotional longing that he simply had to care for her no matter what, that he could never let her leave him.

“Laura?”

“Yes, it’s me. What do you think?”

“I guess we can’t get married now,” was all he could manage to say, but then wanted to smack himself knowing that he had only meant that she wouldn’t be able to take a blood test and nothing about how she looked. Although, he admitted to himself, at that particular point her looks would have a lot to do with it as well in the eyes of the law.

She didn’t comment, simply nodded, sat down and patted the cushion beside her, inviting him to sit too. He accepted after a moment of hesitation and they began talking, her explaining to him where she came from, what she was, or more how she was different than him and he occasionally interrupted to ask if she would please change herself back. But she refused.

“Why a chimp? I mean really.” What he found most odd to himself was that he wasn’t repulsed by her really. Something in him still deeply desired her and wanted to show her affection. At the same time another part of his mind was so repulsed by the idea that he was disgusted with himself for even considering it.

“It came to me. You mentioned doing a psychic act and it might be funny for you to have a beautiful assistant.” She laughed. “I’ll do the reading but the problem is I can’t lie. It isn’t in me to deceive with words. So you’ll have to relay what I tell you to the people. They won’t like to hear the truth most of the time.”

“No, not words, just looks, huh?”

“That’s right, Zack. We can look like anything we want, or more to the point, whatever those who desire us want us to look like. But I’ll never lie to you.”

“Do you love me?”

She looked at him with soft brown eyes, feeling a touch of pity. “No, I don’t. But I know you still love me and I won’t leave you. In a way, I need you as much as you need me. But you’ll have to accept me as I am. We’ll simply have to make this work.”

And so they had lived for five years. For a time he had tried to woo her with gifts and proclamations, working to show her just how much he loved her, and not just for her beauty. Every so often he worked up the courage to ask her again how she felt. The answer was always the same, and in time he simply stopped asking, knowing it was the truth and would never change no matter what he did. Yet he continued to love her day in and day out and often wondered at the strength of the feeling, as if he were under some sort of …

“A spell, Zack? Really, that again? I’ve told you before, I can’t lie. Never. Not even if I wanted to. And I’ve told you a thousand times, there is no spell. Poor Zack, your love for me is as real as anything.”

“Stay out of my head.” he muttered, then turned his face from her. “Can’t you just change back? Just for a little while?” He turned back and his eyes pleaded with her, expressing his urge in a fanatical glimmer of moisture that gathered at the corners.

“Not even for the two minutes it would take you, sweetheart. I told you, you’ll have to love me as I am.” She leaned forward, spreading her muscular, hairy arms wide and bared her thick, sharp teeth, chattering them wickedly.

“Do you have to be so cruel, Laura?”

“My name isn’t, Laura! I hate it when you call me that! My name is…”

“Yeah, I know. It rhymes with ‘itch’.” The sharpness of his mood poked his heart and he hurt at being mean to her. It always hurt no matter how terrible she was to him. But he knew she would feel it to. And so they would begin again, being nice to each other until the next time one of them felt insulted.

“You know, Zack, chimps like to bite when they battle. And do you know where they like to bite?” She launched a whole peanut into her mouth and snapped her teeth together with a sharp ‘Crack!’ but immediately regretted it. The empathetic transfer of pain stabbed her in two places at once. She hated him in one way, but knew it was wrong. It wasn’t his fault, only the rules of the game that she had grown tired of playing.

The idea of the slavish love of another towards her had always seemed an ideal, feeding on the devotion but never really needing to love back until her partner died in their own pining. Then it was the choice to move on to another or simply die from ‘starvation’ herself. Even though her kind didn’t often feel love for their partners as they received it there was a closeness that occurred that made choosing another difficult.

But it was wearying in a way she hadn’t expected and now she felt she had as little choice as he did. The next time would be different, she told herself over and over, but she didn’t have to think about it to realize that there might not be next time or that she simply might not be courageous enough to grasp it if it came within reach.

Zack let his head droop between his shoulders and salty liquids mingled on his face. “Please, let’s not fight. It’s too stinking hot. Would you hand me my turban before someone comes in.”

Sighing, she climbed down from the stool and picked up the stained wrap of purple polyester, holding it up to him. “I’m sorry, Zack. I’m just tired.”

“I’m sorry too, La… I mean….” He fell silent, feeling his throat close around her true name, not wanting to give her that inch.

She patted his knee with as much tenderness as she could muster. “You can call me Laura. I don’t mind that much.”

