A Festivity

Well, I did accept Chris’ victory over me, but I was naturally still a little bummed on the car ride back, and the others seemed to notice. After the match, Martha just gave me a knowing pat on the shoulder, which I figured was her way of consoling me.

“I can understand how you feel, Don. I was expecting the match to last longer too,” Connor nodded solemnly, breaking the silence of the bumpy car ride back. “Oh, and congratulations, Chris,” he quickly added, to which Chris responded with a thumbs up from the driver’s seat.

“Anyway, you seemed pretty darn set on getting that prize money,” Chris said, taking a right. “Were you going to use it for anything special?”

“Well, I don’t think you really need to know the details, but I was going to use it on the materials to make a lightning rod.” I said absentmindedly, staring off into the dark sky. “And, yeah, I guess securing that money was pretty important to me. Not sure how I’m gonna scrape together the funds for it now.”

“A lightning rod? What for?” Connor asked curiously.

“Just some kind of passion project,” Martha quickly filled in for me before I had the chance to screw anything up. “Don and I have been planning it for a little while now.”

“Now, if it’s for a personal project, that’s something I can understand. I patch up cars for a hobby, after all,” Chris said, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “Say, Don, you really want those materials?”

“I mean, the sooner the better. Wonder if there are any similar events coming up…” My voice trailed off.

“I know a mechanic buddy with a whole shed full of random materials that she doesn’t need anymore. It’s where I get a lot of the supplies I need for my own projects.” He tilted his head back with a smile. “Chances are she’s got what you need. I can help you collect your materials, if you want.”

“Huh? That would be great!” Martha leaned forward in her seat, before realizing something. “But… what about the cost?”

“Eh. Well, it’s just stuff she doesn’t need anymore, so she’ll probably sell it to me for way lower than market price,” Chris shrugged. “Besides, I’ll cover whatever the cost.”

“For free? Chris, you’re too nice,” I said, glancing up to him.

“It’s not like I’ve really got anything better to use the prize money on. Don looked like he really wanted the materials, and it doesn’t look like he can cover the cost through conventional means, so I’d feel bad if I didn’t lend a hand to help.” With a nod of his head, he turned back to the steering wheel. “Just consider it a favor to a friend.”

I sank back down into my seat. There it was again, that stupid word. ‘Friend’. It didn’t make me feel any less awkward than when Martha had said it. “So, um, how far away is this mechanic of yours?”

“She lives pretty far from the Oasis, using that as a starting point. Three to four hours by car, but probably quicker by train, then taking a bus from the station over –”

“Then, I’m coming too,” I said hastily, before he could even finish his sentence.

“You sure? I can probably handle this by myself, and Markus probably wouldn’t object to me going, since he’s already got his own plans for this weekend. I wouldn’t want to bother you by having you go all the way there with me.”

“No, I mean –” I realized I was speaking rather intensely, and that everyone was staring at me, so I dialed it down a little. “Well, I’d feel guilty if you were doing all this for me, and I didn’t even come with you to get the materials.”

“Oh? That’s awfully considerate of you,” Martha smiled, raising an eyebrow. “Turns out you can show signs of human emotion after all.”

“Shut up. I show emotion all the time,” I muttered. “Mostly negative, and directed at you.”

“But… Don’s got a point, so count me in as well. It would be irresponsible to have you do something for me without even coming myself,” Martha followed up.

“What’s this all of a sudden? Are you all going somewhere, without inviting me?” Connor pulled out his phone from his pocket. “Chris, by ‘mechanic’, would you happen to mean Betty?”

“That’s the gal.”

“Then, I’m gonna look for fun stuff to do near her workshop. It’d be a shame to go all the way there without doing something entertaining.” Connor kicked up his feet and scrolled through his phone for a bit, before showing the screen to Jasmine. “Hey, out of everything here, what do you think is a good option?”

Jasmine turned her head away irritably. “Why are you asking me this? It’s not like I have any obligation to come with you.”

