Dancer/Visionary "Follies of Youth" Accidentally-holding-up-the-entire-series #20-ish: "…Let’s just hurry up and get this over with so I can get dressed again”

“So…” Visionary began carefully as they strolled a secluded path in Off-Central Park. “That kind of thing ever happen to you before?”

“The kiss?” Sarah responded innocently, smelling the single long-stemmed rose she carried. “No, never. Sixteen and pure as the driven snow, that’s me.”

Visionary gave her a wry smile. “I meant the whole… whatever it was.” He gestured vaguely. “Do you’re dates ever manifest magical footwork on you?”

“Oh… that. No…” she admitted. “They’ve manifested fast hands before, and this one guy tried to show me this puppet show he had worked out using only his… ahem… You know what? Nevermind. But footwork? That was a new one.” She looked over at him slyly and added casually “So is that what this is, then? A date?”

His froze, being caught off-guard. “I didn’t… that is…” He felt a flush coming to his face. How do girls even manage to pick up on little words like that? The possibility that they paid that much attention to what a boy said was unsettling… especially since it was obvious that guys didn’t pay that much attention to what they said themselves.

“Kind of presumptuous of you, isn’t it?”

He looked into her bright, shining eyes and, realizing that that she quite enjoyed teasing him, smiled in spite of himself. “Hmmmm… I suppose so” he acknowledged. “Admittedly, it doesn’t exactly fit the “date” mold. I usually try not to force my dates to buy me out of indentured servitude to start things off.”

“That’s true!” she brightened at the memory. “That would make you more like my personal property. Kind of an accessory… like a handbag… although you don’t really match the new shoes. Either way, I guess you’re not really my date then. Hmmm… I wonder if I can still catch up to Raoul…”

“Hey!” Visionary objected, capturing her hand as she turned back they way they had come. “Slavery is both illegal and highly immoral, and I’d hardly agree to be associated with such a thing. And frankly, Liberace was the last guy to go well with those shoes. Besides…” he added as an afterthought, “Raoul is such a total fake-o.”

“Fake-o?” she asked with a raised eyebrow, though not releasing his hand. “What do you mean?”

“Um… I’m not entirely sure…” Visionary admitted. “You’re sister kept calling me that on the drive out to your place. I figured it must be part of 2004 slang. But Raoul is definitely so very… that. I mean, did you see that guy? With his good looks, and muscles, and smooth conversation…”

Sarah’s lips parted slightly as her eyes glowed with remembrance.

“Um… and, er… splotchy complexion… beginning pink eye… horrible ham odor…”

“He did not have “horrible ham odor”!” Sarah laughed.

“Maybe it was some other kind of luncheon meat…” he allowed. “You couldn’t tell?” Visionary asked innocently. “I thought you were just being polite, in case it was some kind of medical condition.”

“And to think you look so harmless.” She observed with a sidelong glance. “Well, at least he gave me a flower” she noted, bringing the wide open petals up to her nose again to inhale deeply.

“Reminiscent of weenies, isn’t it?”

She elbowed him solidly in the ribs.

“Ow! Hey, don’t take your unfortunate inability to distinguish aromas out on me… Besides, it’s just one flower… I gave you my last nine dollars on Earth.” It quickly occurred to Visionary that this wasn’t actually a wooing line that worked in most situations. “Er… that I know of. I may have left my money clip in my other pants. I could be a rich man by now, for all I know.”

“Didn’t you say you lived in a hole? Literally underground?”

“Well… it was a pretty swanky hole in the ground.” He assured her. “Cable and everything. Not a whiff of ham to be found.”

They walked hand in hand along the improbably secluded path, enjoying the warm evening as the sky turned orange over the city. This end of the enormous park featured the arboreal gardens, sprawling and filled with trees, bushes and water features criss-crossing in a kind of tangled maze. Frogs chirped happily from beneath them as they walked up an arching bridge over a large creek that emptied into a wide pond. At the top, they paused to lean over the railing.

“So what do you think of the future so far?” she asked him, watching the dragonflies buzz along the surface of the water.

