Missing

Chapter 1

Ravens heart jumped. She felt her face flame. Her eyes were glued on the felt hat and black coat worn by a man walking in the opposite direction. The footpath was crowded and raven,standing still,was jostled in the seething flow of people rushing for trains or buses and the warmth of their homes.
Someone's bag knocked her leg, snapping her out of her shocked paralysis. She stood on tip-toe, dodging left then right.
A hand grabbed her arm.
Raven flinched.
Sarah's mouth was moving but raven couldn't hear what her friend was saying.it was just noice. Raven pulled her arm free and plunged into the crowd,her heart beating hard and painfully.
In just a few seconds,scarcely long enough to gather her thoughts,the man had disappeared. She couldn't see him along the footpath nor on the pedestrian crossing.
Frantically she cut across the stream of people and headed the shop entrance nearest the the last spot she had seen him.
Florist? She wondered and looked through the front window.
Inside there was a tired looking woman scraping thorns from rose stems with wide metal tweezers.
Raven moved to the men's clothing store next door,put her hands to the glass window and peered In.
There he is!
He was stroking ties on a rack as though the feel of them was more important than the colour or price.
Raven wrenched open the door and a blast of over warm air from a heater escaped into the cold afternoon. The sales man looked surprised. Ravens back ,under her maroon blazer and back pack,was damp with perspiration . she marched past the racks of suits and jackets to the man in the familiar coat and hat and tapped him on his shoulder.
"Oh ... I ...I " Ravens stuttering never made it out into a complete sentance. This mans face was all wrong. his mustache was as lush and tender as a garden prize. A protruding forehead sheltered deep set green eyes and his chin was ruff with stubble. He looked confused.
It broke her heart , raven felt it splinter into little pieces and fall ever so silently onto the carpeted floor.
The salesman frowned , perturbed that the elegant quietness of the store had been interrupted by an over excited school girl " may I help you miss?"
" I wish you could " she turned away not wanting them to see how much it hurt that that familiar hat had been shielding a face she had never seen. The coat protecting a body she had never hugged.
Disappointed and embarrassed she rushed to the door as she pulled it open the cold air slapped her face.
She blended back into the crown hoping that people would think the cold winter wind was making her eyes water.