“You gotta learn to loosen up a bit. You’re not going to make any new friends with that attitude,” Connor sighed, before his eyes lit up. “Oh, look at this! There’s a Christmas festival or carnival thing being set up there that week.”

“Christmas? Isn’t it a bit too early for that?” Martha asked.

“It’s in a few weeks, right?” Chris said. “It’s natural for festivals to be set up some time in advance. It would be a waste to set everything up just for one day.”

“Ah, it’s really going to be Christmas so soon?” Slumping forward, Martha let out a long groan. “I haven’t even had time to get festive, given all the things that are going on.”

“Things? What things?” Connor asked.

“Oh, nothing important you have to worry about,” she quickly covered up, and I raised an eyebrow. Nice save.

As I waited for everyone else’s conversations to die down, I slowly nudged my head closer to Martha’s. “Hey, sorry to kill your festive vibe by bringing bloodthirsty bounty hunters into your life. But I have to ask; what the hell are you all talking about?”

“Do you not have an equivalent to Christmas in your world?” She whispered back. “It’s an international holiday, where everyone gets together, celebrates, and has fun for a night.”

“Like the ceremony of the winter solstice?”

“Close enough. Just go with that, if you ever get confused,” Martha said, shooing my head away. “Now, get back to your seat. You stink of sweat.”

When we arrived back at the Oasis, the sky was already pitch-black. A few murky stars dotted the night, but they were far hazier than those I was used to seeing plastered over the sky of my old world.

Are those the same stars, I wonder? My head was slightly tilted upwards, as I stared off into the darkness. Maybe my old world was among one of those twinkling dots in the sky.

After Connor and Jasmine left on their own, Chris backed his car out of the rusted gates, and as he turned the corner he disappeared as well.

“Don’t you feel like we’re missing someone?” Martha said, as she locked the gate. “Whatever happened to that fox friend of yours?”

“He’s probably still over there,” I responded, eager to go back inside and escape the chill of the night.

“What? Is he going to be okay?” She asked, slightly alarmed.

“Don’t worry about him. That place back there was packed with life force, and spirits thrive on that stuff,” I said, crossing through the Oasis to reach the front door. “He’ll find his way back soon.”

“Hey, should you really treat him so harshly?” Martha asked. “I know he’s a spirit and all, but… he does have feelings too, I can tell. You think we should invite him to come to the trip as well?”

I froze on the doorknob. “And why would we do that?”

“You really don’t think that we should start being a bit nicer to others, especially around this time of year?” Martha gave a little smile. “‘Tis the season, after all.”

###

And thus, I was forced to awkwardly explain the situation to Kin.

“You want me to do what?” He asked incredulously.

“Yeah, yeah, I know it sounds stupid.” I rubbed the top of my head. “But Martha’s hellbent on having me be a better person to you, because of this whole Christmas thing. Apparently, the best way to do that is to invite you on this impromptu trip of ours.”

“I gotta say, that girl –” Kin caught himself. “That Martha of yours really is too soft. Wouldn’t last a day back in our world.”

“Will you just agree already?” I practically begged. “I won’t hear the end of it otherwise.”

“Hmm. Wouldn’t be the end of the world to visit some new place, so I’ll humor you this once.” Kin folded his paws over one another. “So, what is this Christmas, anyway? Some kind of weird human holiday in this world?”

“Can’t say I’m any expert, but more or less.”

Just the mention of Christmas managed to get Martha’s festive gears up and running, which led to a frantic dash of impulse-buying whenever she had the time. As anticipated, this also meant that what little free time I used to have was now taken up by buying waves of useless Christmas items.

“Man, calm down!” I stared at the growing pile of decorations filling up the cart. “I thought you were stingy on spending money!”

“What are you talking about? There are necessities,” Martha hummed cheerily, throwing in another poster of some bearded fat man.

This on-and-off switch between working and shopping for trinkets took up much of the week. Martha bought so many decorations that her apartment looked like a completely new place after just a few days. To my disgust, she also purchased festive clothes for that repulsive pet cat of hers. I once attempted to question why she was going to spend so much time decorating her apartment if she wasn’t even going to invite any guests, but my interrogation never managed to get very far.

