Fairy Thief (27 page)

He dropped his mango as well, and moved to her. He placed his hands under her soft hair, at the base of her skull. Her eyes glazed and her lips parted. He watched her eyes. She wanted him, she seemed to be anticipating this moment — it was all the encouragement he needed. He leaned forward and covered her mouth with his, drawing her tighter and tighter into his arms.

It was true; Saffron had wanted this man to kiss her. More than anything, at that moment, she needed him to step forward and do exactly what he had done. And, just before his lips touched hers, she thought she would faint dead away with the intensity of it all. But when his lips touched hers, and as she pressed her body into his, she suddenly realized — there was no feeling here. Emotion aplenty. But feeling? No. It was like kissing plastic. Not like Mom and her warm cookies. Not like that girl who was the spitting image and temperament of Coco. This man was like no one she remembered from her past, and though she wanted him desperately, she couldn’t feel him. She was so sure the kiss would tell her
something.
Then, suddenly, she had the most instantaneous, rudest awakening of her life. All at once, she remembered who this man was. Man, nothing — this was
Orji!

“
Saffron!” Orji spat her name out like a hiccup, because he, too, had a sudden rush of memory that tried to overwhelm his senses.

“
Oh, my God, Orji! What are you doing!” Saffron pushed off of his chest and swiped at her mouth. She backed up a safe distance and eyed him warily. “Why did you
do
that?!” Did he
know
she didn’t know who he was? Was he totally taking advantage of her? She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

She tilted her head. Her alarm vanished. He
hadn’t
known. He had no idea. She could see it in his confused and searching eyes — he was just as bewildered as she was. He looked sheepish as he ran a hand through his mop of hair. He glanced around the marketplace, as if searching for a distraction that could end this excruciatingly odd moment. His eyes settled back on Saffron. He winced. “I have no idea what the hell just happened here. I have no idea why I’ve completely forgotten you exist until this very minute. What kind of place
is
this? I mean, it seemed good. But no, it’s not so good. Why does it make us forget reality and encourage us to live out altered memories?” He shook his head.

Saffron shrugged and looked at her feet. Her head shot up. “Wait a minute….” She looked around the marketplace as well. “We’re not the only ones here. We came here with someone else. No…not someone…others….Right?”

Orji’s eyes narrowed and he stared at a point just beyond her right shoulder. “Did we have a pet?”

Saffron nodded slowly. “I think so.” She was thoughtful for a moment. “Did we have a horse? Like a miniature pony or something?”

Orji didn’t look convinced. But he wasn’t exactly sure she was wrong, either. “Yeah, I think you’re right. I think it was a miniature horse.” He tried to work that out in his mind, like a child who forces a puzzle piece into the wrong spot, just to have someplace to put it, and end the aggravation.

“
But, there were others, too,” Saffron pointed out. She bit her bottom lip.

Orji snapped his fingers. “Weren’t they like dwarves or something? They had something….” He shook his hands in the air trying to come up with a word. “Something, about them.”

Saffron leaned against the cart, sending coconuts rolling off the top. She picked them up absently, and put them in the pineapple bin by mistake. The vendor quickly retrieved the coconuts and put them back in the correct bin. He tsk-tsked Orji and Saffron, and encouraged them to move along, to have their conversation somewhere else.

As they walked away, a little unbalanced, Saffron slipped her hand into Orji’s.

Shocked, he looked over at her.

Right away, she said, “Look, I don’t think we should get split up again.”

He nodded. He gripped her cold, celluloid hand tightly.

“
No matter who you see, no matter what you feel…just hang on to me, okay?”

He nodded again, more vigorously this time. “You’re right, you’re right. We need to get out of here and get our wits about us. Let’s just try to find our friends…what were they?” He rolled his eyes. “Let’s just try to find them and get out of here.”

Saffron stopped walking. “How do we get out of here?”

Orji shrugged.

“
How did we get in here?”

Orji shrugged.

Saffron waved the air with both hands. “What are they? What are our friends?”

“
They had something about them.” Orji looked at the sky. “They weren’t human.” He watched a bird fly by, then dismissed it. “They had a thing….” He scratched his chin. “Like a horn or something.”

Saffron perked up. “Yes, that’s right!” She forced herself to concentrate. She stared at the ground. “But it wasn’t just one…they had two things…one on each side…two horns…I think.”

Orji tugged on her hand. “You mean like little devils or something?”

Saffron shrugged, comme ci comme ca. “Sure.”

Orji smiled encouragingly. “Well, let’s get to it then, shall we? We’re looking for two little devils and a miniature horse.”

Saffron smiled weakly. But, since she didn’t have a better idea, she began to search for two little devils and a miniature horse.

They searched the marketplace. They searched the shore. They searched the countryside. Many nights passed and still, hand in hand, they searched. They were approached several times, sometimes by people who “knew” Saffron, sometimes by Orji’s acquaintances. They held fast to each other. Even when the desire to follow another was great, they held fast. Each relied on the other’s will — the other’s strength. They now believed that what they really needed, what they really searched for, could only be found if they stuck together.

On the morning of the fifth day, while Saffron considered a beverage cooler in a small country store (a store that could have been found in Arkansas in the late fifties), she found Tai.

She knew him instantly. “Look, Orji — there’s one of our little devils.”

Tai sat crouched behind a rack of beef jerky, firing spitballs at the woebegone clerk. He was crouching low on his haunches, rocking back and forth on the wide plank floor. He sucked in a gulp of air, and shot it out with such force, that a sloppy ball blasted across the room and, SPLAT, shot the man in his newspaper. The spit, already soaking into the thin newsprint, slightly marred an advertisement for the new “Turbo Bra.” Tai wanted to whoop with glee — a direct hit! But he somehow contained himself.

