The woman didn't respond, and for a moment Sebastian wondered if she had heard him. She started on her bowl of fruit, and he was about to repeat his question when she spoke. 

"This place seems nice," she said as she popped a cube of some fruit he couldn't identify into her mouth. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "What are you doing here? In this town, I mean?" 

Like he hadn't asked the same question earlier. 

Sebastian bristled, and it was all he could do not to narrow his eyes. Was she making fun of him? The people at his school had done that too: pretended not to hear him ask for his books back or his assignments returned, then repeated what he said in a mocking falsetto. After that they usually threw said books or assignments across the room, or if a teacher was around, directly at his face. 

No, there was no way she could've known about that. She probably hadn't heard him, and was just trying to make conversation, same as him. 

He relaxed, and was about to give a carefully-worded reply when the man in the turtleneck sweater he'd seen earlier walked up. 

"Sorry to interrupt," he smiled. "Billy Blue. I'm the deacon at the church here. First Presbyterian, right over on Locust Street." Sebastian looked at the man curiously. A church on a road called Locust Street? It seemed like a strange coincidence. He was reading too much into this, most likely. 

"...we're having a little meeting this afternoon at the church. Spiritual guidance, moral support, that sort of thing. If you're lost or lonely or unsure, it might do you guys some good. Bring you a little peace. Especially if you're stuck in the middle of bumfuck nowhere." The man gave a self-deprecating grin. "So, you know, give it some thought. And if you've maybe got a friend who keeps following you around and just won't leave you alone, bring them too." 

Sebastian blinked. His extra shadow had disappeared while he was eating, and a red-eyed silhouette was standing a few metres behind and to the left of the deacon. 

[i]Don't look at Antigonish. Don't look at Antigonish.[/i]

He looked anyway. When he looked back, Deacon Blue winked as though he'd said a huge secret but wanted them to know it was safe with him, and walked off. 

No one spoke. 

"Well, I don't know what that was about," the bald man sitting by the door said. He laughed, a bit too loudly and nervously. Sebastian couldn't think why. 

"Still not as weird as this man I ran into earlier," he said to his seat mate. "I was going to check out the community college here, but I think I'll stop by the church first." There was something he was forgetting...he kicked himself mentally as he remembered. 

"Oh, and my name's Sebastian. What's yours?"