“This isn’t all for myself, you know.” She rustled a paper bag so full it looked like it was about to tear. “A lot of this is also for the Oasis.”

“Why would a restaurant need Christmas decorations? And have its staff pay for it, no less,” I said, inspecting a blue orb-like ornament.

“This isn’t for the Oasis itself, silly.” Martha snatched the orb back from me. “There’s an event they hold there every year around this time that I’m pretty excited about, which is why I’m buying them additional Christmas stuff on top of the decorations they already have. Not that it would be very interesting to you, though.”

That woman’s spending habits really confused me. But all the same, a relatively uneventful week passed. Had it already been a month since I arrived here? Time was hard for me to keep track of, and I had never been great at it. Even so, it seemed like there was quite a substantial gap between now and Karsis’ last attempted attack on me. If I was looking optimistically, the kingdoms could possibly already have called off the bounty on my head. There weren’t many cases of manhunts that lasted this long, and none of them I knew of were as complicated as this one. I didn’t want to let my guard down enough that I would be fully susceptible to a sudden surprise attack, and yet, I also didn’t want to completely let go of the idea that they could have discontinued the search for me. Because, if that’s really the case, I’ll be able to just enjoy living on this world with Martha and the others while finding a way to return to my old one. What with its advanced technology and peaceful lifestyle, I have to admit this world isn’t all that bad, so I want to preserve what time I still have here.

Before the trip, Martha managed to convince everyone else who was going to take a day off from work, since her break day started on Friday and she wanted to have more time on the trip. She called in favors from the staff in group three and five to fill in a little extra time for us, but it wouldn’t be much hassle to them, considering business wasn’t as rushed during the winter season. On the afternoon of the trip, we all met up at what Martha told me was called a train station. I determined that the long, speedy vehicles were probably the ‘trains’ being referred to, and we waited together on a set of benches. After some waiting, Martha felt like she should go buy some snacks for the trip, which left me alone on the bench. I didn’t have one of those fancy human phones to entertain myself with, so I busied myself with watching some other humans bustling about until I saw Connor’s skinny figure emerge from the crowd. Behind him was Jasmine, who was practically being yanked over.

“For how much you complain about these trips, you seem to show up every time,” I said to Jasmine, resting my arms on the top of the bench.

“I didn’t have much say in the matter,” she muttered in a defeated tone, plopping down on the farthest bench from me. “To quote Connor: ‘It’s a Christmas trip, so you’ve got no excuse this time’.”

“I recognize that girl doesn’t even know I exist, but I feel for her,” Kin said, appearing above my head. “Hey, Don, why not just teach the rest of them magic too? It’s getting boring just talking to the two of you.”

I can’t answer you in public, stupid fox. I turned away from him, going back to inspecting the crowd of humans hurrying about.

Chris arrived the latest, shortly followed by Martha, who returned with two small bags full of snack food. When the time came to enter the train, I was surprised at how much space we had. The inside area was huge, with rows of three on either side of a blank strip in the middle for passage. Some of the rows had the ability to turn all the way around and face the rows behind them, so we chose a seating orientation that allowed the five of us to face each other, with the final space for storing bags and articles of clothing. I found the train ride to feel far smoother than a car ride, without the constant bumps that made the latter more uncomfortable.

To pass time, Chris brought a few games that were native to this world. Most of them were unfamiliar to me, but one of them by the name of ‘poker’ was quite similar in concept to the gambling games that I was used to. It took a few games to get used to all the ‘kings’ and ‘queens’ of the cards, but after that, I could play it as naturally as any other game. And I don’t mean to brag, but I absolutely dominated them.

“Ah, screw this. You’re so good it’s not even fun anymore.” Connor tossed his cards down on the little foldable table after my fourth consecutive win, before resting his head on his arms. “You do a lot of gambling, Don?”

