[hr][center][h2]Angela Stewart “The Witness”[/h2][/center]
[hr][center][h3]Fallback Fond Memories my place year 2018 actual temporal position 2000 December 31st /January 1st Dad and Mom being Dad and Mom[/h3][/center][hr]

It was Y2K and my Dad was on the porch watching the Park across the Boulevard, it had been snowing and any damage done by the kids to the pure white world covered over and restored. It was the dreaded day when the world was supposed to crash into the sea burned by a programming mistake and there I was snuggled up to my dad. I was cute I suppose all legs and spindly arms resembling a fawn with the innocent green eyes of a child.

My dad was a tall thin man so I blame him for what is kindly called a lithe figure which is code for skinny and flat. So I stopped Fallback holding the image of my past so that I could walk around myself knowing my neighbors might be watching me real time wondering what I was looking at. 

My eyes were the same ones as my mom, soft moss green almost feline and in the 5 year old me not yet haunted by the things I would see; how many times have I done this? What am I expecting, that with myself I might actually make a connection in the empty world. 

Released the scene moved till my mom came out and demanded my dad come in before I caught cold so he threw me over his shoulder saying “Forgive a man for wanting to spend time with his baby girl, at once your majesty and a bit more” 

Facing as I was at 5 I couldn’t see my mom and dad kissing after mom shut the door because as a sack of potatoes I was facing the wrong direction. How my mom glowed and my dad stood breathless when they broke their kiss; I wish I could find that.

Dad put me down and I ran into the kitchen to grab a fresh cookie and when I returned sat on the couch and watched my dad dance with mom. The were fantastic together as they [url=https://youtu.be/S98-BIpzZuk]Danced a Tango[/url]. When I was 5 it looked like fun but now through adult eyes I saw the passion all the older neighbors still speak about to this day. My mother was beautiful and a sensual creature that my dad worshiped...it's strange I don’t have siblings.

I could have stayed there all day if Derrick hadn’t appeared beside me.

[b]“Angel the car is here”[/b] 

[hr][center][h3]The end of Dreams
Or
Back to Reality[/h3][/center][hr]

I was back in my house in what passed for the now and there was Derrick my only real friend and I was losing him to three little girls who needed to see their daddy more often and i was a little jealous. People thought we were lovers but that was never the case for either of us, when he and i meet he originally held me in awe but as time passed by he learned just how messed up I was and treated me like his special needs cousin; at least that’s how I teased him.

[color=lightseagreen]”I was just watching some old memories”[/color] I said to Derrick as he helped me into my long dark brown trench coat

[b]”Yeah well one of the days you’re gonna want to stay Angel then what? You can love the past girl but you gotta think of the now, the here and we both know you need your own peeps. To everybody round here you’re the crazy lady or the witchy woman so they may be friendly they still don’t know what it is to be you.”[/b] He would have gone if I had allowed him, telling me how i needed to get out and mingle, meet people.

[color=lightseagreen]”I am going as you can see Derrick[/color] I said pushing him towards the door.

[b]”And this time?”[/b] he asked as he held the gate of my fence open for me.

[color=lightseagreen]”This time I talk to someone for at least 5 minutes and if the 1st person isn’t 5 minutes I pick someone else and so on till someone talks to me for more than 5 minutes….still think it’s like speed dating”[/color] I said as I walked to the passenger door and waited for him to open it.

[hr][center][h3]Strawberry Fields Forever[/h3][/center][hr]

We had exchanged our usual Banter as Derrick drove me to the edge of Strawberry Fields and dropped me off. It was a crisp day and I was early but lucky for me I had my triple turkish coffee and a warm scarf to hold off the first wave of winter coming on. The Bridle path now a bit lonely and only had a pair of the park’s mounted police cantering along it looking out for trouble. Where were they when Franklin Groggins a 23 year old black man was stabbed to death for 8 dollars at the top of the stairs or when they dragged Amy McDanvers into the bushes that stood there near the same spot where Franklin died. I really couldn’t fault the police except for how they handled the two cases, Franklin as black and Amy had to turn tricks so they didn’t count, especially in 1964 and 73.

I planed on finding them at least some form of justice even though their cases were as old as they were, its what I do. I am a licensed Private Eye, a real Dick like in the old Noir movies my office even in a 5 story walk up on the 5th floor of a building that was built in 57. 

To me the world is literally an open book waiting to be read and I have the time to read it. I admit I’d be as lost without my quirk, gift, or curse. Sure I lose track of when I am but others daydream and it's about the same I just have a better selection.

Then I was on the walk to the meeting, the old Victorian dance hall a faded reminder of when the City believed in itself and its place in the world.

I was blockaded briefly by a much used door which held flashes of everyone who’d touched it in the last three days and I know I made quite a funny sight standing there staring at the handle. Then I was saved by a man who opened the door because men did that for ladies or used to. 

This was a crowded place historically but as far as I could tell  no murders or other nasty business which made blanking it easy. So once more i stood out in hesitation inside the door almost being run down by a woman hurrying in followed by the sound of what sounded like a large pride of cats outside. Maybe she was the mythical lady women dressed as and outside her cat servants but I didn’t really want to look outside and see I was right so I moved inside and found a place to observe and blank as I sipped my hot devil’s brew.