Resuming our walk made the recent events feel as if they had been from a dream, like I had fallen asleep in the warmth of the sun on the soft grass of the park, awakening with a start by something that had deeply troubled me. It lingered momentarily before receding to a faint recollection as Alexandria led us away from the park and further down the river.
I was like a book reader wanting answers but realizing there were still many, many pages left in the novel and so any answers may still require much persistence and patience.
The day was beautifully springlike, the days of summer beckoning just around the corner. Not enough to feel like diving into the water to escape from it, but rather giving an inspired feeling to walk amongst the air like somehow the Earth had finally recognized the perfect temperature that produced the most favorable response on the human happiness scale and so had paused the atmosphere like a setting on a thermostat.
I enjoyed the park and hadn't gone there often enough. To be fair though, a stroll alone and an adventurous walk with another produced two very different emotions.
We refrained from speaking much, save for commenting on the beauty that the spring season brought forward in our comfortable little city. Spring in the park made us feel like we were in another city altogether, far away from home.
Alexandria led us to a quaint neighborhood not too far from the river, through idyllic streets with small apartments in very old brick buildings. The scenery of these streets likely hadn't changed much through the decades.
We went up the steps of one, a darkened brick property that was layered with age. An old, metal fire escape zig-zagged up the side of it. Alexandria put her finger to one of the buttons and buzzed one of the rooms.
"Under normal circumstances, I probably would never have brought you here," she said. "But when I spoke to my friend last and told her about you, she said the best thing I could do was to bring you with me to see her."
"She wants to see me?" I feign puzzlement, even though I already have my suspicions based on what Alexandria had just spoken. I only had to ask myself two questions and the boiling over of possible answers would be endless. Why had she brought me to see this person? And why was this person interested in seeing me?
As we stood together outside the large oak door of this deteriorating building it became plain to see that what I had begun doing was no different than scrutinizing every single scene of a book or movie so that one could figure out the ending. We begin looking for clues in everything, in every character interaction and every bit of dialogue, as if the grand author were leaving us little leads for us to discover where it is the plot will go. Would it be considered insanity if one were to use this mindset in relation to reality?
Attempting to look at it logically, Alexandria likely had brought me to see this person because she trusted them, and heaven only knows that she doesn't throw that trust around lightly. So this person, because of Alexandria's trust shown through telling about me, became interested in meeting me likely to pass their own judgement on me, but seeing as how I've come with a pre-guaranteed stamp of approval from Alexandria, it likely made them all the more intrigued to meet this person who had managed to earn their way into her life in the way that I have. So either Alexandria was, or is, looking for approval from this person, or the logical next step is for me to meet this person only because I already have attained the necessary approval.
Or, I was just thinking about it too much and probing into something that ultimately held little significance.
"Next stop on the Alexandria Grand Tour of whatever-it-was-you-called-it?" I attempted to lighten the mood.
"Yeah," she finally cracked a smile, "yeah, I guess it kinda is."
"Willing to divulge any more details before we go in?" I chanced.
"I don't like ruining surprises, you know that."
I nodded. Of course.
After what felt like an eternity, the door buzzed and unlocked to let us in. I noticed the name on the panel where the buttons for each room were. The name beside the one Alexandria pressed read S. Bonaventure. There was an old staircase in front of the doorway, its carpet faded with age. We didn't go up it, rather moving down a few steps to a ground level where Alexandria led me to one of the far doors and knocked. The fluorescents above us buzzed.
"This is Scarlett," Alexandria motioned as soon as the door cracked open.
We were greeted and let in by a slender nymph with blue eyes who beckoned us into an unsuspecting passage into another realm.
That was my first impression of Scarlett and her abode. She appeared like a fairy-girl, a secret domain of magic and supernaturalness looming behind her and catching the eye of the beholder.
Alexandria and Scarlett greeted one another with a normal hug - no mystical ritual greeting whatsoever - before the two turned their attention back at me. Alexandria made motion towards me and the brilliant blue eyes of her friend settled on me, a roguish smile on her face.
