Encounter

Encounter

Up ahead, he could see a figure standing motionless as the flowing crowd parted and left a space around it. She was female, facing him, and apparently staring into nothingness. Although brightly dressed in yellows and greens, it was her stillness that separated her from the constant activity around her, that made her impossible to miss for anyone who cared to look.

He slowed his pace as he neared the figure.

Because she was standing at the lowest point of the sidewalk, with upward slopes both before and behind her, it looked to him as though people walked over her head before disappearing back into the crowd. He stopped at the point where he figured it would look to those behind her as though he were standing on her head. He imagined his feet disappearing into her short-cropped hair.

They regarded each other with seeming indifference across the hurrying crowd. Now they formed two static rocks around which the stream of people broke and flowed past. He felt as though, if he were to move his feet in a certain way, she would be compelled to move in the same direction, as though controlled by him.

Slowly and carefully, he moved his feet as though they were dragging her head towards his right. She remained rigidly upright and still.

Feeling slightly foolish, he began to walk forward again, stopping at the point where he thought people behind her would see his head seemingly atop hers, just as he could see heads suddenly appearing above hers, only to be replaced immediately by others. He stopped then, so that those walking behind her could get the full effect of his head resting on another’s.

Still the flow of humanity continued relentlessly and no one seemed surprised at the sight of one head above the other.

He continued to walk the few paces until he stood immediately before her. She looked right through him. Their two empty spaces in the flow of people now combined into a larger one. No one touched or bumped into them.

His mouth opened as though he were about to speak but he said nothing. He closed it again as his eyes drifted down to the bare pavement between them. Then his shoulders moved up and down in a shrug, he stepped sideways into the flow, and walked past her to resume his journey.

When he reached the point at which he should be able to see people standing on her head, he stopped and turned around. She had gone.


Word count: 422
Because it wanted to be written
Prompt: None.