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Amaranthine walked steadily along the busy sidewalk. It was raining, which made her feel a shade better, but it was cold, which she didn't like. Pools of water were gathering beside the sidewalk, and cars were splashing liberal amounts of it onto the pedestrians. People were hurrying to and fro, frantically trying to get where they were going to, and Amaranthine was constantly dodging rushing bodies. The night sky ought to be speckled with stars like so many grains of salt, but the only celestial body Amaranthine could pick out was the great moon, and even the moon seemed dull and listless. Instead, the world was illuminated by artificial lights that hung far above the girl’s head like some giant swarm of fireflies. She supposed that she ought to call a cab, but she wasn't sure how to go about that, and anyway, she didn't really want to. She liked the little droplets of water pattering on her shoulders. The girl turned onto a new street with new faces, and she searched their eyes. She squinted, wiping water out of her face, shaking out her short, dark brown hair, singing to herself, staying in the warm light of streetlamps. A man stopped to catch his breath, and she walked up to him. "I am looking for a man with black eyes," she said. "Have you seen him?" The man walked wordlessly away. Not discouraged, Amaranthine continued to walk, her feet landing in little puddles of rainwater. It took her quite a while to get to the end of this street, and she continued to walk, slowly winding her way through the place they called New York City. After a long while, Amaranthine's feet could stand the walking no longer. Exhausted, she staggered through the door to an old motel. The sign was rotting, and the carpets were stained so many different colors from years upon years of use. As soon as the old wooden doors clicked shut, a man looked up from behind a counter at the other side of the room. "Good evening," he said. "What can I do you for?" The girl walked up to the counter. "I would like a place to sleep, please," she said. Reaching into the pocket of her white dress, she pulled out a little slip of plastic and held it out in the palm of her hand. "Visa, hmm?" the man asked, taking it and sliding it through a machine. "How long will you be staying?" "Does that really give you money?" the girl asked, leaning over the counter and peering at the plastic card in the man's hand. "How does it work? Does that machine print the money out?" "Er, no," the man said awkwardly. "It's all digital-fied, these days. You have one, lady, you ought to know how it works before you go around spending with it." "I'm sorry," the girl said, taking the credit card back and putting it carefully in her pocket. "A friend of mine gave it to me not long ago. My name is Amaranthine. Do you know a man with black eyes?" The man shook his head in total confusion. "I only sell people hotel rooms, honey, you're going to have to talk to someone else about finding the guy you're looking for. There aren't many people with black eyes, though, so that shouldn't be hard." He glanced up at Amaranthine's own dark eyes, and continued talking, because it was obvious she wasn’t going to. "Just blue and brown for most people, suits them just fine." "I'm sorry if I made you nervous," the girl said again. "I only need to stay for a night." "Okay, then, no problem," the man said, happy to be back in a territory he knew well. "That'll be 35 dollars." "Thank you very much," the girl smiled. "By the way, do you happen to know of any lakes nearby? Anything?" "No," the man said, eager to send the girl on her way, "but we do have a pool." Amaranthine drifted slowly, lazily, across the surface of the little pool. The chlorine was a strange, new smell, and she laughed when her feet passed in front of the places where new water burst into the pool and mingled with the old. She peered into the drain to see where the water was going, and sat on the steps when she was tired. Her dress lay neatly folded underneath a lawn chair by the hot tub, where it had been safe while Amaranthine hid and the custodian mopped the gravelly floor and locked the doors until morning. Her hotel room lay, untouched, three floors above. Finally, dripping wet and worn out, Amaranthine hoisted herself up onto the edge of the pool. Little rivulets of water ran their way down her pale legs and splashed back into the blueness. Amaranthine kicked at the water with her toes, watching as the frenzied drops flew all over and left little fleeting rings on the surface. Yawning, she laid back on the cool floor, feeling the rough surface tickle her back as though she were lying on a bed of coral. She looked up at the arched ceiling of the pool room, and watched as the fans spun about, keeping the place comfortably cool, wondering how they worked. It delighted her to simply watch the blades spin around and around, as though they would last forever. Even when all these people had long gone away, the fans would still twirl. Amaranthine reached over and pulled her white dress close. She reached into the single pocket and felt the contents with her fingertips. There were three things: one was the plastic card that the nice man behind the desk had called 'Visa.' She had not known it had a name. She would have to be more respectful toward it from now on, because it seemed that, here, anything