“Not really with poker, but I’ve played many similar games in the past. Had a lot of time and nothing better to do,” I said, sticking a hand into a bag of those potato chips I had grown fond of.

“Easy on the snacks, big guy,” Martha reprimanded me, smacking away my arm. “I bought enough for this trip and back, so don’t go blowing through all of them right now.”

“By the way; Don, Jasmine.” Connor pointed to the two of us. “You guys seem to be getting along a little better now. Did something happen?”

“I’ve been observing him more closely these few weeks. And I hate to admit it, but I don’t think it’s his presence exactly that I find irritating. I just can’t shake the feeling that he’s hiding something from all of us,” Jasmine said, with the flick of a hand in my direction. “I still don’t fully trust him because of that, but I can probably ignore it if we’re just playing cards.”

“And I never had anything against you to begin with,” I grumbled. “You were just mean to me from the start.”

“Who knows? Maybe I was wrong in doing so, maybe I wasn’t,” she said, casually tossing a snack wrapper into the plastic bag we had dedicated for trash.

“Anyway, I’m just glad you two can hold a normal conversation now,” Martha smiled, shuffling the cards in from of her.

From then on, it only took a little over an hour before the train finally stopped at our station. Luckily for us there was a bus stop connected right next to the train station, so we didn’t have to walk far. After a quick bathroom break, our group was off again.

It wasn’t long until our bus arrived. From my experience, buses were like the middle stage between cars and trains. Not quite as wide as trains were, but they didn’t need those weird rails to get moving. Since the bus was smaller, there were only rows of two seats each, so our group didn’t really get to talk as much on this ride. This meant that I couldn’t continue to play card games with all of them, and with no better options, I resorted to sleep. Martha quickly dozed off next to me, but I was having a harder time falling asleep. It could have been because I wasn’t used to staying in one sitting position for so long, as I was almost constantly on the move in my old world, but I just couldn’t seem to fall unconscious.

“Hey, Martha,” I said, shaking her shoulder lightly. Even though only a few hours had passed from us arriving at the train station to sitting on the bus, the sun had already almost completely disappeared from the sky, probably due to the nearing winter of this world. “Do you know where we’re going? It’s getting pretty late, so I don’t think the carnival is our destination right now.”

“What?” Apparently shaken from her sleep, Martha spoke in a quiet voice as she scrunched her eyes shut. “Jus’ lemme sleep. Talk to someone else,” she grumbled, her words slurring together sleepily as she turned away from me.

Well, should’ve known not to expect much of a response. I sighed, and continued staring out the window of the bus until I felt something pressing against my arm. I looked down and felt my heart jump a little, as I saw that Martha had leaned up against my shoulder in her sleep.

“Wait, Martha,” I whispered frantically, trying to shift her off to the side. “You’re –”

“Quiet. You’re so noisy,” she mumbled, her voice muffling as she buried her face into the side of my sweater.

As Martha lapsed back into sleep, I found that pushing her back into her seat would probably wake her up and unleash a tirade of sleep-deprived anger upon me, so I just gave up and let her stay. But with her in this way, I found that I couldn’t relax my body even a bit, and I stayed tensed up in an awkward way for the rest of the ride.

After what felt like eternity of sitting uncomfortably in that one position, we finally arrived in front of a large rectangular building somewhere halfway up a mountain. In stark contrast to the dim forested road spiraling down behind us, the marble-clad building looked almost too fancy, even for this world. We grabbed our bags and luggage from underneath a compartment in the bus, and made our way inside.

“I thought you said the ride would be short,” Connor complained with an exaggerated stretch. “I can feel each of my muscles individually rising up in mutiny against me.”

“I said that it would be shorter, compared to if we came all this way by car,” Chris responded. “Would you rather spend four hours in a cramped little seat, compared to the one and a half hours you spent now?”

“Let’s just find our rooms already,” Martha muttered drowsily, rubbing her half-opened eyes. “I want to go back to sleep.”

