François' Quest

9

"Murder weapon?!" She couldn't believe her ears. "This hose is a murder weapon?" The hose was attached to what looked like a hot water bottle. It looked disgusting, filthy and muddied up.
François still had a supercilious grin on his face. Lowdian with a serious face. He knew that he had something over the police right there in his hand.
"I am so happy that the murderers just threw this thing in the cave for me to find. It's going to prove that he was murdered!" François was thrilled to say the least.
Again she asked him with her eyes wide in a childlike-manner, "What is it and why are you so happy about it? How could that thing be the murder weapon?"
"I don't want to tell you until I investigate further."
She rolled her eyes smiling. "Okay."
"Can you go outside and get me a piece of a banana leaf please?" He was holding this hose in the air so that it didn't touch the ground, just like you would hold the tail of a snake with its head dangling just above the ground.
Lowdian ran to get what François requested. She trusted that he knew what he was doing. When she got back he asked her to put her hands under the piece of banana leaf to steady it as he laid the hose and the bag on the leaf, trying to curl the hose around, onto itself. The banana leaf was very broad. Two feet across.
"I don't want to touch it too much with my hands so I want to transport it back to the dinghy via the leaf."
"Ohhhh good idea." Lowdian realized what he was doing, admiring him again.
When they finally got back to the vehicle he opened the back and laid the banana leaf with his 'murder weapon' down on the floor of Lowdian's SUV.
As they drove back in silence all of a sudden François jumped, "Oh dear!"
"What is it?" Lowdian had been started out of her thinking.
"I said I was going to take you to lunch but it's six o'clock. I guess I have to take you to dinner now." François smiled that two million dollar smile of his. It had gotten dark but Lowdian could see those brilliant teeth in the moonlight.
They got back to Yellow Cup, where François had left his non-mountain-climbing BMW. So much had transpired since the morning, it seemed like they were drinking coffee at Yellow Cup a lifetime ago. So much had changed with a walk in the jungle, on an island, in the harbor, of Port Antonio. So much had changed for them personally and for the case of Denzil's murder.
François could see that the dark cloud over Lowdian's head had lifted. He had given her hope that he was going to discover how Denzil was murdered and possibly, eventually by whom. That made her feel she could put trust in him. That made him feel really good.
"Where would you like to eat?"
She just smiled but didn't say a word.
"China Express it is!"
They had both gone home to shower and change their clothes. Both of them felt very dirty after being through the jungle and that dark, dank, filthy cave, full of bats, bugs and cobwebs. Lowdian's skin crawled.
This time she allowed François to pick her up at her house. When he arrived looking very debonair in his brown slacks with a light purple shirt. He knocked on her door. When she opened the door what he saw took his breath away. She was wearing a knee-length purple dress with a knee-length sheer jacket that was covered in large brown and purple flowers. The colors were muted on the sheer jacket. It was very feminine, soft looking.
A far cry from the frazzled hair with twigs and grass stuck in it, she had pulled her hair up into a French roll with purple rhinestones running lengthwise in the crease of the roll. Purple amethyst chandeliers dangled from her ears. She was exquisite. Always classy, slightly understated. Never extravagant. Just the way he liked a lady to be.
They both matched.
He opened the car door for her, she got in.
When he got in on the other side he said, "Did you know purple was my favorite color?" She couldn't have known that yet.
"Did you know that brown was my favorite color?"
He couldn't have know that.
"Did you notice that we were both wearing brown and purple?" They both smiled then started to giggle over that. "You see I knew that we should get married and have ten children. What are you doing next Saturday around one in the afternoon?" They laughed again.
He kinda meant it.
When they got to the restaurant there was Tristan Jones behind the bar. First François saw him, winked a 'guy-wink' that said, "See I got the girl." Then he turned to tell the maitre d' that he wanted the same table they sat at on Saturday night. Lowdian looked at Tristan, winked at him to say, "See I got the guy." Neither one of them saw the other although Tristan saw both of them.
He lowered his head, shook it with a huge smile on his face, "Yeah mon. Mi gooooood." Laughing he went into the kitchen to place François order. He knew what his friend wanted to eat.
Neither François nor Lowdian knew what they were eating. It all tasted good but it simply didn't matter. They were so engrossed in conversation and in each other. Smiling, laughing and looking at each other. Paying compliments and receiving them. The evening was lovely. At one point they both got quiet. Then both started to speak at the same time then laughed,
"Go ahead." Lowdian said while laughing.
"No! You go ahead." François was going to be a gentleman. Then he quickly got an idea. He was sure that she was going to say the same thing as he was.
"Hey! I have an idea."
"What is it?" Still giggling.
"Let's write down what we were going to say on the paper napkin then exchanged them. I bet we were going to say the same thing. Let's just see if I am right. Just for fun."
"Ummm......okay!" Lowdian got excited about the idea.
"Don't peek now." She said as she was writing. He wrote too. They were both smiling. It was great fun.
"Okayyy here you go." He slid his napkin slowly, face down across the table, she did the same at the same time. They were both giggling like little children.
"Don't look until I say the word. We have to look at the same time."
She couldn't stop giggling, "Okay, deal!"
"Okayyy, ready? Go!"
Both grabbed up the other's napkin. Both read at the same time. Both mouths dropped open at the same time. Both mouths got covered by a hand. Both threw the napkins down in the middle of the table face up.

Both wrote the same thing!!