A Fork in the Road

It may be that once or twice in your life you have glanced up into the variegated green of a tree lit up from behind, and perhaps a gentle breeze was blowing, and you saw, or thought you saw, a face in that tree. The curve of a leaf became a nose and a beam of sunlight was the eye, and then it was gone. Perhaps it was me that you saw just then. 

I don’t know if HE saw me that day. He looked up and squinted as though he had, but then carried along down the road regardless, briefcase in hand. I looked more closely at him. He was short and slight, wore a grey woolen suit, which, quite frankly, had seen better days, and he had short black hair (only on the sides of his head) and a tidy, librarian-esque moustache. What an extraordinary fate had been prepared for this man today! I had a simple task, which I had completed many times with others. I merely needed to nudge the subject of the intervention in the direction they needed to go, and then their fate was sealed. Today’s fate was very exciting, and I couldn’t wait for him to experience it!  

I had placed a poster of his favorite pizza place on his path - that was the first step. When he saw it, he would surely be tempted to go there for lunch, and when he got there, what a wonderful surprise there would be! I shivered with excitement as he neared the poster, stared at it, then said, “Mmm, I do love Tony’s Pizza, but tomorrow is pizza day, today is sandwich day.” He should, then, have gone down into the subway to take the train in the direction of his destiny, but instead he kept walking, looking nonchalant, but not stepping on a single crack. What a strange fellow! 

It has of course happened before that my first gambit has not worked, so I immediately went for plan B. I gently unclasped his suitcase and blew his papers into the subway entrance! He looked very distressed. Poor fellow, if only he knew it were for his own good! He did not run helter skelter into the subway station as I had expected. Instead, he leaned over the railing, staring down at the scattering papers below, a look of utter despair on his face. He muttered to himself, then ran for the entrance, then ran back again. He stared at his hands for a while, gripped the railing, and then… the papers flew back up! They were flying up as though they were a flock of doves, chaotic but still of one mind, and he plucked them out of the air in bunches until such time as he had all of them collected. After this exhausting work, he sat down on a bench to collate them neatly once again, then snapped the briefcase closed and continued on his way.

I bit my lip. As much as I would have loved to see a repeat of that bizarre trick, we were running out of time. How could I get him where he needed to be before 4 pm? I followed him listlessly to the sandwich shop he was aiming for. He didn't even have to order. As soon as they saw him, they started getting it ready. He, mollified, reached for his wallet, and his expression froze. He tapped on all his pockets as though giving himself a light massage, and then, realizing he had some cash in one pocket, he handed it over, smiling hesitantly. He sat down outside, chewing the sandwich, but clearly distracted. Wait a minute, I had it!

I knew what his wallet looked like - I know everything, don't I? What if I made a "found wallet" poster with a drawing of his wallet, and that poster would tell him to collect it at Tony's Pizza? That was genius. No sooner had I thought of it than it had come to pass. I just needed to choose the perfect location for the poster. How about on the wall over there? He was bound to walk past it. 

He finished his sandwich, carefully folded the paper so all corners aligned, and folded it once more into a triangle before discarding it. Now all he had to do was get up and go towards my poster. He walked in the completely opposite direction! This obstinate man! I ran in front of him and blew and blew until he was forced backwards. It is unfortunate that many other people were blown backwards too, and no doubt had their expensive hairstyles messed up, but needs must. I have to admit their faces were all a sight to behold, as the skin rippling backwards like a wave across a pond. At last he was there, right next to his poster. The poster almost blew off the wall, but the fluttering seemed to draw his attention, so he reached for it, and… the wind stopped. The perplexed passersby picked themselves up and stood, dizzy, but I was already bored of looking at them. In the still calm that followed, the man was staring at the poster. "Oh," he exclaimed, "oh!" Irrationally, he didn't head for the nearest exit strode off, heading across town in a very determined fashion. 

Okay, he was taking the long way, but at least he was heading in the right direction. Would we make it in time? He had really picked up speed and I rushed along beside him until we reached Tony's Pizza. We stepped inside and the heavenly smell of oregano and thyme hit us. He went past a woman ordering her pizza to the nearest available cashier, and began to say, "Excuse me, I …" when suddenly a whoop arose from the next counter. "CONGRATULATIONS, Madam, you are the 100 000th customer this birthday month! You have won a lifetime of free pizza dinners for two!" Confetti exploded out of nowhere and people cheered, catching confetti as it fell. It was the perfect chance for me to sulk. That prize was supposed to be HIS! Why had he been so late? I looked over at the undeserving lady. 

She was short and slight with a sharply cut bob, and wore a light blue woolen suit and a matching hat with a tidy small brim. She was clutching a large grey handbag and blinking up with both bemusement delight at the confetti. Then she turned her head and her gaze fell on the man. 

"Don't I know you from the library? You work on the fourth floor, don't you?" 

The man nodded, smiling but looking everywhere but her face. 

"Are you hungry? You could join me for pizza." 

The man explained that he had recently eaten a sandwich. 

"How about tomorrow night?" 

"That would be perfect, tomorrow is pizza day." 

They smiled at each other, decided on a time, swapped numbers and our man left. He seemed to have forgotten about his wallet completely, although of course I knew it wasn't there anyway - it was at home in his hallway. He walked out of there as though he had forgotten entirely what he had planned to do, staring absently into space.

I was dumbfounded. Wasn't he angry that he hadn't won the prize? Why didn't he seem to care? What on earth had happened there? Never in all my days had someone defied me so resoundingly as he had today. And the papers… Did he have powers too? I inspected him carefully again. He seemed quite puny to me. 

As we stepped out, he once again turned in a direction only he understood, and as I moved to follow him, I looked up into the trees growing on the sidewalk and caught, or thought I caught, a glimpse of a face at the edge of one of the leaves, and the wind blew in such a way just then that the rustling of the leaves sounded like a long, sensuous giggle.