He thought about it and found himself smiling. “You know, when I first woke up this morning, I was pretty freaked out… Not only did very little make sense, but even what I could understand was… well, disturbing.” He decided not to mention his frantic, screaming escape attempt from two teenage girls, for fear it might somehow made him look less sophisticated. “But, for some reason, the more I see of it… the more time I spend here… the more it feels… well, right.” He looked at her and smiled. “I think this may very well have been the best birthday I’ve ever had.”

She set her flower on the banister and took his other hand in hers, stepping close to him and raising her eyebrow. “May be? You think? So tell me… what would it take to put it over the top, hmmm?”

Now that was an invitation that even he couldn’t mistake. He moved his face towards hers, closing his eyes and breathing deeply as his heart-rate skyrocketed once more.

“My rose!” Sarah suddenly cried, startling him. He blinking in confusion, then followed her gaze to the banister just in time to see the flower roll off and topple down into the water below. “Quick, grab it!” she implored him.

Visionary dropped to the rough-planked surface of the bridge and grasped in vain as the flower floated downstream just out of his reach, heading out towards the center of the pond. “Um… I’m afraid it’s gone…”

“But… a girl likes to save mementos from the first time she meets a really cute potential boyfriend…” Sarah explained.

“Yeah, but… Raoul gave you that flower.”

“Yes” she agreed with a smile.

“Not motivating me” Visionary pointed out.

She pouted. “But just think… If some nice time-displaced boy were to retrieve that rose for me, well then he would be the one who gave it to me, and the memento would be a reminder of him.”

“But…” Visionary tried again. “It’s way out in the water now.”

“Yes” she agreed with a smile.

“I’ll get all wet.”

“Yes” she agreed again. “That’s what will make it memorable.”

“Do you really want to wander around the city with a dripping wet guy, rose or no rose?”

She laughed. “Of course not. That’s why you should leave your clothes with me.”

“What?!”

“You do want to be remembered, don’t you?” she pointed out with a wolfish grin. “Come on… It’s traditional where I come from for a hero to perform a grand quest to win the love of the heroine. Didn’t you tell me that you’re a hero in this time?”

“I… you… but…” Visionary debated skillfully. “What if somebody’s coming along the path?”

“Then you should probably hurry up before they get here.”

“Skinny-dipping in Off Central Park is probably illegal…”

“So’s a couple of 16 year olds drinking and serving whiskey.”

“It’s October. Or so I’m told.”

“It’s unseasonably warm.” She grinned at him. “And I could always promise to warm you up afterwards...”

Visionary pondered that. “Hold my coat” he decided, quickly slipping it off.

“GAH!” he declared loudly as he sank below the surface bit by bit (some bits feeling it more than others.) The water was cold… it was damn cold. In fact, it was more than cold enough that, once Visionary was submerged up to his waist, the fact that this was probably a very stupid idea was able to come crashing back to him as the blood fled his lower extremities and returned to his brain.

“Phffff… Baby” came a completely unsympathetic scoff in reply.

“You’re sure you’re not peeking?” Visionary called out over the cattails that served to (inadequately, he felt) screen him from the bridge.

“Of course not!” Sarah objected, though with a tone of voice that clearly included an ear-to-ear grin. “What kind of girl do you take me for?”

Visionary snorted.

“What was that?” she asked pointedly.

“Just… adjusting to the chill” he called back. He was obviously insane. That had to account for it. Some rare mental condition that would allow a beautiful girl to talk a boy into getting naked for her on the off-beat chance that it might lead somewhere. Well, okay… so maybe it wasn’t exactly a rare mental condition. Gritting his teeth, he submerged up to his neck and swam out from the shore. “Can you see where the rose floated off to?”

“So I’m allowed to open my eyes now?” she asked innocently, standing in the center of the bridge with his clothes draped over her arm.

“Yes… let’s just hurry up and get this over with so I can get dressed again!”

“Just what every woman wants to hear” she quipped. She opened her eyes and scanned the surface of the pond. “That way” she said, leaning over the railing to look down at him and gesture towards the center of the pond.

Visionary paddled out in the direction she indicated until he reached the center. “Now where?”

