An Attempted Festival Date Redux

      “God when was the last time I came to one of these?” Raquel wondered aloud as she wandered alone along the stalls and tables of goods.

She had no idea where Eriko had gone off too. She walked through a bunch of pigeons cooing and pecking one another over some fallen desert that rolled off one of the stands. People were walking around, children playing with light up plastic swords or what other shapes they may come in. The stray cherry blossom petal falling onto the ground only to be annihilated by hordes of human feet.

           Raquel recollected the last time she was at the spring festival. She was a teenager and wanted to take Eriko out on a date. A monster attack happened and she remembers picking the girl up and was called a ‘Useless Lesbian’. Lovingly, of course. She remembers the Longhorn Rancher started scolding her when she did NOTHING wrong. And she hasn’t gone to a city festival since.

           Except for now.

           Why Eriko dragged her all the way out here, Raquel didn’t know. But what her girlfriend wanted; her girlfriend got. And if she wanted to go to the spring festival, she would go. Except, now she was alone. Carrying her duffle bag with her only hand and it was only getting heavier as the minutes go by.

           A thought intruded into her skull, Maybe I should leave, text Eriko and say I had a superhero emergency.

           Rolling her shoulders, Raquel shook off the thought. Come on, don’t be a brat. She’s probably trying to surprise me with something. Well. Jokes on her, I already know she’s planning something!

           As Raquel was oh so proud with herself, she saw a lone kid wandering around. He had an orange sports shirt on, the name of the team was obscured and faded away. He, like her, was simply wandering around with no clue on what to do.

           Keeping an eye on the kid she went off the main festival area to where more trees were. She saw a big one, she didn’t know what kind it was, but it was big and went behind it. She checked and made sure no one could see her when she plopped her duffle bag onto the grass and unzipped it.

           “Watch when I put this on a monster appears,” she said to an invisible audience. Pulling out her metal prosthetic and wrangled to get it on, she slid back onto the tree and let the power wash over her. It burned, like molten rock from the depths of hell. She felt the rams horns growing out of her scalp and her right eye itched. She shouldn’t be using her abilities for something so dumb, but it would be quick, right?

           She pulled out a trench coat and a wide brimmed hat from the bag before tossing up into the branches. Managing to get the hat through her horns, Raquel groaned when she buttoned up the coat. Normally, she wouldn’t button it, but she had a very specific shirt on and god forbid if anyone bothered putting the pieces together.

           Casually walking back into the crowds of the festival, nobody seemed to care she was there. A few people stopped to look at her, but they turned away just as quickly as they stopped. A few out of towners mumbled amongst themselves as she went past, but nobody talked to her.

           Raquel was mostly looking for that kid with the orange shirt, wondering if he was still all alone. She might hate everyone, but she’ll be damned if some kid gets hurt on her watch. Plus, I should visit Michael, he’s probably doing something with the kids. Kids…

           Abruptly shifting course and stepping on someone’s foot in the process, Raquel moved over to where she knew kids would be. At those giant inflatable skills courses, or the fake tattoo place. She chose the latter and ended up at a booth with a line of kids. She walked up to the teenager running the booth.

“Hey Michael.”

The teen looked up, then back to the kid he was working with. “What?” He snarled.

“You see a kid with a faded orange shirt?”

Michael took a wet sponge and placed it on a kid’s arm. “Hey, hold this there until I come back, ok?” Then he refocused on Raquel, “yeah, I saw him. Gave him a tat, asked where his folks were. He said he didn’t know, so I told him to hang around here ‘till they find him.”

She watched as he moved on to another kid and was already beginning the process of putting the fake tattoo onto this other kids’ hand. “Where is he?”

“So, you want to be a hero today, eh? He’s behind my van playing with Pluto,” Michael answered.

Raquel crossed her arms, the kids cooing at how her metal arm acted like a real one. “A kid playing near busted up van. You’re slowly turning into a pedo aren’t you?”

“Screw you…” He mumbled, “leave me alone.”