Nodding, he took the turban and placed it on his head and muttered, “It’s almost closing time.”

As Laura began climbing back up to her perch she noticed the same delicate floral scent that had caught her attention earlier. She paused and turned as a woman stepped through the flaps of the tent. Inside her chest Laura’s heart thudded hard, skipped and then sped up, pounding rapidly. Excited she finished her ascent and turned to look again, her face becoming warm as she took in loveliness.

“Hi! You still open? Everybody else is closing and I walked past this place like six times. I guess I’m a little nervous about having my fortune told.” She smiled with openness and a touch of mischief. “Actually, I thought I heard someone else in here a minute ago.”

Zack glanced over at Laura and then quickly rose, making a sweeping gesture towards the chair opposite him. “Ah, well Zackbar the All Seeing is also Zackbar the Ventriloquist. But only on Saturdays. Of course I have time for a beautiful lady. My last reading of the night.”

The woman looked down at the metal, folding chair; fluffy, yellow innards pierced with bits of hay flowered from splits in the vinyl. Sighing lightly, she sat down, scooting for a second before drawing her knees together and placing her forearms on them as she leaned forward. “So, tell me my future, Zackbar the All Seeing.”

“That’ll be twenty dollars, please.” His oily hand stretched out flat at the end of his thin arm as he extended it toward her.

“Not very trusting for a psychic.” Giggling as she reached into the pocket of her jeans she pulled out neatly folded bills, peeled one off the top and handed it to him. “I’m kidding of course. Even psychics can’t see everything.” She bent forward again, elbows on her knees, hands closed together.

Flinging his arms to the side and closing his eyes, Zack made circles with his wrists while his fingers clawed the air. “I see…” He opened his eyes and leaned forward, looking into the filthy bowl of water and becoming motionless.

“Hi!”

The woman jumped and turned to face the chimp squatting on the stool before turning back to look at Zack.

“Hey! That’s pretty good! I didn’t even see your throat twitch! I hope you tell fortunes as good as you can throw your voice.”

Laura climbed down from the stool and onto the table, sitting in front of the woman. “It’s wasn’t him. He’s not here at the moment.”

Her face falling to disbelief, the woman peered around the chimp to Zack sitting apparently frozen, not breathing and not moving. “What? Really? Whoa!” She turned back to Laura and peered closely at her lips. Laura obliging opened her mouth, rolling her tongue to expose all surfaces. The woman then reached out slowly and with a gentle finger began sifting the hair on the chimp’s neck. Laura giggled and the woman recoiled but smiled.

“Nope, no artificially implanted voice box, no microphones, no wires. Just me. I’m not from around here.”

“Oh? You don’t say. That’s good news at least. I’ve lived here all my life and would like to think I’d have heard of talking chimps being native to the area. So where are you from? Escapee from a Soviet circus?”

“Think ‘otherworldly’.”

“Like one of those monkeys they launched into space? Some sort of gamma irradiated mutant?”

Laura laughed. “Not quite. I’m from another planet, if you can believe that.”

The woman sat back and stared for a moment. “You mean an alien? Like from outer space?”

“Is that really harder to believe than secret Soviet experiments or a mutated space explorer?”

“Well, you know Stalin did try to create a race of ape-human hybrid soldiers. Who knows? I mean, I actually believe in… those things. I’ve never seen one, but I have a friend who has. Just not something I expected.”

Laura laughed again. “Well, neither are you something I expected. What’s your name?”

This time it was the woman’s turn to laugh since despite the difference in species the amorous interest was obvious. “My name’s Andi. What’s your name? Or won’t I be able to pronounce it?”

She pondered for a moment before blurting out, “Whatever you want it to be! But he calls me Laura, so that’s fine too.” Laura picked nervously at one of her nails. “Or whatever you want really.”

“Okay, I’ll give it some thought.” Andi wrinkled her nose and smiled wryly. “What’s his problem anyway?”

Laura turned for a moment. “Oh, he’s okay. It’s a thing I can do, sort of step outside of time in a way.” She shrugged and turned back. “I’m really more interested in you.”

“Oh, and why is that?” Her tone was a touch ironic as she began to find the situation more than a little amusing.

Laura smiled shyly and placed a hand over her eyes, splitting her fingers just enough to peek through. “You’re pretty.”

Andi laughed heartily. “Well, thank you. You’re pretty cute yourself, you flirty monkey.” She reached out and tickled beneath Laura’s chin. “So what brings you to Earth?”