that had a name was something very important. "Veeee ... sah," she murmured, enjoying the way the syllables sounded when they came out of her mouth. The second thing was an odd little flask. Inside, she could see the faint glimmer of something dark and earthy brown. She did not open the flask; instead, she patted it trustingly and tucked it back into the pocket. The third thing was another card, this time made of a pretty white paper. On it, it had writing in little round letters. It said: "man with black eyes." And that was all Amaranthine had. It was all she needed. Pulling her feet out of the water, Amaranthine walked across the room and pulled a towel from the big rack. It was fluffy, big, and very white. She wrapped it around her body and felt the little droplets pulled from her skin like needles. She felt so very parched, and she hated it, but she did not think the people here would like to have water dripping all over their lovely, multicolored carpet. After every part of her was uncomfortably dry, Amaranthine walked back to her lawn chair and pulled her white dress over her head. That being accomplished, she drifted back to the glass doors, opened them, and disappeared into the artificial night. Amaranthine woke to the sunrise. She had always found that this was a pleasant thing to wake to, and she listened carefully to see if she could hear birds chirping somewhere. She was disappointed that she couldn't. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and wiggled her toes against the shaggy, cream-colored carpet. She squinted in the sunlight that streamed through the open window, and peered down at the world below. It was still quiet, but there were a few people walking to and fro. Amaranthine pressed her hands to the window glass and watched them for a while, so funny when they were so far below. When this new amusement grew boring, she left the hotel room, abandoning her key on the desk like she was supposed to and exiting the building. She waved to the man behind the desk as she left. "Thank you for the lovely room," she said. "No problem," the man replied as she left. "Glad you slept well." Humming, Amaranthine skipped into the sunlight. The place was dully throbbing with sound. Amaranthine walked slowly through the frantic swarm of people. It seemed to her that they all had a place to go all the time, and that they were never ever happy with where they were when they got there, so they had to go somewhere else. She couldn't imagine what life would be like, living that way, existing as a sleepless, restless mechanical being. Always going, going, going. It gave her a headache just thinking about it. The people seemed like blurs to the girl, as though she were the only one moving at a normal speed. Or perhaps the people were moving normally, and she was walking in slow motion, caught in a world from which she could not escape. Amaranthine stopped and watched as people stopped and stood in a circle around a revolving ring. They would jump forward and take their belongings from the ring as soon as they saw them. The girl found this ritual strange and amusing, and she lingered for many moments, pretending to be one of them. She watched them check the bags they grabbed, and saw all sorts of lovely things; clothes, books, jewelry, things she had never even dreamed of needing. She wondered where the people were going, that they would need so many items. The most exciting thing was looking out the window. Huge, metal birds would descend from the sky, and people would get in and out of them, and they would take to the air again, effortlessly, like a well-oiled machine. Amaranthine supposed that this was the purpose of the whole building; it certainly seemed worth the trouble of coming all the way out here. How wonderful, such a trip would be! Perhaps she could fly with one, someday. But now she was walking, lost and somewhat confused. There were so many places, so many people - how on earth was she going to find her way out? "Excuse me, dear," said a voice, and Amaranthine turned around. "Are you lost?" The woman standing behind Amaranthine was shortish, roundish, and quite pretty, with big almond eyes and full lips. Her hair was long and black, and Amaranthine wanted to take it and wind it around her fingers - it looked smooth as silk and cool as polished marble. The woman was smiling pleasantly, and she was holding a bag full of her belongings. "Hello," Amaranthine said. "Do you know a man with black eyes?" There was a pause. "I can't say I do," the woman said. "Dark, dark brown, maybe. Why, are you supposed to meet someone here?" "I do not know that I am supposed to meet him here," Amaranthine said with practiced calm. "I am supposed to find him. I have been looking for him for many nights." The woman shook her head, seeming sad. "What's your name, darling?" "Amaranthine," the girl said, clasping her hands together in front of her. "I have a Visa, if you would like to see it." "No, no, that's all right," the woman said quickly. "Listen, come with me, and I'll help you find where you need to go, okay?" "Thank you," Amaranthine said, "that is very kind of you." And she followed the woman out of the big building and toward a little yellow car beside the sidewalk. "Fifty-seven and Landsbury," the woman said, climbing into the back seat. She motioned for Amaranthine to follow her, and the car drove off down the street. |