Out of the Ordinary

Chapter 14: Raving

"Don't 'good morning to you' me! What the heck are you doing out here?"

"I noticed that Kyle's orchids were wilting. I am tending them for him." He brushed them gently with his fingers, and slowly and miraculously, they changed from light brown to pure white.

"That's great that you are helping out Kyle, Dainu," I said. "But its nine o'clock in the morning and people are just getting up. What if somebody sees you?"

"No one was petrified of my appearance when we were at the market," Dainu replied. "I was a shadow amongst the people; no one gazed upon me twice."

"It's called the mall, not a market, for your information. And plus, it was easy to disguise you when we put you in some new clothes. But in my neighborhood, people would flip out if they see a stray cat roaming around. Not everyone knows you yet, if they see you, they'll definitely call the police or something."

"Be at peace, Kaley," Dainu said calmly. "Do not let your fear and paranoia overcome you. I am sure your people will be equitable to understand without judgments. Give them a chance to know and appreciate me."

"Yeah, but..."

"Good morning, Kaley," said a voice in the distance. I turned to follow the location of that voice. It was Old Man Handy, and he was coming this way. My heart pounded in my chest again. What would he do if he sees Dainu?

I pushed Dainu away from the bushes and shove him against a tree. He protested against my actions, but I told him it was for good use. He obediently hid behind the tree, and I walked away from the tree towards Mr. Handerman.

"Kaley, how'd ya been," he asked.

"Great," I said quickly. "Just great. Everything's going as normal as usual."

"That's good," said Old Man Handy. "I wanted to come and talk to you since we haven't talked a while after the incident with that government agent. How's he doing? I heard he was staying at your place."

"He was, but he left because he had some more work to do elsewhere. Thank God. You have no idea how annoying he was to me the last two weeks. What's worse was that I had to show him around town. We went to the mall, had ice cream; ugh, that was the worst day of my entire life. But now, he's gone and he won't bother me anymore."

"I'm glad to hear that," Handerman said, smiling. "Hey, guess what, I was reading my tabloids this morning and it said that someone spotted Big Foot at an ice cream stand in Québec, Canada. Finally, Big Foot is coming out from hiding all these years. Isn't that amazing?"

"Yeah, amazing," I said flatly. Mr. Handerman always likes reading the paranormal articles in the tabloids instead of reading the plain old newspaper. He can pick up some pretty weird stuff sometimes. Once, he read an article about a person who caught a Fiji mermaid―half monkey half fish―while fishing in a bay. He actually believed that. Even though he's a very nice man, he can believe in the weirdest stuff. But I still like him.

"By the way, who's your friend?" he asked.

"Uh....what friend," I said non-suspiciously.

"The one you were wrestling with, and placed him by that tree behind you."

I acted like I didn't know what he was talking about. "Oh! That was nobody; I was only wrestling with the tree only." The heck was I saying?

 "I'm definitely sure you were with somebody. I want to see'im. I like meeting new people." He was about to look behind the tree.

"No!" I shouted. "There's really no one here. You're only wasting your time."