“By the way, have we figured out living arrangements yet?” Connor asked, his eyes subconsciously drifting over to Jasmine.

“W-What are you looking at me for?” Noticing his glance, her face flushed red immediately. “Martha and I will take a room, and the rest of you guys take another! What other option is there?”

“Oh, right. Of course, of course,” Connor chuckled good-naturedly, scratching the back of his neck.

The only one of us that seemed to be in a fully operational state at the moment was Chris, so he went and got us our ‘room keys’. I didn’t really understand why they were called ‘keys’ if they resembled little cards more, but I decided not to question it. We then took the elevator, as I now knew its proper name, up to our rooms. I felt safer in this elevator compared to the one in Martha’s apartment, mostly because this one didn’t look like it was in danger of falling apart at any given second. The girls’ room was down the hall, so we parted ways at the elevator’s entrance. Locating our room, Chris swiped the room key in front of a round-looking device on the door, which unlocked it.

The hell? What kind of human magic not-magic is this? I almost went in for a closer look, before restraining myself. Fawning over some door mechanism probably wasn’t something I should do if it wasn’t to Martha. Tearing myself away from the door, I stepped into quite a luxurious room.

With a whoop, Connor threw himself onto one of the two wide beds, laughing. “Hey, this is cool! Isn’t this kind of like a sleepover?”

“Calm down,” Chris said in a suppressed tone, like he was trying to get some hyper kid under control. That wasn’t too inaccurate, actually. “We’re just here to collect some spare parts for Don’s project. No need to get so worked up.”

“Yeah, but there’s no point if you’re not having fun.” Kicking his shoes off, Connor crawled over so that his back was up against one of the pillows, and switched on the large screen directly opposite him. “Wonder what they have on TV here?”

With a sigh, Chris looked over to me. “Don, can you give me a hand with this couch? There’s probably some way to make it into a bed, but it doesn’t look like Connor’s going to be willing to help.”

“You’re damn right,” Connor smirked, his eyes trained on the television.

“Yeah, I got you.” Shoving my luggage against the wall and shedding my sweater, I made my way over to the couch.

With some effort, we unfolded the couch into a pretty sizable bed. I was afraid I wouldn’t know what to do if Martha wasn’t around, but it turned out Chris could work just as well in giving me basic instructions. We managed to get everything set up properly, and joined Connor in searching for a good show to watch. As I sat on the couch-bed, I noticed Kin staring out over the balcony outside, his arms folded over the metallic balcony rails. A few times I almost felt tempted to go outside and talk to him, but I never felt like the timing was right. I grew drowsy as the night dragged on, and as the television screen’s flickering lights turned into blurry pinpoints of color, Chris and Connor’s voices faded into background noise. My eyelids turned heavier than I could keep them up, and I finally drifted off.

###

“Heya.” Martha said cheerily, tapping on my shoulder. “Good morning to you.”

“Back at you,” I said, somewhat puzzled. “You’re in a better mood than yesterday.”

“One thing you should know about me is that I don’t like being suddenly awoken,” she said, circling around and coming to a stop in front of me. “People have told me I have a completely different personality during those times.”

“I noticed.” My eyes wandered to her clothing, which consisted today of a fluffy white down jacket and a long red scarf. “What’s with the getup? Flashier than usual.”

“Oh, I just figured it would be appropriate, since we’re going to a Christmas festival.” Martha ruffled the fuzz on top of her jacket. “Red and white, very Christmas-y.”

“And why is that?”

“I don’t know, just something people have come to associate Christmas with,” she said, pinching up a section of her jacket for inspection. “I’d say the white probably comes from snow. Though, we don’t really get much of that around here, so I’ll compensate by wearing a white jacket.”

She dropped the jacket, and after a second, looked back to me. “Looks like we’re the only ones here. Where are the other guys?”

“Connor is oversleeping, and Chris told me to come down first, since he had to make a call to his mechanic friend.” I walked over to one of the round sofas in the lobby, and plopped myself down. “What about Jasmine? I would have guessed the two of you would have come down together.”

