Blue: Another lunch date with Pink The park bench was two metres long. Yesterday they had sat at the ends, and placed their lunches in the middle. Today they sat, not exactly next to each other, but fairly close. But definitely not holding hands. And their lunch boxes were on the outside. They were still uncomfortable, but. A different kind of discomfort from yesterday. I saved her life. And then she saved my life. And Esmeralda had given him a hint the size of a Jumbo Jet that Pink could be his true love. And half the school saw us holding hands. But I still don't know what to say to her right now. Minus the bit about Esmeralda, Pink was no doubt thinking almost exactly the same. Some part of Blue's subconscious came up with a suggestion for the immediate future. Why not just say that? "Ah, Pink, right now I'm kind of, you know, overwhelmed by it all. I haven't a clue as to what to say. So, perhaps, we can just sit here, together, and, ah, eat lunch, ah, companionably?" "Yes. I don't know what to say either." So they sat there and started to each a sandwich each. One headedly, since they were holding hands. Err, how did that happen? His subconscious shrugged its shoulders and said Well, didn't you tell me to hold her hand? Ah, no? went Blue. His subconscious did not bother replying. His face went slightly red. So did Pink's. Blue had a talk with himself. Esmeralda said I was free to experiment with her loaned powers. And that I could use them to read a person's soul. And allow the other to read my soul. Hmm. He spoke aloud to Pink. "Well, would you like for us to get to know each other more?" In his current moral state, post judgement, it never occurred to him that such a question could, in some circumstances, be construed to have connotations different from what he was meaning. Fortunately, it never occurred to Pink either. "Of course I would." she said. She looked him in the eyes. He made an effort of free will, and Esmeralda granted the request. Blue's eyes flashed a brilliant blue. Pink blinked from the radiance. Then they both gasped in surprise at what they received. Esmeralda read Pink's soul, choose what she considered to be the most relevant parts, and gave the results to Blue as a series of images. The blackness of space, stars dotted all around. The majestic sweep of the Milky Way, with its ten billion stars. The sun, no more than a bright star. Err, what? The planet Earth, seen from space. Showing his own country and the city he was in. Someone, indistinct, who was watching over Pink, looking after her. Huh? A collective shot of a bunch of students from his class, including himself. They all had their parents standing with them, arms around them. Even his parents were shown. And Pink, standing alone, looking at the others, yearning to have the same contact. Err, at least this means something. A image of Pink holding hands with Blue the first time. The first time Pink had ever held hands with anyone. But even an orphan will have held hands with someone. The gratitude as Blue asked her to be his partner for the physics experiment. That's nice The sudden stab of fear and concern when she had looked up and saw him falling. Now that I can relate to! The images faded out and Blue was back in the real world, watching Pink's face, watching her eyes as she in turn startled at the images she was receiving. Pink: Esmeralda read Blue's soul, and reported back to Pink the images she thought were the best. A slide show, showing Blue with his parents, Blue receiving the news of his mother's illness and his father's death. Blue trying to get a date. An image of him deciding to save Renee, and an image of him hugging Renee. A brief image of Esmeralda judging Blue, but without any explanatory context. Blue holding hands with Pink for the first time. What is this!? she screamed to herself. [I don't know! Amazing!] Blue and Pink looked at each other, still holding hands. Blue was the first to recover, after all he knew what was happening. He just did not know how to interpret the results. "Pink, what does..." At this point, they were mobbed by a whole pack of primary school children. "Look, it's the boy who saved Renee!" said one child. "He's holding hands with Pink!" said another. "She caught Blue as he fell down!" said another. "Rubbish, it's too far, she couldn't possibly do that!" said one more. And so on. Pink and Blue were deluged by a flood of questions and comments, and they did their best to answer them, while retaining some semblance of dignity. All questions about being girl/boy friends they brushed aside. After all, they had not, as yet, worked out what they thought about the situation, yet alone tell a bunch of small children. By the time some of their teachers had herded the