"This is the boy?" the girl asked.
"I am a boy, yes. I don't know about the boy..." I tried to sneak in some amount of playfulness to show that I belonged.
Alexandria's friend laughed loudly.
"I like him already. Come in!"
Scarlett swooshed her way back in the door and I followed the two of them inside, wondering just how strange of an experience I was about to have. On a scale of one to ten, it was likely going to be closer to the latter, I guesstimated.
Alexandria's friend Scarlett reminded me of one of those girls I remembered seeing on the covers of books and magazines about the enigma that was fairy fashion. Otherworldly, yet elegantly simple dress that consisted of a lot of floaty dresses and such, emphasizing natural fabrics and hand-made or vintage accessories, often braided hair. All of that sort of thing. That was all only some of my uneducated observances, of course, not that I could claim to be an expert by any stretch.
Scarlett wore a summer dress despite it not quite being summer, though her apartment was warm enough to argue the opposite. Her hair was long, blonde, and free-flowing and it draped over her bare shoulders above the sleeveless tube-top of her dress. The dress itself was like an optical illusion. It was ruffly around the top and seemed to expand in layers; the back of the dress going down to the floor while the front stopped above her knees. It was silken and loose-waisted, a concoction of various pastel colors blending together that changed depending on where she stood in the light.
Her apartment was exactly like what I'd imagine could be akin to walking into the home of a fortune teller. The apartment was on the smaller side but it contained more color than an art museum. Purple heavy-set drapes blotted out the sun save for leaked rays, giving the apartment a mystical setting with its abundance of candles set in various places. The walls were soft pink and littered with everything from framed paintings to taped up drawings of various sizes that Scarlett herself must have done. Indiscernible doo-dads - symbols or artifacts of unknown origin made up the rest of the decor.
The dark room had that kind of special odor you find in older apartment buildings. It is a peculiar mix of smells - dried up poinsettia plants, stale food, old sheets, and unrepaired leaks. Live there long enough and you might finally get used to the smell.
A set of those long multi-colored, beaded doorway drapes dangled from the entrance of the lone bedroom of the dwelling. Scarlett led the two of us through it, away from the clutter of the square main room that served as a living room with a tiny square corner devoted to a kitchen where pots and dishes lay in disorderly chaos.
Her bedroom was small and the amount of things packed into it did not help its slightly claustrophobic feel. It was certainly a gypsy's room, if that's what Scarlett in fact was. All of this was, of course, beyond my scope of knowledge.
As we moved from one room to the other, Alexandria and Scarlett spoke excitedly like young girls about what they'd been up to since seeing each other last. The conversation seemed trivial and I hardly payed attention.
What drew my eye was the large framed painting of a gypsy-like woman. I could not decipher what it was she was doing in the painting nor what all the many symbols in it were or what they meant. Something about it, though, could perfectly be described as having given me the creeps.
Scarlett had a floor bed on the furthest side of the room by the window that took up the length of the room which could not have been more than six and a half feet. A unique carpet lay underfoot and many pillows and blankets of only the most colorful of varieties were jumbled upon the bed.
Plants hung by the pink silken drapes of the window and winded down from shelves. There was wooden shelving on both sides of the room, mostly filled with books and other knick-knacks where space was sparse. I noticed a table near the doorway below the New Age painting of the woman upon which were many crystals of infinite texture and hue, mixed with other assorted objects - New Age figurines, tarot cards, objects that might be used for other such methods of fortune-telling - ones that if I peered at too closely I might find as very disturbing. I averted my eyes accordingly. Most of the things in the room gave me an uncomfortable feeling that I couldn't remember having felt before.
Were we in the room of a specialist? One who spent their life devoted to their spirituality? Or a hobbyist? Someone who took the fad of New Age a little too excessively? I supposed a simple conversation with the girl might lead to an answer for that one.
Scarlett made us all sit down on her bed. I squeezed against a far corner, moving mounds of pillows aside and the three of us got as comfortable as we could and sat cross-legged on her mattress.