“Ah, she just needed some time to get ready,” Martha answered, and made her way over to sit down next to me.

“What, she getting all dressed up as well?”

“Nah. She’d never bother to do anything like that,” Martha said with a laugh. “Just the usual makeup and stuff.” As she settled back down into her seat, I heard her stomach growl.

“You hungry?” I smiled, before realizing that my belly was running on empty too, leaving a gaping, empty feeling. “Crap, so am I.”

“Guess that’s what we get for only eating snacks for dinner,” she sighed, sliding down the sofa.

“You know anywhere we can get a filling breakfast?”

“Nope.”

Right at that moment, the elevator door in the lobby opened, and I saw three figures emerge from within it. Jasmine exited first, looking a little fresher than usual. This was probably due to the makeup Martha was talking about, which made me smile internally, despite myself. So, someone like Jasmine still cares about looking good for a festival, huh?

Next came an energetic-looking Chris, dragging a half-asleep Connor behind him, who in contrast looked in no way ready to attend a festival of any kind.

“Just let me die in peace…” Connor’s voice moaned quietly.

Chris waved over to the two of us, and called across the lobby. “Hey, guys! You hungry? There’s a great breakfast place two stops away from here!”

I rubbed my poor, malnourished stomach. Chris, our savior.

“This is the festival?” I spoke in awe, and it was hard to believe what I was seeing. An enormous banner stretched across the entrance, and hundreds of people, all shapes and sizes, were scurrying in and out. “It’s so much… bigger than what I expected.”

“I heard they repurposed a huge public park for this,” Connor said, seemingly recovered a little from his morning grouchiness.

“Holy crap, man! This place is bigger than some of the villages back home!” Kin gave a whistle from beside me, and upon closer inspection, he was actually drooling from his little snout. “Not to mention, it’s throbbing with life force!”

I gave him a sideways glance. “You want to go absorb some?”

“You’ll let me?”

“Sure, whatever it takes to get you out of my hair. Just, don’t go possessing anyone.”

“You got it, master! Oh, I’m going to have a feast!” Kin clapped his paws together. “My apologies for before. No regrets coming here at all!”

“Your spirit friend sure seems lively,” Martha whispered, giving me a knowing look that had ‘I told you so’ plastered all over it.

“Then, I’ll be off!” Practically unable to even stay in one place for too long, Kin glanced back quickly, before rocketing far off into the crowd like a tiny fiery missile.

“What are you two doing back there? Come on!” Connor waved, gesturing for us to come over. “This place is like a mini amusement park!”

“Yeah, we’re coming!”

And just like that, we began our tour of the enormous Christmas festival. Even after taking just a single step past the entrance, vendors selling every kind of food or trinket lined the sides of the winding path in the middle. Connor kept getting drawn in by every little thing that was even remotely interesting to him, while Chris and Jasmine had to keep pulling him back like a pair of exhausted parents. In a way, it was similar to the trip we all took together to the mall, except now I was more familiar with the others and didn’t have to keep sticking by Martha’s side.

I found the treats on sale to be almost addicting, and after I got a taste of one, I couldn’t stop myself from purchasing all the glistening snacks I could find. This may have had to do with the fact that in my old world, sugar was a precious commodity. As such, not much food was flavored with it, and only nobles really ever got to taste it. Here on Earth, though, this didn’t seem to apply, and the humans had no problem in covering everything with a layer of saccharine goodness. Because of this, almost each and every treat was ridiculously sweet and tasty, but I did have a few favorites which I had Martha tell me the name of for future purchase.

Among those favorites, the treat that probably intrigued me the most was the concept of ice cream. It was so rich, sweet and creamy, and came in almost any flavor you could imagine. But the most impressive thing about it was the coolness that spread through your mouth the second you put your tongue to it. It was like eating sweetened mountain frost mixed with cream, and in some utterly inconceivable way it was produced without the use of any magic at all, which was a feat that I just couldn’t wrap my head around. Sustained by the endless cycle of buying and eating, none of us needed to stop for a lunch break.