children away, it was the end of the lunch break. And their lunches were practically uneaten. Pink decided it was time to be proactive. "Blue, would you like to come to my place? I can cook you tea and we can discuss things. Including what exactly happened just before the kids arrived." "Yes. Ok. Hmm, might as well. You're just over the causeway, aren't you? Well, I need to visit the bank which is on your side of the river to pay some bills...” "Well, I could take this opportunity to buy some food. So how about we split up at the end of the causeway, do our visits, meet back at the causeway and continue to my place?" It was agreed. Blue: His first task from Esmeralda Bills. Obligations to pay. Requests for money. It may be distasteful, but it is also a matter of fact that being required to pay ones way is a sign of being an adult. Of having grown up. Blue paid his shire rates and his electricity, and reflected on the fact that, it should still be his parents doing this. Being an adult so early really sucked. Sigh. He stepped out of the bank, walked across the road to a sandwich bar, and brought himself a take away milkshake. After all, he was still hungry, and strawberry milkshakes were one of his weaknesses. He momentary placed the container on an outside table to adjust his backpack, when time froze. There were frozen pedestrians, caught half way through their strides. A couple of birds, still as an image, hanging from the sky. A falling leaf, immobile, one metre above ground. "Oh, Hi Esmeralda." he said. She appeared before him. "Very good, didn't take you all that long to work out what was going on, did it?" "Of course. Are you here with my first assignment?" "Yes. We're going to start slow and easy. All you have to do is to walk to a particular location, and prevent a man from harassing a woman. No Judgment with a capital J required. Ready?" "Sure." Time started again. The birds kept on flying, the passersby kept walking, and the leaf kept floating to the ground. And Blue found that he had a mental image of how to get to a certain nearby location. He started walking, incidentally forgetting his milkshake. Am I nervous? After all, this doesn't involve judgement. Just a normal harassment case. Normal? Normal by what standards? What if the man turns violent? Ah, right, she never said this was going to be easy. He took some deep breaths and made his way to the location. According to his mental map, the location was at the corner of a building, where there was a small entrance hall. He walked along the wall, turned and there they were. A man, a good deal taller than Blue, wearing a business suit, was in the act of having just slapped a woman, dressed in a short tight fitting skirt and a top designed to show off her assets. The woman staggered and gasped. "Hey, you leave that woman alone..." he said. Then he stopped, as someone else had stepped around the other side and said "Take your hands of that woman...” That other person was Pink. She and Blue looked at each other, momentarily surprised. They simultaneously decided to deal with business first, and turned back to the man. "Get lost, you little runts!" he said, and raised his hand as if to strike the woman again. Blue caught the hand with both of his, and struggled to hold it back. Pink caught his other hand with one of hers, and stood still. The man violently flung around the hand that Blue was holding, and managed to break free, sending Blue tripping into the wall, next to the woman. He then turned towards Pink and attempted to do the same. But his hand, held by Pink's, did not move. Blue had been prepared to attack the man if he tried to attack Pink, but seeing how strangely immobile Pink's grip was, had stopped in confusion. He waited. The man brought around his other hand to strike Pink, but she merely caught it with her free hand. And now both of his hands were held unmovingly, by a slight girl who was shorter and slimmer than he was. He stopped struggling and started swearing. Then he suddenly stopped swearing and started sweating. Blue, looking on with puzzlement, deduced that Pink was tightening her grip on his hands. Without any apparent effort what so ever on her behalf. "When I let go I want you to please go away. The woman does not want you around." she said. In a perfectly even, emotionless voice. "Do you agree?" The man threw a look of rage and hatred at Pink. Pink let it bounce off her and waited. Eventually the man nodded and mumbled "Yes". Pink let go. The man sagged, caught himself, glared at the two, and half ran, half staggered, off and down the street and out of sight. "Hopefully we won't be seeing him again." Pink said, still in an emotionless voice. Pink turned to Blue, and also turned her face on. A