“I’m looking for love. It’s what we, my species does. It’s how we live. We’re what you might call ‘empathic feeders’. We feed from emotions. Love is the most nourishing, though just about any strong emotion will do to an extent. Anyway, when we reach a certain age we are given the choice to leave our homeworld. Those who remain often become willing servants to feed the strong among us, what you might think of as royalty. But because of our empathic sense it isn’t something to be taken by force, it must be given freely. Without a pure love, we eventually die.”

Laura’s thoughts drifted to home for the first time in years and for a moment the memories frightened her. Her first parent had provided care for the Givers who lived sparse, isolated lives in blank cubes with only a seat and large video screen that their eyes remained glued to, following the movements of their Receivers. Laura occasionally accompanied her parent and it made her nauseous to see them sitting motionless, eyes pleading and giving at the same time. They didn’t do anything for themselves, their whole lives devoted to their single purpose as they wasted away and eventually died. Her parent’s duty was to generally look after their physical comfort as much as possible. Her parent often held one-sided conversations with them which Laura once questioned. Smiling, her parent placed a hand on Laura’s head and she was flooded with a horrible longing and then a mild comfort as she heard her parent’s voice fill her mind.

“Wow! That’s a pretty rough life. I mean, humans like to think that way, but the truth is we can survive without love. Not very well, but we can make it. So how’s it going so far?”

Laura’s resolve didn’t sway. “Well, it’s a little better now.” Baring her teeth in what was for her a smile, she closed her mouth when Andi recoiled. “Sorry, the body, I know.”

Andi’s mouth turned down and Laura could feel the sense of pity flooding into her, peeling back the bitterness she used to cover the emotional hole in her heart that Zack’s devotion had never filled. It hurt but in a good way.

“I’m sorry, I’m just a little taken aback, you know? It’s pretty freaking weird.”

“I understand. But I could look like anything you want, you know. I can be anything your heart desires. Any body, any form.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s something else we can do. We are shape-shifters. We can take any form we wish to satisfy our love.”

“Oh.” Andi paused; her mind began to spin a little too fast, as if being stirred. “Is this the form he likes?” She pointed at Zack and then put her finger to her lips, stabbing away her grin.

“No, this is just the one I prefer. It keeps him away from me,” Laura said giggling. “He really just takes care of me. He loves me, but there’s nothing between us more than that.”

“So there’s no hot monkey love?” This time she didn’t bother to stifle her smile.

“Well…”

Andi raised her splayed hands to her face, as if deflecting the thoughts from entering her mind. “No! Never mind, I do not need to know!”

“So, what would you like? Perhaps a Brad Pitt type? Would that please you? I think it would.”

“Aren’t you a girl monkey?”

“Yes, but not really. My kind isn’t gender specific, rather more like neutral. So we can assume any gender desired. I could be male or female, if you prefer. I think male though. So how about it? Someone ruggedly handsome, tall, nice build. That’s just your type isn’t it?”

“Yes. Well, no. Whatever you’re doing, stop it! It feels like someone is sticking their finger in my brain!”

Laura paused, surprised. She had never known anyone to feel her probing before and it seemed at least a little unusual. “Well, what would you like then?”

Andi looked into the brown eyes in front of her. “Are you kidding? You’re from Planet Love and you can’t figure it out? I want love, silly monkey. Not just something I love to look at but something I live to love. Get it?”

“But I could love enough for both of us. You just have to accept me. Isn’t that the way humans work?”

“Sometimes, but that isn’t the point.” Andi sighed and reached into her bag pulling out a pack of cigarettes, mumbling that she couldn’t believe she was having such a conversation with a lower primate, even a talking one, and then apologized. With the cigarette lit, she used the smoldering tip to punctuate her next point. “That isn’t what I want. I want to love as well as be loved. Mutual, you know? And if I can’t have that, I’d rather not settle on eye candy.” She blew a trail of smoke into the air above her head, watching it float on the thick, humid air. “Understand?”

“Yes, I do. But do you think that’s realistic? You could go a lifetime and never come close. Never find another who can give as much love as I can. It’s what I’m built for, so to speak.”

She lanced the chimp with a bitter glance and Laura recoiled a little, never having experienced before the shriveling of her heart that being rebuffed by one she loved brought. It hurt worse than any feeling she had ever experienced and was enthralled by the fact that it simply made her want to draw closer.

“Maybe I’d just better get out of here.”

“No! Wait. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. May I have the cigarette please?”

The request drew a curious look from Andi.