Alexandria smoothed her long skirt under her legs and looked at me, possibly to see how I was doing. I was deeply uncertain and tried to communicate that we shouldn't stay long with a face gesture that ended up just making her snicker.
"Alexandria's told me a bit about you, mystery boy," Scarlett spoke to me, her eyes seemingly pierced into my soul. With all the artifacts around us, I wouldn't put past that possibility.
"Oh?"
"So have you looked at your astrological relationship compatibility?" she asked Alexandria.
"I've looked into it and found some interesting findings."
"Oooh! You'll have to tell me more! I'd like to read it for myself." I could tell from the way the blonde girl's eyes lit up, that this was an area of great interest.
She looked back at me to explain. "Astrology reveals a whole new level of understanding between people simply by looking at their star sign and that of their partner. It's essential knowledge for discerning compatibility with someone."
"Uh-huh," I said.
"Do you know much about what I do?" she asked me.
"I don't know a single thing about you."
"I don't mean me specifically. But this," she waved her arm, referring to the surroundings of the room. "Do you know much about it? About the kind of things I do?"
"Do you tell people's fortunes? Gaze into a crystal ball? Maybe read the palms of my hands and tell me if I'm gonna live a happy life or if I'm gonna die young?"
Her and Alexandria just looked at one another and laughed.
Scarlett waved it off. "No worries, my friend. You have to find the Truth on your own in your own due time." She said the word truth as if it were something of cosmic importance. It seemed likely the truths she were referring to differed greatly from any that I myself had ever pondered about.
In all honesty, I didn't like being there, much like how I didn't like being at the park when all the strange happenings had begun to occur. The two were different from one another. But why was I being led from one strange thing to another? Was anything related?
I contemplated making an excuse to leave.
"Have you had any more dreams lately?" Scarlett asked Alexandria.
"Yeah, I've had several more." She grew instantly solemn, her giddiness disappearing in an instant as she withdrew into the memories of those dreams. "I don't know what most of them mean."
Alexandria looked to me, feeling I needed an explanation. "Scarlett is also working on dream interpreting. She's been helping me figure mine out."
"And how has that been going?" I could tell that remark had come off as a bit snarky based on Scarlett's expression.
I could only think of all the points in Alexandria's novel that were dream-based, ones which I had turned to suspecting were more reality than fiction-based. Could someone actually interpret such a confusing web?
"It's complex," Scarlett answered the question, "To interpret your dreams, you need to determine what type of dream you're dealing with. There are different categories they fit into. They have different purposes and it's necessary to recognize what they are and how they interact in your waking and dreaming state. These are for your spiritual development and progress, and produce information that is beyond your ability to garner through intellectual or logical means."
She spoke it all in a way that sounded perfectly reasonable. The girl was intelligent, that was evident. Also likeable enough, heck, extremely cute as well - the perfect person to feed you information that came off as rational and believable. But from the moment I had entered this basement suite, I could not shake the feeling of uneasiness.
And this was a feeling that I had become far too acquainted with. I was either learning to trust my instincts, or all of the things bombarding me only grew to cause me even more confusion.
"But we're not here for that, I'm suspecting?" Scarlett raised an eyebrow at Alexandria and I.
Alexandria shook her head.
Scarlett nodded her head as if in understanding. She then turned to me, shifting her whole body towards me, her legs remaining crossed underneath her.
"Then can I ask you a series of questions?" she said seriously.
The girl was cryptic. Like Alexandria. I supposed it only suited the tone of her home - the fortune-teller's tent I had found myself stuck in. If I thought Alexandria was strange, I had an almost unsettling feeling that I had only broken the surface.
So what do you think of Alexandria's friend, Scarlett? Do you think the Narrator has reason to feel so uneasy? Or is he just being paranoid due to recent events? What are your thoughts on people who are into New Age? Do you trust them? Any more ideas of where the story is going to go?
Until next time,
Brendan