passed, actually remembering that for them we were just a man and woman walking down the street.
Getting lost in your own head is a dangerous thing. I always think of myself as a witch, a Justice, it's what I've done for so long, all I've ever known. But that isn't me, is it? When people look at me they won't see anything special.
Not so different, yet my kind may as well be from another planet. I may as well have come from the Rift along with the others. And that's the problem. I am Strange and no matter how hard I try there is no escaping that undeniable fact.
I am different. I am broken, too, and I can never be like them. Those women with their children nagging them for sweets, the smiling mothers in the parks. Men kicking balls about, could that ever be Pumi? Did he have families over the centuries? What kind of lives had he lived? Was he ever happy, living in a little house, working and providing for them?
It was one hell of a long time to have lived without that, and on my dark days I think ahead far into the future and wonder how I will cope without ever experiencing uncomplicated happiness.
He'd reminded me of that, that I'm nothing special, just a woman walking next to a handsome if rather odd man, going about our lives like everyone else, and they don't know, could never know, what it's like.
Sure, life was different, Strangetown was certainly different, but only by degrees. Everyone still had to provide for their family, go to work, change nappies, mow the lawn, all that stuff. Everything else was just background noise, and it had been the same since humanity first traversed land and ocean to claim residence in new places.
The ebb and flow of humanity, races mixing, cultures integrating, or not, just stuff that went on. Some liked it, others loathed it, but above all else was regular life, getting enough to eat and a roof over your head, a bed to sleep in and if you were lucky someone to share it with.
Some days I can't stand it. I've lived so much, lost even more, and it hurts every damn time. No more, I don't want that life, I can't have it. Everyone leaves you in the end, and then you are alone again, with nothing but memories. Even they fade, get lost as new experiences push them out.
I can't even remember the faces of my first lovers, or the man I spent two decades with when I was truly young. What does that say about this life?
Probably everything that needs to be said.
What a world. What a life. What I wouldn't give to be like them.
A Game
The regular folk were returning home from their day of work or walking the dog. Many looking harried and stressed, others walked with a smile, off to the pub, maybe to get a takeaway. Pumi had opened my eyes to such things with his few words, and I took note of all this and wondered how I could forget about the Normal world so easily.
We get consumed by what we are involved in, I guess. I deal with magic and miscreants, so that's my world. Normals, they deal with mortgage payments—although a lot had defaulted when they left—getting paid, relaxing on the weekend and going to the cinema or watching TV.
When did I last go to the cinema, snuggle up on a sofa with someone and enjoy a movie? Ugh, I needed to make some serious life adjustments.
As if on cue, a thought came to me. "I need to go see someone," I said to Pumi.
"What, now? I thought we were a team?"
"Um, no, we aren't. I don't usually have a partner. For this, we will deal with it together, but I have to go see someone. It may help. Okay?"
"Okay," he nodded. "Not that I have any choice, right?"
"See, we understand each other already. I'll meet you there, about an hour?"
"No longer. The child said the man went about the same time most days, so we need to be there then if you want to see him. Not that I can see what good that will do. He's this Levick, this Fester, I'm sure."
"But I'm not, until I see him. I can't raise hell until I'm sure. One hour, I promise."
"Okay, don't be
Getting lost in your own head is a dangerous thing. I always think of myself as a witch, a Justice, it's what I've done for so long, all I've ever known. But that isn't me, is it? When people look at me they won't see anything special.
Not so different, yet my kind may as well be from another planet. I may as well have come from the Rift along with the others. And that's the problem. I am Strange and no matter how hard I try there is no escaping that undeniable fact.
I am different. I am broken, too, and I can never be like them. Those women with their children nagging them for sweets, the smiling mothers in the parks. Men kicking balls about, could that ever be Pumi? Did he have families over the centuries? What kind of lives had he lived? Was he ever happy, living in a little house, working and providing for them?
It was one hell of a long time to have lived without that, and on my dark days I think ahead far into the future and wonder how I will cope without ever experiencing uncomplicated happiness.
He'd reminded me of that, that I'm nothing special, just a woman walking next to a handsome if rather odd man, going about our lives like everyone else, and they don't know, could never know, what it's like.
Sure, life was different, Strangetown was certainly different, but only by degrees. Everyone still had to provide for their family, go to work, change nappies, mow the lawn, all that stuff. Everything else was just background noise, and it had been the same since humanity first traversed land and ocean to claim residence in new places.
The ebb and flow of humanity, races mixing, cultures integrating, or not, just stuff that went on. Some liked it, others loathed it, but above all else was regular life, getting enough to eat and a roof over your head, a bed to sleep in and if you were lucky someone to share it with.
Some days I can't stand it. I've lived so much, lost even more, and it hurts every damn time. No more, I don't want that life, I can't have it. Everyone leaves you in the end, and then you are alone again, with nothing but memories. Even they fade, get lost as new experiences push them out.
I can't even remember the faces of my first lovers, or the man I spent two decades with when I was truly young. What does that say about this life?
Probably everything that needs to be said.
What a world. What a life. What I wouldn't give to be like them.
A Game
The regular folk were returning home from their day of work or walking the dog. Many looking harried and stressed, others walked with a smile, off to the pub, maybe to get a takeaway. Pumi had opened my eyes to such things with his few words, and I took note of all this and wondered how I could forget about the Normal world so easily.
We get consumed by what we are involved in, I guess. I deal with magic and miscreants, so that's my world. Normals, they deal with mortgage payments—although a lot had defaulted when they left—getting paid, relaxing on the weekend and going to the cinema or watching TV.
When did I last go to the cinema, snuggle up on a sofa with someone and enjoy a movie? Ugh, I needed to make some serious life adjustments.
As if on cue, a thought came to me. "I need to go see someone," I said to Pumi.
"What, now? I thought we were a team?"
"Um, no, we aren't. I don't usually have a partner. For this, we will deal with it together, but I have to go see someone. It may help. Okay?"
"Okay," he nodded. "Not that I have any choice, right?"
"See, we understand each other already. I'll meet you there, about an hour?"
"No longer. The child said the man went about the same time most days, so we need to be there then if you want to see him. Not that I can see what good that will do. He's this Levick, this Fester, I'm sure."
"But I'm not, until I see him. I can't raise hell until I'm sure. One hour, I promise."
"Okay, don't be
Similar Books