The clerk didn’t even blink, but kept reading. Just when Tai thought he would quit, (it was no fun shooting the things at people if they weren’t going to react!), the clerk suddenly became animated, reached under his counter and retrieved an unusually large bat. He came screaming from around the back of the counter and crashed right after Tai. Tai laughed with evil merriment, fluttered into the air, and cruised right over the clerk’s head and out the door.

Saffron watched wide-eyed. Wonder filled her as his wings flitted as quickly as a hummingbird’s. She looked at Orji. “Told you we were looking for devils.”

“
Yeah right, horns/wings…what’s the difference? That was an easy mistake.” He grimaced. “My God Saffron, we could have been searching for little devils the rest of our days! We could’ve wandered around here aimlessly for the next hundred years!”

“
Don’t blame me!”

“
I’m not
blaming
you!”

“
Then why are you yelling at me like that? I don’t care what you’re
saying —
your
tone
of voice is blaming
me! Why don’t you just…”

Suddenly, her eyes filled with fright. She looked beyond Orji’s shoulder, towards the front of the store. The psychotic clerk had given up on Tai, had spun about, and set his evil eye on Saffron and Orji. He gave a blood-curdling scream and headed towards them, his bat brandished high.

Orji and Saffron cut to the right, bashed down the baked goods aisle, and ran out the front door, leaving the ting-a-ling of bells in their wake.

They caught up with Tai on a dusty, tire-pitted road. He had a stick over his shoulder, a handkerchief tied at the end which held something round and heavy. Saffron took him by the shoulder and roughly spun him around. He stared at her indignantly for a good, long minute. Then his eyes widened in surprise as he croaked out, “Saffron?”

She clapped her hands with joy and yelled, “Yes, yes!” She took him in her arms and kissed the top of his honey-scented head.

Tai let Saffron hold him. In fact, he clung to her for dear life. “What’s going on?”

Saffron shook her head and wiped at her tears. “We have no idea, really. Just hold on to my hand and don’t let go. We know that much for certain — you mustn’t let go.”

Tai agreed easily enough, and slipped his hand into Saffron’s. Saffron felt his heat, and a fleeting yearning whirled through her as she held tight to Orji. How she wanted to feel Orji’s heat. She glanced back wearily at the little store, but the clerk didn’t come out.

Tai swatted his hand in the same direction and sneered, “Ah, he won’t come out, that worm. He’s a serial killer. His thing is to act like a geeky little store clerk, then WHAM (Tai slapped Saffron upside the head — she shoved him back) crack people’s heads with his bat.” He snorted. “That’s his thing. I’ve been watching him — him and countless others. Killers. I’ve been pissing them off, too! That’s MY thing!” He remembered some of his zany antics with the killers of this world. He chuckled and patted himself on the back.

Saffron watched Tai carefully. His eyes were the darkest shade of moss and filled with misery. She assumed this world had not been so good to Tai, not nearly so fulfilling as it had been for Orji and for her. She wondered, “Tai, have you…found anyone here? Found any of your loved ones?”

Tai scrunched up his nose, looked at her as if her mind was gravely disordered. “I’ve found no one here, just been wandering around…annoying serial killers….” He scratched his head, looked away from her and into the dark woods ahead. His shoulders drooped.

Saffron moved to him and stroked his cheek. Then she inched closer still, reached around, and rubbed his back between his wings. He leaned into her, just a little bit.

“
I won’t let you go again, Tai. I’m going to hold on to you and take care of you and everything is going to be fine, understand?”

Tai could have argued that statement, could have proclaimed his fairy superiority, but he didn’t. He nodded and allowed her — just this once – to care about his welfare.

“
Tai, do you remember who else we need to find?”

“
My brother, Wo.” It dribbled out of his mouth like water — even he was surprised at his knowledge and quick answer.

“
We had a pet, too,” Orji, reminded them. He pointed a finger at Tai. “I even seem to remember…she was your
girlfriend.
She’s a miniature horse.”

Tai’s shoulder’s hitched up together as he winced. This could not be! “I’m dating a horse?” He was incredulous. It just couldn’t be! And yet…. “Whatever you say, man, I can’t even think straight. I’ll go with what you say.” He looked around uneasily. “When the time comes, are we going to be able to get out of this funky place, or what?”

Saffron scrunched up her eyebrows. “I think that’s something you do; you go into the woods and ask…someone.”

“
Trees!” Orji shouted. Tai and Saffron jumped at his loud outburst.

Tai’s eyebrow shot up. He rubbed his lips together and thought. He nodded then, impressed with his own ability. “Let me give it a try here.” He walked over to a large, leafy maple tree. It was bursting red in autumnal glory with a wide spread of leaves that shaded the entire lane. He stood silently before the maple and looked up into its canopy. He walked back to Saffron and Orji and grabbed Saffron’s hand.

“
Nope, sleeping. Dreaming about walking around, its roots like feet or something.”

Saffron shuddered. How that image freaked her out. “Let’s get going,” she mumbled.

They decided to retrace their steps — the market, the shore, the country. One evening, they found Wo back on the beach where they had first lost him. He was sitting with Deva and they were watching the sunset. He had his arm around her; she had her head resting in his lap, like a dog.

Tai took flight and landed on his brother with an Apache war cry. The twins tumbled in the sand, laughing and screaming. They stopped wrestling, and Tai leaped onto Deva. He grabbed her neck, kissed her nose, and scratched her ribs. She fluttered her long eyelashes and mooed sweetly. Then he looked up and frowned at Saffron. “She’s not a
miniature horse
, you simpleton — like I’d ever love a miniature horse! Sheesh!” He rolled his eyes and buried his nose in Deva’s neck. “She’s a ridiculous human, huh, baby.”