I sensed telepathic nodding. The one on the left held Amadeus a little tighter, the one on the right puffed emphatically on the pipe, sending waves of delirium rushing through my head. The one in the center smiled, and swept the spiral of cards into her lap, where she reorganized them into a neat stack, and placed it on the table. Red flowers grew from the seeds on the floor, the thick aromas choking and sweet. Petals rained from the ceilings, obliterating the glinting goldfish. I understood what I had to do.
I stood up, slightly wobble-legged, and reached for Amadeus. He was warm, and purring, eyes reduced to little tiger-slits, the way they were when he was happy. The three women stood up, the tops of their heads barely reaching my shoulder. The left one reached up and touched my face, reverently, smiling. I saw her eyes for the first time, and they were like that single, brilliant feather on a mallard duck, the iridescent emerald-green feather. They glimmered at me. She grasped my hand, and pressed something into it. It was a picture of the businessman, the one who forgot his wallet on the subway. He must have been a teenager when this was taken; he looked awkward and uncertain. I held it for a moment before putting it in my pocket, curling the laminated paper against my palm thoughtfully.
Red fireflies crawled from beneath the flower petals, and a low humming filled the room. I made out the three faces amidst the glowing insects that were bumping gently against my own face. If I turned my head quickly, they made streaks of light staying in my field of vision for a couple seconds before dissolving and fading away.
I remember leaving after that, grasping the red doorknob, balancing Amadeus in my arms, and stepping out into the hallway, which was arctic in contrast to the warm, smoky room. What happened next was as strange as anything else that had happened to me up to that point, and by then, I was five inches away from expecting the unexpected. I felt a strange heat explode over me, as though I had dived headfirst into a hot tub. Warmth prickled at my limbs, and I went blind. I remember holding my arms out, feeling for the wall, but it was as though I'd been submerged. I couldn't hear anything, and my movements were slow, stunned.
Everything was black.
When I woke up, I was lying on cold concrete, underneath what appeared to be a large foldout table. My thighs ached from the hard ground, and my neck was stiff. Amadeus lay nearby, curled up against a pot of baby's breath, his fur standing up in its porcupine fashion. People chattered noisily all around me, and cars honked. A strong floral fragrance infiltrated my nostrils, and I noted the source as the green stems sprouting inside clear cellophane from the black plastic buckets. Pinks, blues, purples, yellows, whites, reds, oranges and magentas bobbed as they were jostled by feet and hands. In between the sweet redolence, I detected frying chicken and incense.
I also realized that I was unnervingly cold, my breath materializing in front of me in an icy white fog. I rubbed my eyes, and tried to gather my wits. What happened? Everything was a bleary mess, and it seemed like I was running a vacuum cleaner on high speed inside of my head. I sat up, disoriented, bumping my head on the table. This was greeted by an onslaught of surprised Chinese, presumably cursing. The ladies had a sense of humor. I picked up Amadeus and tried to slide gracefully out from underneath the table, but only met a confused (and irritated) foreign berating. A woman, looking shocked, gestured at me with a daffodil and screeched.
|