look of concern and worry. "Are you all right?" "Ah, yes, just a little shook up." Blue decided it was still business first, so he turned to the woman and Pink, following Blue's lead, did the same. "Oh, hello. I hope he didn't hurt you when he slapped you?" he said. The lady, silent up until now, looked at her two unexpected rescuers. "No, I'm fine. Huh, thanks..." She still had not quite adjusted to the situation, particularly Pink's ability to control the man without effort. "No problems. Would you like us to call the police?" said Pink. "Oh, no, no, there's no need. It's too much hassle, I'd prefer to only do so for situations that are a lot more serious." the woman said. "Err, but this is serious." said Blue. "And also, I'm known as Blue, and this is Pink." The woman laughed. "I should have guessed those names. I'm Molly. But still, in my line of work such situations are a weekly occurrence." "Sorry?" said Blue. "What?" said Pink. The woman looked at the two and smiled. "You're so sweet, and totally oblivious, aren't you?" "Huh?" said Blue. "Actually, I'm a prostitute. We were negotiating a price, but he decided he didn't want to pay anything. Which I disagreed with, since, after all, that sort of takes away the whole point of me being out here in the first place." "Oh" said Blue. "Oh" said Pink. "Well, ah, in that case, can we walk you somewhere, since that bloke may still be hanging around?" said Blue. "Certainly. I don't really feel like continuing this afternoon, so if you're going in the direction of the train station?" They waved her goodbye at the entrance, and then looked at each other. "You know, I have a few more questions I'd like to ask you soonish..." said Blue. "And I have one or two I'm keen to have answered, also..." said Pink. "Well, I see you brought the food." said Blue, indicating her backpack which was now bulging, and showing the handles of some plastic bags at the top. Naturally, the backpack's colour was pink. "Let's keep going to my place, then." said Pink. They walked, in silence, back to the causeway, then turned and walked the path that ran along the side of the river. The path at this point was right at the edge of the river shore, with the road on the other side. The river edge was not a short beach with gently lapping water; instead it was a two and half metre drop from the path railing down to the bed of the river course. Which was mainly wet rocks. Small rocks, medium sized rocks, and large rocks, strewn higgledy-piggledy around the river bed. And lots of sand and mud. The path went straight as it followed the road; the river wall meandered back and forward, following the original course of the river. The sun was still high in the sky, the weather was fine, the sky was clear, the noise of the traffic on the adjoining road was not too intrusive. Blue found himself on the riverside, walking side by side with Pink. They looked at each other, and Pink, with visible hesitance, lifted her hand, the one closest to Blue. Blue looked at it, breathed deeply, and took it with his hand. "This is becoming a habit." he said. Pink giggled. They walked along, in more silence. Both thinking about what had happened today. They had a lot to think about. Until- There was a sudden squeal of tyres, the roar of an engine, and a car, driving from behind, swerved towards them. Pink let go of Blue's hand and snapped around to look and Blue managed to turn his head. He had a brief glimpse of the car and its driver. In that snapshot, he recognised him. The bloke who had attacked the woman. Pink was already moving out of the way, but it was too late. The car swept past, avoiding Blue by centimetres. But it hit Pink with a solid blow, with a horrible thump. Pink's body bent in the middle and bounced off the car, struck the hand railing along the river shore, spun around it and crashed onto the river floor. With more revving of the engine, the car swerved back onto the road and sped away. All became silent again. Blue screamed. "Pink!" He rushed to the railing and looked down. Pink's body was bent in weird directions, lying on the rocks, red liquid seeping out. "Pink!" screamed Blue again. Then she actually moved, orientated her head to him. Blue could see her mouth moving, but could not hear any sound. At this, Blue frantically threw off his backpack, crawled over the railing, hung by his hands with his feet still a metre above the river floor, and dropped himself. He madly scrambled over the rocks to Pink. "Pink! You Ok!" He knelt next to her, looked at her broken body. "Esmeralda! Why did you let this happen?!" He bent to try to pick Pink up, then realised that she was saying something. Her voice was faint and emotionless, but perfectly clear. "Blue. I'll be all right. My