“I’m going to wake him up and I’d rather he not know we talked. I’m sure you understand. So if you would take the same posture you were in, it’ll be better. He still owes you a reading. Do you accept my apology?”

Andi smiled lightly. “Sure, I mean how can I not be flattered.” She handed the cigarette to Laura.

Her heart flooding with warmth, she took a drag and enjoyed that flavors that tipped the butt before flipping it out between the flaps to smolder and die on the dusty ground.

Andi brought her knees together and rested her elbows on them, closing her hands together before being frozen in time. Laura gazed into her eyes and sighed, then very careful extended the tendrils from her mind and began exploring; sighing when she found the secret desires she was looking for. Her own mind was lost in that moment and she took in all she could, gathering everything she could find to know about this woman. She probed carefully, picking up the pieces of memory the last few minutes had left, taking away all traces of the conversation they had. She then climbed from the table and back up the stool, taking her place before focusing herself wholly on Zack and restarting his space.

“I see…” He glanced up and saw the woman motionless, stilled himself and then muttered, “I felt you stop me.”

Laura wasn’t surprised. They had been together long enough that it was only natural for him to begin to pick up some sense. “Sorry about that. I wanted a caramel apple.”

He turned his head while keeping the rest of his body still but didn’t say anything else except, “Can we go?”

“Yes, but I want you to tell her exactly what I tell you.”

“What?”

“Just do it, please. Exactly. Just do this for me.”

“You’ll do what I want?” Zack’s eyes glittered as he anticipated his potential reward.

“Yes, I will.” And she would, she knew. For one more night it wouldn’t be so painful. Besides, she told herself, he deserved to have one last good moment with her. He hadn’t really done so bad with what he had to work with. She wasn’t sure what would become of him and she discovered this bothered her more than she had ever believed it would. Not out of devotion, but compassion. It would ultimately be his choice of how to live his life and she wouldn’t be able to do much to help him. Removing five years worth of memories would be impossible. He would hurt for her, she knew, and for the first time in her existence she understood what that meant on more than an empathic level.

She then relayed to him what to say and he nodded, turning back to face the bowl in front of him as they were once again released into the stream of time.

“I see love in your future young lady. A great and true love, but unexpected. There will be hardships in reaching it. You must simply hold this thought in your heart, that you will find him if you wait for him.” Zack looked across from himself and smiled genuinely, not for her but for his own expectations.

“Oh! Well, hey, I didn’t ask but that’s great to know. Thank you!”

“Would you like to have a picture taken with my delightful assistant, Laura? Only five dollars and a nice souvenir to remember the night by.”

Looking over at the chimp who mugged sheepishly, Laura nodded. “Actually that sounds fun!” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her money, picking through and tugging out a five dollar bill that she placed in Zackbar the All Seeing’s greasy palm.

“Okay, take a seat on the stool. Laura, down please.”

Laura complied obediently and once Andi situated herself, climbed up into her lap, stretching her long arms up around Andi’s neck.

“You are so adorable!” Andi scratched beneath the ape’s chin and Laura giggled, tilting her head upward and craning her neck, planting a kiss on Andi’s cheek. And then Laura slowed time for herself just enough to enjoy the moment longer and imagine. She really couldn’t quite believe it but into the stuffy tent, in the midst of her misery, had walked a soul almost identical to her own, one worthy of her love. One who made the ugly memories of her youth seem insignificant. For the first time she understood why they did it.

Imagining a reciprocal love was too grand an expectation but she knew now that she would be much happier to die giving love than receiving it. Her whole life she had held the idea of it as emotional servitude but the saying that it was better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven had proven not quite as true as she had always hoped. Now that emotional servitude felt noble.

What she had seen in Andi’s mind was not the future but the wants and desires of a soul seeking to be understood and cared for. A genuine human empath, someone Laura could identify with despite their vast but now seemingly superficial differences. She hadn’t attempted to see the outcome and knew that it was an urge she would fight. For some reason it seemed to only make it more worthwhile not to know how things would work, to leave a mystery.

They both smiled as light burst from the camera’s flash.

END

Thanks for reading. I intended this to be a (YYSLSC) submission, but then there's a difference between characters and words... didn't realize until too late... Oooops!

I'd also like to thank my darling editor for her invaluable help

you're most welcome, it twas my pleasure...indeed

Thanks to masqua for making this an official submission.

A professional entry! Excellent piece of work.

Originally posted by antar
A professional entry! Excellent piece of work.

I agree Antar, keep an eye on him. I am lucky to get to see more of his work, and he is very talented.