Agent Orange - Inconsequential

Episode 7 - DELVE continued...

DELVE Part 2

Chapter 6 continued...

"Sorry. I --," he realized who he was talking to and his voice stopped, though his mouth kept moving. When he realized no words were coming out, he cleared his throat and continued, "...didn't see you there."

To the average person her sneer would have explained that she had just been insulted. Orange assumed she was still mad about him being in the way. It's her!

"I... was... daydreaming." Still no verbal response from the woman. "It really is a problem sometimes. I should... work on it."

The woman finally "hmph'd" and rolled on, shaking her head. After a minute, Orange followed.

It was either pure luck or some kind of mental transference that the woman stopped at the falafel stand that Orange had been trying to find. She ordered something and then waited. Orange walked up, looking sheepish, trying not to make eye contact.

The Arab falafel vendor finished preparing the woman's food and said, "That's $4.50."

The woman's head appeared to glow. "Put it on my tab Ahab."

Orange didn't know if that was actually his name or if she was attempting to be crass. The man seemed about to say something but then stopped. Then he seemed to change his mind and start again, "No problem."

The woman's head stopped glowing. She set her food in her lap, her drink in a jury-rigged cup holder and navigated her chair further down the street.

Orange stepped up to the cart. The man still seemed partially dazed. Orange ordered and the man prepared his food.

"That's $4.50."

Orange stared at the man intensely. He waved his hand slowly, horizontally with his fingers partially splayed. As was his ritual on the week of his birthday, he had just re-watched the entire Star Wars trilogy a week before. He decided a little Jedi mind trick couldn't hurt.

"Put it on my tab Ahab."

He wasn't really trying to get a free lunch, just experimenting. Gathering data - and falafel.

"Who the fuck are you calling Ahab?" the man asked, leaning over his cart in agitation.

Orange froze. Arabic is a scary language for westerners. Even when Arabs are celebrating or sharing kind words, the harshness of some syllables makes it sound like they're cursing each other. Orange was sure it had something to do with supra-glottal phonation but he was having trouble concentrating at the moment because he was too busy being scared. The end result was that this man's "fuck" sounded much more like "I will skin you alive and then rub salt into your exposed tissues".

"Do I know you?" the man asked

"I've got this Sam," said a voice from behind and to the left of Orange. "I'll have the usual, minus the cucumbers." He handed Sam, the falafel vendor, a ten dollar bill.

Orange turned to see Shawn Cartwright, just the person he was looking for. Or actually the person he had been looking for earlier. What a coincidence.

"Thanks Shawn," said Orange.

"It's always good to have money when the old Jedi mind trick doesn't work out," said Shawn.

"I didn't know you were a fan," said Orange.

"I've always been a fan of money," said Shawn.

Shawn smiled and somehow it was genuine and condescending at the same time. He was a little older than Orange, just as tall but with a frame that made him a possible DNA match with Andre the Giant, except his hair was blonde and straight. He was wearing a grey pinstriped suit that looked like it was losing the battle to hold all of his amazing girth in.