Glancing over behind the booths was where she saw the van. It was old and rusting but it still worked. Raquel should know, she fixed it up for him. She went around the side of the van when she felt something rub up against the inside of her legs. It was Pluto, Michael’s cat.

Reaching down she picked up the black cat and cradled it into her arms. At least, until Pluto randomly decided it had enough and used her as a jumping board. It leaped onto the top of the van and she heard a “Man…”

Oh, right I’m looking for a kid.

A few feet away was that boy from before, orange shirt and all. What the hell do I say? Hey kid! I saw you walking around alone! You lost? There’s no way I can make this sound not creepy.

           The kid looked away from the cat and to her and he froze. For a moment Raquel thought he was one of the people who hated her, because they did exist, until he started to shake. Crap is he scared? Damn it, why did I do this? I’m not good with kids!

           “You’re that lady from TV!” He said suddenly.

           “Lady from TV?” She echoed.

           “The Sheep Lady! You kick butt and you got super sheep powers! Wow your eye! It’s scarier in real life!” The kid rambled.

           The Sheep Lady? The news doesn’t have a name for me yet? Jesus. I guess he’s just fanboying. “Of course, it is,” she played along, “if it wasn’t scary how else am I supposed to intimidate my enemies? But, uh, where are your parents, kid?”

The kid was bouncing with excitement. “Your arm! How does it work? Did you make it or is it magic? Tell me!”

Okay so he’s not going to tell me anything. I’m just going to assume he’s lost, and we’ll go from there, she rationalized.

“What’s your name kid?”

“Ken.”

“How old are you, Ken?”

“I’m eight. An old eight. Because I’m nine!”

Raquel sighed and kneeled to match Ken’s height. “Look Ken, how about this. I give you a piggyback ride until we find your parents, ok?”

The boy couldn’t even give out a verbal answer, all that came out were sounds of excitement. She took off her hat revealing her horns, which Ken gawked at, and put the boy on her back and placing her hat on him.

Ken on her back wasn’t that big of a deal for Raquel, he wasn’t that heavy. There wasn’t much of a height difference, Raquel was never tall to begin with, but she hoped Ken would be able to find his parents from his newfound height. Although Ken used Raquel’s horns as a guide, forcibly turning her head into the direction he wanted. It didn’t hurt, but it was annoying to say the least.

As they went around the festival searching for Ken’s family, she recounted fight scenes for the action-crazed boy. Telling him about times she threw bad guys into buildings. Times she got thrown into buildings. That one time her arm malfunctioned, and she almost died, that story had the boy gripping onto her horns like never before. A few points throughout their adventure they stopped to play some games. Raquel managed to win him a sheep stuffed animal, which seemed fitting.

“Ken!” a voice called out.

Raquel stopped and turned to see a man run up to her and pull his son off of her. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting but all the man said was, “Thanks.” Before walking away and scolding his son.

Dick.

As the day came to a close and the festival was reaching its end, Raquel retraced her steps back to the tree where her duffle bag hid, only to find Eriko waiting for her. “Where the hell where you?” Raquel asked.

“Observing. That was a nice thing you did, you know,” her girlfriend praised, “real motherly.”

Raquel wasn’t fazed, instead beginning to climb the tree to grab her bag. “No idea what you’re talking about,” she said as she reached the branch, “I’m terrible with kids.”

“You think you’re not great with kids,” Eriko refuted.

The superhero dropped down with a thud and took off her prosthetic, her horns and rams eye going away. Her abilities going back to the pits of hell leaving only a one-armed woman in its wake. She carefully put her trench coat and arm back into the bag, she began to reach for her hat when she remembered that Ken had it. “Sorry I got lost on our date,” she apologized.

“I’m not mad, I ditched you on purpose,” the woman explained, “just like what I’m going to do if you don’t hurry up.”

    “Don’t rush me woman!”

"Already walking."

Raquel looked up, and true to her girlfriends' word, the woman was already walking away. Lifting up the bag she sped up to meet her love. She could never get festival dates right, couldn't she?