“It sank” she noted. “It’s about two feet below your right foot.”

He blinked in surprise.

“Yes, now that the sun isn’t reflecting directly off it, the water is amazingly clear” she informed him helpfully.

“Um… I did mention that it’s very, very cold… right?” Visionary asked as he casually tried to tread water with his legs crossed.

“Oh, nonsense…I’m sure it’s just a little thing. The cold, I mean” she added innocently. “Certainly, you can’t let a tiny handicap like that allow you to come up short now. You wouldn’t want my esteem for you to shrivel and diminish to the point where I think Raoul is certainly the bigger man, now would you?”

Visionary glared at her. “You are The Devil” he informed her as he took a gulp of air and upended himself in the water to dive down to the prize. She was right, however… the pond was indeed surprisingly clear, and the bright red petals of the flower stood out strongly against the greenish brown muck of pond bottom. With a wince, he reached out to pluck it from the tangle of weeds, the idea of leaches or water moccasins or sensitive-bit-nibbling-piranha had unfortunately come to mind with this close inspection of the various pond life spreading out beneath him. (Admittedly, the most he could see so far were some tadpoles, but one could never be too careful). Surfacing, he shook the water out of his eyes. “Got it!” he declared triumphantly. “Um… Sarah?” he asked, looking at the now-empty bridge.

Instead of the bewitching (it would explain so much) voice of the 16 year old girl, he instead heard the rough, gravelly tones of someone much bigger, and most likely male, coming down the path towards the pond. The man was apparently engaged in a heated argument with another, smaller voice. Taking the better part of valor open to most men caught without pants, he ducked below the surface again and promptly chose to hide.

Even under water, he could hear the voices grow nearer as he pulled for the cattails, surfacing under the footings of the bridge itself. It creaked ominously with weight as the trespassers set foot on it, pausing directly above his head.

“I’m telling you, Indiana…” the deeper voice grated, “I heard somebody cry out. It was definitely a Gah!”

“There’s nobody out here” the higher voice replied. “You never did clean your ears out properly after those swallows tried to build a nest in ‘em...”

“It was a Gah!” the gravelly voice repeated stubbornly. “And a person doesn’t just Gah for no reason. This was definitely a Gah! of pain… of anguish. It has to be investigated… It’s my duty to protect the park…”

“Oh, please…” the smaller voice groaned, as their footsteps continued, crossing over the bridge and down the path. “We so need to find you a hobby…”

Visionary let out a sigh of relief as the voices of the two passersby faded again. Of course, his relief might have been more profound were he not still shivering naked in a pond likely filled with all manner of dangerous, underwater creatures…

All in all, it was quite understandable that he nearly shrieked like a six year old girl when something smooth and slippery slid up from behind him, along his side and across his chest. “Um… Sarah?” he asked instead, catching himself just in time. “Please tell me that’s you… for way more reasons that I can even begin to count.”

Her other arm sneaked around his other side, and a warm, slippery and smooth mass was suddenly pressed up against his back. “I suppose I should apologize…” she said, her mouth right behind his ear. “You were right… this really is damn cold.”

He swallowed hard and offered the rose over his shoulder, all while trying desperately to identify exactly what was pressed against him from behind. If only he had honed the sensitivity of his back skin when he had had the chance… “I got something for you.”

She brought her cheek over his shoulder until it was alongside his and inhaled deeply from the rose. “No ham at all” she noted warmly, resting her head on his shoulder. “I guess it worked. So tell me…” she nibbled lightly on his ear, “how’s your birthday going now?”

Visionary stood submerged to his neck, naked and shivering, with his feet sunk deep in the muck at the bottom of a pond in the park of a major city that he had never heard of before, separated from everyone and everything he knew back home with no idea how he had come to be there or how he was ever going to find his way back.

“Best day ever” he declared truthfully.

Post By Visionary, sorry for the delay Sun Oct 31, 2004 at 07:43:05 am EST	Subject Dancer/Visionary "Follies of Youth" Accidentally-holding-up-the-entire-series #20-ish: "…Let’s just hurry up and get this over with so I can get dressed again”

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