And for how much I enjoyed the treats, they weren’t even my favorite part of the festival. That spot had to be reserved for the ridiculous, over-the-top carnival games. There were games where you needed to shoot down bottles, ones where you were forced to climb ropes, and others where you were required to toss a limited amount of balls or rings into impossibly difficult positions.

At first, I didn’t even want to participate due to how embarrassing you would look playing some of them. But Martha’s pleading, combined with the sight of Connor helplessly dangling off a rope like a moron, finally managed to get me to forsake my dignity. And then, after that, I could only recall fun memories. The prizes weren’t even that worthwhile, and yet I was still compelled to play, over and over.

Why do I enjoy playing these menial games so much? I couldn’t place the reason, but something occurred to me as I wound up my arm to throw yet another dart. Do I really need a reason why, though? In just playing these games with Martha and the others, I’m already… having so much fun.

Then, isn’t that enough?

“Your effort is much appreciated, brave soldier!” Martha saluted, as she gripped some enormous stuffed animal in her other hand. The toy was something I won from hitting something with a rubber hammer really hard. I’ll admit that I may have used some work energy to boost my strength, but that was beside the point, as they gave me the prize anyway. I was unfamiliar with what the animal actually was, but its size alone seemed to satisfy her.

“It’s only natural, coming from me,” I said, returning the salute. “Don’t you forget; I am a god.”

“Call yourself whatever you want, if it means I get more of these giant prizes.” Martha clutched the animal with both arms, giggling.

I was so caught up in watching Martha’s beaming expression that I didn’t even notice the large group of people approaching us. With a thud, one of them slammed into my shoulder, knocking me to the ground.

“Oh, sorry ‘bout that!” The man that had bumped into me hurriedly knelt down over me, extending a hand. “You okay?”

Rubbing my head with my left arm, I took his hand with my right. “Yeah, I’m good.”

It was only after I stood up again that I realized Martha was no longer standing next to me. My eyes darted left and right, as I scanned the crowd for her silhouette.

“Don? Where’d you go?” Martha’s voice rang out from a distance away, and I was able to find her solely through locating the absurdly large stuffed animal protruding above everything. Squeezing my way through the waves and waves of people, I managed to locate Martha’s thin little wrist, and grabbed ahold of it. With a firm grip, I guided us out of the cluster of ever-moving people into a more open area. Once we finally untangled ourselves from the masses, we both let out a sigh of relief, and I released her arm.

“Ah, what have you gone and done now?” Martha raised her arm to shield her eyes from the setting sun, gazing around. “We’ve lost track of the rest of the group, too. I think I last saw them around the strongman game, so you want to try looking there?”

We waded back through the crowds to the game where I had won Martha her prize, and searched around to no avail. Defeated, Martha pulled out her cellphone. “No other choice, then. I’ll just call them and regroup.”

She turned the phone over and clicked the power button, before flinching back a little. “Oh… boy.”

“What’s wrong?”

Martha turned to me sheepishly, showing me the screen. “I, uh, may have forgot to charge my phone last night.”

My arms dropped down to my side. “Then, what do we do now?”

“Cheer up, for not all hope is lost!” She exclaimed dramatically, flicking my forehead.

“Ow! Why’d you do that?” I asked, rubbing the little dot of pain.

“Remember that Christmas special show that was being advertised all over those annoyingly flashy posters? We were all talking about watching that at six, remember?” Martha tucked her scarf in, and pointed off into the distance. “If we go there first, we’re sure to meet up with them eventually.”

With a little more walking, we reached the venue of the show. There were a few people already in line, but the area was empty for the most part, save for a few of the staff standing outside.

“They’re not here either, huh?” Martha scratched her head. “Guess we’ll just have to wait.”

“Then, why don’t we look for some stuff to do before the show starts? It’s better than just waiting here, after all.” I pointed down a busy looking path, filled with festival-goers.

“Not a bad idea, coming from you.”

