A moment

No time at all.

A mayfly's life.
A goldfish's memory.
The brush of an angel’s wing.

I was there. I remember. It was only a moment.

The crowd flowed like water, not a thinking creature but a force, a flow. It slid down sidwalks, crashing into curbs and pooling at the entrances to shops and side streets. Eveything caught in its irresitable flow. All but me. I see what no one else does, there are places that do not flow. I walk in those places, stepping from one to the next, defying the force that drives everyone else. I was different from the rest, outside of it.

I was caught up in myself, I don’t remember how. Thoughts, worries, dreams. Reading a book, perhaps, or captivated by nothing. It was a nothingness that held my attention and distracted me as I moved, in and around.

A moment.

I don’t know why I woke then. I did, that was enough. Suddenly I was, for no reason, conscious of this river that I was no part of. Caught out of the flow..

I looked out of myself and saw him.

Mid-stride, he filled my world for the space of a heartbeat. Two. Then gone. And in that moment I was there. He was there. A whirl of currents and people, stopped for that heartbeat around us. I couldn't see them now. I saw him.

I took him in at a glance. I devoured his image. Asian boy, come for reasons unknown to a city where his face was not uncommon. But he was not like the others. Not at all. A beauty hovered and clung to him, a fog generated somewhere within. I devoured his beauty, too.

I took his hair, the red tips feeding me, sharpening my hunger. Red tips on dark roots, framing beauty. Below, his body was firm and unmistakable despite the loose clothing the weather required. His grace could not be denied, and I wanted him.

He was arrogant, I could see that. It was his place to be master and as I devoured his image I wanted to be devoured in turn. I burned to be taken, torn, feasted upon. I needed his arrogance to sink teeth into flesh and tear my heart from me.

I was caught. I knew it and needed it. Mid-step, I was frozen at the crossroads. I knew if he only inclined his head, turned his eyes to me, let the wind catch him just right, I would have turned and followed. Subtle motion and a foot lands, slight twist. Hips swivel to follow. Other leg completes the motion. I turn. Wherever he leads, what lay behind, I don't care. I will follow and beg to be his slave.

He walks on. The moment cannot remain frozen. He does not see me. I do not leave all that I have known. We both walk on.

I never see him again...

[based on an almost true story]