replacement body is on its way. You're the one in danger; please get out of the river." Huh? She's hallucinating, delusional. Off with the fairies. Completely out of it. "Don't worry! I'll carry you!" He bent and, with a body fuelled by adrenalin, picked her up. Bloody hell, she is heavy. He was getting a good look at the damage, and it was bad. There were gashes on her legs and midriff, her legs were twisted, and red blood was flowing. Some of the rational parts of his brain were noting that the blood looked peculiar and the gashes really did not look anything like flesh wounds, or at least not the ones that Blue was used to seeing on TV in those action packed movies. But most of Blue's brain was occupied with moving Pink, and ignored these observations. Another part of the brain was trying to catch his attention, something to do with the river. Blue ignored that also, and started staggering along. He had just realised something. How was he supposed to get Pink back to shore? The river wall was more than two metres high and almost vertical. "Damn, guess I'll just move towards the causeway untill..." Pink gasped and started talking again, still faintly. "Blue, the tidal surge is coming. And this time it's a big pulse." So that was what he was trying to remember about the river. When the tide peaked at the seashore, the mouth of the river channelled and concentrated it and sent a tidal surge along the river inland for many kilometres. Right past the causeway, in fact. And sometimes, depending on the situation, the surge was more of a sudden pulse. "Oh shit, I had better start running." "No! The wrong direction! Head away from the causeway, and out a little! You will be able to hang on to something when the pulse passes." said Pink. Blue, reacting to the urgency in her voice, and a little surprised that her voice was carrying any emotions at all, promptly turned and headed back and out. How the hell does she know this? Was what he was thinking, as he staggered and slipped around rocks of all sizes. And now, there was water flowing along the rocks. He was ankle deep, then knee deep, in muddy water. "A little to your right!" said Pink. Where are we going? He staggered and almost fell around another metre high rock. The water was beginning to rise rapidly. At this point, he collided with a rock that had a large, half metre round loop of smooth steel protruding out of it. He grabbed it with one hand and his legs, leaning into the rock, actually a concrete weight, trapping Pink's body between his and the rock. With a watery roar, the tidal pulse was upon them, driving foam into their eyes then completely covering them. Blue held his breath and held on tightly. He could taste the salt water. Ten seconds later the wave passed and they were left, water soaked, sill hanging on to the ring stuck in a concrete block. The water did not recede all that much. It was now a metre deep, flowing fast, and perceptibly rising. "Blue! Head upstream and angle inwards. There's some steps in the river wall fifty metres away." Blue decided that, since she had been correct up to now, he might as well keep on following her instructions. It was dangerous. The water obscured any rock lower than a metre, and he kept on running into them without seeing them. Also the water was flowing. At least it was flowing in the same direction as they were heading. "A little to you left, there's sharp rocks straight ahead. Now to your right, then back towards your left..." Pink gave a running commentary on how to avoid the worse of the submerged rocks. How the hell does she know this? He was in no doubt that she actually did know, because he could see the rocks just below the surface, when he was right up to them and passing them. He kept going. Her voice became fainter. The riverbed started to rise, so the water was getting shallower. At last, with burning lungs and wobbly legs, he made his way to the steps. He painfully and slowly carried Pink up them, then onto the sand, and collapsed, still holding Pink. At this point the river bank had made a bend towards the river centre, the area they were in was away from the foot path and the road, screened by a band of trees and bushes. So there was no one visible. Blue looked around. How was he going to get help? Pink spoke again. "Blue, please understand. I'm Ok. I really am a pink robot. My replacement body will be here in 64 seconds time. I'm rapidly losing hydraulic fluid and my main battery bank is shutting down to prevent fire. I'm going off line now, but don't worry, I'll be back." And as Blue hugged her and looked at her in disbelief, her face went blank; she stopped breathing and became still. Not even two days from our first lunch and she has died! Esmeralda! This is wrong!