Heading down the path, I noticed that the total amount of people seemed to have decreased with the passing time. Maybe because not as many people were interested in walking around at night. As we searched for something to do, I caught a whiff of something that smelled nice. I pinpointed the source to be a pot of some meaty stew stuff.

“Hey, can we get that?” I asked, pointing to it.

“More food already? Jeez, you really do have an appetite,” Martha said with a sigh, digging around her wallet. “Fine. How much?”

We paid for the food, and the woman behind the counter ladled the stew into a large, cylindrical paper bowl.

“Woah, this is bigger than I thought,” Martha said, trying not to slosh the stew over the sides of the bowl as she gripped it with both hands. “You sure you can finish this?”

“Well, I’ve got you here,” I smirked, jabbing two plastic spoons into the bowl. “Let’s find somewhere to sit down so that we can eat it.”

In the end, we decided on a bench next to one of the vendors. It was relatively secluded and the stand next to us provided some shade, so I thought it was a pretty good spot.

“Here. Eat up.” Martha held out the bowl in front of her. “You’re the one who ordered this, not me.”

Sloshing my spoon around, I scooped up a large chunk of yellow stuff. As I put it into my mouth, my eyes lit up. “Mm. This is good!”

“What, the little yellow things?” Martha scooped one up to taste for herself. After taking it into her mouth, she turned to me, unimpressed. “Oh, it’s just a normal boiled potato. It’s not even seasoned.”

“I know that, but…” I fished another one out, and savored the taste. “It tastes so simple. It’s nostalgic.”

More importantly, it tasted exactly the same as those potatoes that a certain woman had offered me, all those years ago. When I was alone and on the run, this taste was the one thing that symbolized the fact that there was someone out there who cared about me. That there was someone who even gave a damn I was alive.

“Hm. Is that so.” Martha sipped from her spoon thoughtfully. “Something to do with your past?”

I nodded in response. The amount of people still walking about had decreased even further, as the sky turned a shade of golden-orange. It was a few minutes before any one of us spoke again.

“You know… I loved a woman, a long time ago.” I don’t know why I felt the need to reveal this information, but the words just naturally slipped out of my mouth, as I stared off into the space ahead of me. Maybe the enjoyable day had just rendered me a little vulnerable.

“Huh?” She turned quickly to look at me in surprise.

“Well, it’s probably not like you’re thinking. It wasn’t anything romantic in the slightest. Thinking back, I don’t think I ever actually told her that I loved her,” I said, closing my eyes. “Maybe I was too young, or too naïve to want to admit it at the time. But… I truly did.”

“I think that’s really sweet, Don.” Martha set her spoon down, placing her left hand lightly over my shoulder. “Do you… remember her name?”

“Cross –” I started, before shaking my head. “No, that was just her code name. Her real name was Eleanor. Eleanor Conqaide.”

“Eleanor?” She smiled softly. “What a beautiful name.”

“She was strict on me, but always gentle in her own way. Kind to anyone who needed help.” The stew was starting to get cool.

Martha gave a small nod. “I’m sure she was.”

“You know, she was really similar to you.”

At that sentence, Martha froze.

“Do you… really think so?”

As she said that, I gave a quick glance in her direction, and what I saw almost caused my heart to stop beating. It was just for a fraction of a second, gone so fast that I may even have imagined it. But in that moment, I could have sworn I saw Martha’s face twisted in a horrible combination of frustration and torment, and she looked as if she was on the verge of breaking out into tears.

And then I blinked, and it was gone.

“Martha?” The voice that called out faintly to her didn’t even sound like my own.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Martha stared at me curiously. Every trace of that look had been wiped off her current expression, like it had never even happened. And, maybe it hadn’t.

I opened my mouth, before closing it again. “N-Nothing.”

“Oh! Come on, we need to get to the show!” Standing up, Martha gestured for me to follow her.

“Yeah.” I got up dumbly, and slowly made my way over. But even when I closed my eyes, that terrible freeze-frame remained burned into my memory, refusing to leave.