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He saw
her out of the corner of his eye. There was no way to miss
her. She had taken what God gave her and maxed it out. Looking
at her was an involuntary action.
Ken had
a feeling that he was in trouble when she headed his way. She
didn't call or wave, she
just kept walking toward him, her eyes locked on him. He wondered
if there was something funny about his clothes that he had missed
or if there was something on his face like food or ink or some
other stain.He wished that he had a mirror.
But the
look on her face was not mocking. It was resolute. She was on
a mission. He would
have to wait to find out what it was.
She stopped
an arms length away from him. There was no offer to shake hands.
She knew why he couldn't take his eyes from her but she showed
no signs of flaunting herself or toying with him. The wind blew
her hair across her eyes, but she did not flinch or try to stop
it.
"You
are Ken," she said. "You have to come with me.
She was
wearing jewelery,
but she didn't need to, she would have looked fine without it.
She was not poster material, but
she did have the kind of body and presence that made people
want to be around her. Ken froze, terminally shy, some would
say insecure. Either way, he was temporarily speechless.
"It's
not a request," she said.
Her voice
was smooth, unhurried, unafraid.
"Am
I in trouble?" Ken asked.
"No,"
she said, "Just come with me."
Ken was
now sure that he was in some kind of trouble.The only question
was wether it was legal, business
or social.
She reached
out and grasped his wrist. "Now," She said and started
walking.
She was
stronger than she looked, but Ken would not have been able to
resist anyway."You can let go," he said, " I
won't run away."
She let
go, but said nothing. They both kept walking. Ken had no trouble
keeping up, but he realized from her stride that she was letting
him keep up.
"What's
this about?" Ken asked, finally.
"You
should have asked that before we started walking." She
said. "Why didn't you?" She had been looking straight
ahead while they walked and she continued looking forward as
she spoke.
Ken thought
for too long before answering. "This whole thing has kind
of surprised me," he said.
"That's
your excuse?" She used the question as an accusation.
Ken realized
that she was intentionally not answering his question. Her attitude
was helping him overcome her allure. "Yeah," he said.
"So where ARE we going? What IS going on here?"
For the
first time since they had started walking, she looked in his
direction. She smiled, and stepped over a hole in the sidewalk
with out looking down."Maybe this WILL work." she
said.
And they
kept walking.
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