white dice #1

tree/feet/car/fish/flame/key

There's nothing like running through a forest on your own.  The peacefulness, the breeze, the power of air that hasn't been filtered through fifty cars' engines.  Of course, when you're potentially running for your life, it's not quite as positive an experience.

It started in the supermarket, of all places.  I guess I'd heard a lot of stories about women being picked up at the supermarket, but nothing like that had ever happened to me, not even close.  So I kind of never thought about it.  I didn't notice the tall man hovering behind me, I didn't pay attention when he sidled right up to me at the frozen food case, I didn't think twice about answering his "Nice day," with "Yep, sure is."  Who the hell expects flirting in front of a freezer of filleted fish?  He started asking me about my dinner choices, which was a little weird I admit, and I hemmed and hawed, not out of self-preservation but because I am a shitty decision-maker.  Can't for the life of me make plans and follow through on them.  He kept asking questions, though, and trying to pin me down on something - a favorite food, a favorite restaurant, something like that.  I hadn't even looked him in the face.  Finally it dawned on me that this guy was really trying to have some kind of conversation, not just randomly-passing-people-in-public-small-talk, and I turned to see who I was actually supposed to be speaking to.  He was totally unremarkable, except for his height.  Some older guy, black-rimmed glasses, short-sleeved button-up shirt.  Weird shit-eating smile.  Closed mouth smile, too.  I don't know why, but that's always bothered me.

"Look, do I know you?" I finally asked.

"Not like I want you to," he said.

"Seriously, do I know you at all?"

Weirdly, this question seemed to please him greatly.  He smiled more broadly, still lips together, and tilted his head back to look down on me with one of the smuggest expression I've ever seen.  I was bothered by that too, since there doesn't seem to be anything to be smug about, harassing somebody who's never seen you before.  Then he said, gleefully it seemed to me, "I knew I would have my chance with you.  Madame Arguiol said so.  She knows you."

This had to be a joke.  "No, I don't know any 'Madame' Argo.  Is some fortune teller taking your money to tell you how to pick up girls?  Just go on Tinder or something."  He was older, but there are lots of older people on the internet these days.  He shook his head and actually clucked at me.  What BS is this?

"Madame Arguiol has seen you and she knows you.  She knows all of us better than we know ourselves.  She told me you would come to me with the salmon."  He pointed triumphantly at some packages of frozen fish.  The specific type of fish made it even creepier to me, even though I couldn't tell if any of the plastic wrappers said "salmon" on them.  The frost made them all illegible.  I was getting chills down my spine by now from the discomfort of the situation.

"Look, dude, I don't know you or your fortune teller and I don't think I want to continue this conversation."  I couldn't finish my shopping now, it was just too weird.  If I had to go pay for and pack up all my stuff, he could just follow me and keep bothering me easily.  I left the cart abruptly and walked away.  When I turned down one aisle I trotted ahead and zipped around the corner of the next one, hoping I was fast enough that he hadn't seen me.  Maybe he wasn't even following me, I didn't hear any footsteps.  My heart was pounding though.  I had never really thought of myself as an anxious person, but this situation was making me rethink it.  It was a quiet time in the supermarket, hardly any other customers, and the employees weren't bustling around the aisles restocking much either.  After a few minutes I decided to just leave the store.  I could come back tomorrow.  When I went out the doors I heard my name.  It was Basi, a sort of homeless by choice hippie who wandered around town.

"You have a good day, kid!" he called.  He lit his pipe with a tie-dye lighter and took a toke.  Then he flashed me a thumb's up and croaked, "Just watch out for the weirdos.  I heard there's one around here looking for you."

I stared at him for a second.  "Where the fuck did you hear that?"

Basi slowly released some smoke from his nose and seemed to be trying to remember.  He gestured vaguely with the pipe towards the town square.  "You hear things on the street, but you don't always know what's really important.  There was something I heard when I was on my way here, but I didn't put it together until I saw you come out the door all shaky."

"I look all shaky?"

Basi shrugged, "Not so much look, but I can feel it, ya know?"

I wanted to ask Basi for more details, but it suddenly occurred to me that the "weirdo" might be about to come out of the supermarket.  "Well, look, I gotta get home now but I'll see you around.  Take care."

Basi waved cheerfully as I strode off across the parking lot.  Basi said a lot of things to people.  Pot wasn't the only drug he indulged in, even if it seemed to be his regular thing to do.  He had warned me about things in the past that had never turned out, like bee attacks or getting caught in the rain.  He once told me to stock up on aftersun cream before a vacation, swearing I was going to get the sunburn of my life.  That week was the rainiest of the year and I never even got to the beach.  This could just be a coincidence.  Yeah, that's it.  There are all kinds of stories about creepers at the supermarket, or the bus, or the coffee place.  I was still walking pretty fast down the street.  And then I was going past Forest Park.

Forest Park is just what it sounds like, a forest that has been taken as a park by the city.  They don't do a lot of landscaping, just clearing fallen branches and trunks from the faint trails.  The trails aren't very clear because they chose not to mark them out, but let people decide where the best ways to go were, and since the park was pretty new, just over a year old, the best ways hadn't been collectively decided yet.  The trees made an inviting space for me, feeling paranoid about being followed or spied on.  I went through the gate and straight into the greenish shade.

After a couple of minutes trudging over the stunted grass and crackly fallen twigs, I was feeling much calmer.  I guess here is when people will say I should have known better.  "Hey, you!" came an angry voice behind me.  I looked.  There was a man charging through the wood, looking awfully pissed off.  It wasn't the guy from the supermarket.  But, shit, I wasn't going to just stand there and wait patiently for him to come tear my head off.  I sprinted away, taking a less worn down path.  He was a heavier sort, and didn't look all that agile.  I could hear him still coming after me, though, crushing leaves and branches underfoot, but at least he was huffing and puffing a little.  I had panic adrenaline and maybe I could find some other nature lovers to shield myself with.  I moved like a deer, so I thought, and popped out into a more open area near the creek.  It was low and narrow these days, and I zoomed over the open land and jumped to the opposite bank.  There was a drop just behind it and I went down, burrowing into the dirt like a rabbit (so many spirit animals).  I heard him come up to the drop but stop.  He was panting noisily and I could imagine him with his hands on his knees, looking crankily out at the empty woods.  "Fuck this, man," he coughed to himself, terrifyingly close to my hiding spot, and he stomped away, deeper into the park.  I waited several minutes before venturing out and climbing back up to the creek bank.  Nobody in sight.  I sighed and started back for the entrance.  Just at the edge of the clearing, something was shining on the ground, something metallic.  It was a key.  I quickly checked my pockets, relieved to find that my keys had not fallen out, and I thought it must belong to coughin', runnin' man.  I considered picking it up, that would serve him right, but then I thought it might have been somebody else's.  I could take them to the police or something, but that might be a big pain in the ass for somebody to go to the station.  Even if it was that guy who lost his key, no need to poke the bear that is the universe.  I was almost at the entrance gate, feeling pretty good about myself, when I saw the dog coming right for me.  And all I could think was that I had to run.