Whale Song - Page 2
She just smiled, looking me up and down with a thoroughness that I felt uncomfortable returning. "And what kind of people wear tailored white suits and patent leather shoes into the woods?" she pointedly asked as the smile upon her lips grew bigger, lips that were an inviting shade of red despite her eschewal of make-up.
I refused to rise to the bait even as I refused to rise to any other bait she might be dangling in front of me. "People in a hurry," I sniffed as I kept my eyes firmly on her eyes, eyes that were as dark as her pixie cut styled hair.
"'In a hurry . . .'" she repeated, "and in great pain . . ."
And with that, cute or not, any flights of fantasy fell to the ground with a resounding crash. "Being in the presence of ignorance does that to me," I snarled as I turned to leave.
"Solitude must be difficult for you then," she fired off as a parting shot.
I whirled back around. "Was that one of the infinite monkeys running around in your head getting lucky with its typewriter, or have you actually managed to not completely fry your brains on the drugs and insipidness which flows so freely around us?" The question had only a touch of fury, my sudden curiosity having taken up the rest of the available space.
Her smile became a touch pitying, I thought. "You are a non-believer then."
"Belief?" I snorted. "I don't need to believe in anything; I have knowledge."
With that said, there was no longer any doubt that her smile was pitying. "And this makes you powerful?" she asked sounding weary.
"Sometimes," I admitted, then I chuckled. "Sometimes not."
That answer surprised her. "A shred of humility," she mused. "How . . . unexpected."
What wasn't unexpected was how tired of this conversation I was becoming. "Something you didn't sense?" I sneered. "Astounding."
She got the sarcasm in one, and her smile once more became genuine. "Would you have talked with me had I approached you and said I could tell there was something different about you and that I wished to know what it was?" she asked.
All things considered, it was a fair question.
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