"This your ball?" the man asked. He nodded without saying anything. "Here you go. I think you're a very good dribbler."
"Not as good as Denny," he said as he took the ball. Reese backed up still a little nervous. "Momma says not to talk to strangers."
"And your momma's right, Reese," he said.
"How you know my name?" Reese asked.
"Because I know your momma," he said. "We're old friends. My name's Mike."
His hesitation fled and he shook Mike's head. "You got a good grip." Mike reached into his pocket and pulled out something shiny. "I got something for you." He placed the object into Reese's hand, and his mouth dropped open. He had never seen anything like it. It was a coin, but not like any coin he had ever seen. "That coin is very old."
"It looks so cool," Reese said and examined it closely. On one side it looked like a cross tucked away in a tiny cocoon surrounded by four circles, and the other side had a faded out scene with some weird symbols. "Thanks, mister."
At that moment Reese could hear his mother calling him. He looked to see his mother running in his direction. "Reese, thank goodness you're alright."
She looked up at the man suspiciously. "The boy lost his ball," he said.
"So you found it," she said, looking at him suspiciously. She was holding onto her son's hand the whole time.
"More like it found me," he said.
"Well, thank you," she said. Looking into the man's eyes, this stranger's eyes she saw that they were not normal eyes. They were green cat eyes, and she knew she should have been weary of him, but somehow she sensed this man wasn't out to hurt her or her son. She felt as if she knew him. She tried to reach for a name inside her mind, but none would come.
"It's Mike," he said after what seemed like a long silence.
"What?" she asked confused.
"My name," he said. He looked hopeful, but still she looked upon him still like he really was a stranger. "That's a nice kid you got there," he said and smiled at the boy. "Take good care of him."
"I will," she said and slowly walked away. Reese wanted to stay and talk to the nice man some more, but his mother urged him to move along.
Mike just looked on for a moment at the dark-haired beauty. She was even more beauty then he had remembered, a few years older yes, but still the same. He walked away into the woods and seemed to disappear as quickly as he came.
Marianna looked towards those woods thinking of that man's face, his strange yet familiar eyes. "Hey, M.J, are you okay?" Hillary asked her.
"Hey, fine," she said and sat down at their picnic table. "It's just that guy."
"What about him?" Hillary asked. Her expression held one of confusion. "Do you know him?"
"No," she said and took a bit of her salad. "I've never seen him before in my life." She wondered if that were true.